Merchant Royal

http://books.google.com/books?id=gRi7EK4oPKYC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22merchant+royal%22&source=web&ots=WBmYWxHO3d&sig=gYlstnPFICetodK3Gdj7olvB73k

Page 15 of the 'History of South Africa 1486 - 1691 recounts that the first English ships to put into a harbor on the South African coast were the Penelope, Merchant Royal, and the Edward Bonaventure on the 10th of April, 1591. So many men had died of scurvy that it was advisable to send the Merchant Royal back to England short handed.

This is a record of an earlier named Merchant Royal. The Merchant Royal which sank in 1641 was built in 1627 and is considered my many to be the Black Swan shipwreck discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration.

Pipe Sarmiento with the Odyssey Explorer in background

http://www.surinenglish.com/noticias.php?Noticia=10681

In a new twist to an already bizarre story maritime law expert, journalist, and writer "Pipe" Sarmiento claims to have proof that the $500Mil Black Swan could not have been recovered near England, as Odyssey Marine has stated. Mr. Sarmiento, using AISlive over a period of three years, claims the treasure was taken from a spot somewhere between Estepona, Gibraltar and Sotogrande. He also claims that the ships of Odyssey Marine were never in the Atlantic during this time. If true, then the recent $500Mil treasure discovery could not have come from the Merchant Royal, as many believe.

Established in 2004, AISLive http://www.aislive.com/ now covers over 1,200 places worldwide and is a method of tracking and recording vessels in real time.

Here is a link, translated from German, to an interview The Standard had with Mr. Sarmiento:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://derstandard.at/druck/%3Fid%3D2890802&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DLorenzo%2B%25E2%2580%259CPipe%25E2%2580%259D%2BSarmiento%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS176US222

Another interesting story from elpais.com
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Odyssey/rastreo/mar/pecios/espanoles/elpepucul/20070601elpepicul_1/Tes&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Odyssey/rastreo/mar/pecios/espanoles/elpepucul/20070601elpepicul_1/Tes%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS176US222

AISlive Link to the Algeciras-Gibraltar Approaches: (click within red box to zoom)

http://aisfree.aislive.com/Influx.aspx?Map=Algeciras-Gibraltar%20Approaches

The Port of Gibraltar http://www.gibraltarport.com/ is the base of operations for Odyssey Marine in the Mediterranean. Their ships, the Odyssey Exployer and Ocean Alert, can often be seen docked at the port. The HMS Sussex was believed to have sunk due east of Gibraltar.

Did the title get your attention? Me too. That's what Gonzalo Millán del Pozo, the writer and director of the Poseidon Project (a group that aims to protect Spain's underwater cultural heritage), speaks of more than 800 sunken Spanish galleons with cargoes that could be worth more than a hundred thousand million euros. Sound farfetched? Not if you consider that the recent treasure recovered by Odyssey Marine initially was stated as being worth $500Mil. 800 sunken galleons worth a paltry $125Mil each and you reach that figure. Now you know why Odyssey Marine is hot after these shipwrecks. BTW, a hundred thousand million euros is worth $134 Billion Dollars, and change.

Xavier Nieto, director of the Underwater Archaeology Centre of Cataluña, claims that the apparently unexplainable permit from the Ministry to permit Odyssey Marine's work on the HMS Sussex is the result of the neglect suffered by this area of Spain’s culture. “Spain’s underwater archaeology work has arrived late on the scene”, he explains. “Other Mediterranean countries started in the 1950s; we started in 1981 and now we are worse off than we were then. Four centres were set up but with scarce financial and human resources. There are fewer than a dozen professional archaeologists working with this huge heritage, there is no specific university training, except for the odd isolated short course, and a clear legal problem. The 1985 law, which likens underwater archaeology to archaeology on dry land, was not very realistic”.

Carmen García Rivera, coordinator of the Andalusian Underwater Archaeology Centre (CAS) based in Cadiz, clearly prefers cultural heritage over booty. “Our mission is not to recover treasure but to investigate, protect and preserve heritage where it is”. In its first decade the CAS has tried to draw up a thorough archaeological map of Andalusian waters - so far it includes 80 sites - as a step prior to investigation.

Andalusia has been a thorn in Odyssey Marine's work on the HMS Sussex and more recently the hugh recovery of treasure from the "Black Swan", a codename that many believe is the shipwreck of the Merchant Royal.

Atlas Of Shipwrecks & Treasure

While waiting for developing news from Odyssey Marine concerning their recent treasure find a little online research shows that there is, well, very little information about the Merchant Royal.

What is known about the Merchant Royal:

• The 700-ton Merchant Royal was built in Deptford, London, in 1627.
• Owned by English merchants, she set sail from the Spanish colonies of SanDomingo, in the West Indies, captained by John Limbrey.
• In January 1637, armed with 32 bronze canons, she arrived successfully in Cadiz, southern Spain, where she rested until 1640.
• But during that time she began to leak badly and underwent extensive repairs. The following summer, a ship employed to transport Spain's colonial loot – silver coins, ingots and gold - caught fire.
• The bullion had been put aside to pay for Spain's 30,000 strong army, which were stationed at the time in Flanders.
• Captain Limbrey volunteered to take the gold to Antwerp, on his way back to London. The Merchant Royal set sail in late August 1641, trailed by her sister ship, the Dover Merchant. But during the journey she began to leak and rescuers were unable reach her in time.
• Eighteen men drowned and 40 crew, including Capt Limbrey, had to be rescued by the Dover Merchant.
• The loss of the treasure made headlines. Back in 1641, the ship’s hold was equivalent to one-third of the national exchequer. Samuel Pepys refers to the event in his diary and proceedings in the House of Commons were interrupted for the news to be announced.

Even this slim knowledge is questionable. For example the statement "Samuel Pepys refers to the event in his diary". There are online copies of his diary and I have yet to come across a reference to the Merchant Royal, not to mention that Samuel Pepys was only eight years old when the Royal went down in 1641.

Odyssey Marine has recovered 17 tons of gold and silver treasure so far but it’s becoming clear that the real treasure to archaeologists and history buffs is the knowledge that will be gained from a study of the shipwreck site. Odyssey has done a good job of documenting their shipwreck sites. These are usually deepwater sites and have been inaccessible up until now.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0409/feature7/zoomify/main.html

Odyssey has stated that many of these sites continue to deteriorate at a rapid rate, not only from the natural attack from the sea environment but also from such modern events such as trawler nets.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19058333/

According to the news story first released by elpais.com, the Civil Guard will position itself at the entrance of the port of Gibraltar to intercept the ships when they enter Spanish waters. The ships, the Odyssey Explorer and the Ocean Alert, might have been involved in the recent treasure recovery of the "Black Swan" which many believe to be that of the Merchant Royal.

In any case, the order will not be able to be executed unless the boats enter waters under Spanish jurisdiction since the capture cannot be carried out in international or British waters.

Spain last month filed claims in a U.S. federal court over Odyssey's find, arguing that if the shipwrecked vessel was Spanish or was removed from its waters, any treasure would belong to the country.

Odyssey insists the shipwreck was outside any country's territorial waters but would not give the exact location or name of the ship. It has said the treasure of gold and silver coins was flown back to the United States from Gibraltar.

In Britain, the find generated press reports that Odyssey had salvaged the wreck of the long-sought British vessel Merchant Royal, which sank in bad weather off England in 1641. Odyssey has not confirmed or denied these reports.

Speaking by telephone Tuesday from the United States, Odyssey co-chairman Greg Stemm said Spanish police were welcome to board the ships whenever they wanted.

"Everything we have done we have reported to the Guardia Civil (police). We have invited them on board the ship before and we welcome them to come on board anytime they want to see the ship or inspect what we are doing," said Stemm.

"And we have had a standing invitation for archaeologists from Spain to join us since January of 2006 and we still have that invitation out there," he added. This last remark is in reference to the recovery of the HMS Sussex which has been delayed by Spain's refusal to appoint archaeologists to monitor operations on board Odyssey's ships.

Minister Calvo, next to Manuel Chaves

http://www.gibfocus.gi/details_headlines.php?id=1391

The Spanish Minister for Culture Carmen Calvo has called for caution following yesterday’s order by a court in La Linea to arrest the two Odyssey Explorer vessels presently berthed in Gibraltar.

However, as tensions continue to rise, both through the media and within the political backrooms at an international level the Spanish Culture Minister has called said that the issue must be dealt with “intelligently and efficiently and within the law,” as she warned against an increase in tensions.

The relations between Odyssey has Spain has been tense every since Odyssey started work on the HMS Sussex, an English shipwreck located in disputed waters east of Gibraltar. The company confirmed that the May18th $500Mil treasure recovery was not part of the Sussex and was in fact recovered in international waters. This has done little to ease the doubts of the Spanish authorities. Many believe the recent treasure was recovered from the Merchant Royal and that the ship went down loaded with Spanish treasure.

http://living.scotsman.com/books.cfm?id=816992007

Ever since Odyssey Marine announced the $500Mil "Black Swan" treasure recovery events have occurred which highlights the unpredictable nature of Black Swans. Odyssey Marine's CEO Greg Stemm has stated that he purposely codenamed the recovery "Black Swan" after Nassim Nicholas Taleb's new book entitled The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable "It concerns the occurrence of the improbable, the power of rare events and the author's lament that "in spite of the empirical record we continue to project into the future as if we were good at it". We expect all swans to be white and are shocked when a black one swims by."

The "Black Swan" of Odyssey Marine may turn out the be a Golden Goose, the Merchant Royal, a ship that sunk in 1641 laden with fabulous treasure from Spain; or a Turkey, since Odyssey may, or may not, get to keep the booty. Spain has constantly dogged Odyssey's recovery operations starting with the HMS Sussex, an English warship; they then filed a verified claim for the recent treasure find; and now they issued a stop and search warrant against Odyssey's ships. Black Swans are rare, and when they occur the status quo is disrupted.

http://www.gibfocus.gi/details_headlines.php?id=1403

"Maritime sources in Spain have today confirmed that official details have already been released in public during the past weeks in which Spain's own coastal tracking system has placed the vessels beyond the 30 mile limits of their surveillance equipment in Atlantic waters."

This is the third attempt by the Spanish Press to discredit Odyssey Marine since the recovery of the "Black Swan" treasure. And you thought the US press was bad.

First, there was the reported "King Carlos III" coin that supposedly was taken by a dock worker unloading the treasure. This was later proven to be a coin photo from the Franklin Mint's archive . Next, the Spanish press had a field day exhorting the fact that Spain had filed a lawsuit against Odyssey Marine. This too was untrue as Spain's US lawyer Jim Goold said that it was a 'Verified Claim' stating that the Spanish Government did not intend to give up property rights to any Spanish property which might be on the recovery sites. Finally, Lorenzo "Pipe" Sarmiento had "explosive satellite data" that Odyssey's ships never left the Mediterranean and that this data would refute Odyssey's claim that the treasure was recovered from the Atlantic. Today maritime sources in Spain have confirmed that Spain's own coastal tracking system has placed the vessels in Atlantic waters.

At first Spain was suspicious that the recovery was from the HMS Sussex, a British warship that had sunk east of Gibraltar in disputed waters. Even though Odyssey has stated that the Black Swan was recovered off the coast of England in the Atlantic. Many English experts believe that the recovered "Black Swan" is the Merchant Royal.

A couple of articles published this past week has highlighted the ongoing battle between nautical archaeologists and treasure hunters. The archaeologists have long claimed that since the treasure hunters are not trained in underwater archaeology many important clues about the cultural heritage of these sites are lost forever during the salvage of treasure. The treasure hunters retort that if it wasn't for them no one would have known about these sites to begin with.

The first essay entitled "Insider: Profiteers on the High Seas", is pro archaeology - "the clock continues to tick on the world's sunken ships. It's time to put science ahead of the Almighty Dollar, and cultural heritage ahead of the bottom line of private corporations. If we don't, we will truly be missing the boat."

http://www.archaeology.org/0707/etc/insider.html

The second "Curators Under the Sea", is pro treasure hunter - "The real bottom line is this: if treasure hunters didn’t do this kind of work, no one would. Without them and the people they work with — the divers, fishermen, tipsters and amateur historians — many of these wrecks would stay lost forever. Without the lure of a big and romantic payoff, no one would even look."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/opinion/08kurson.html

Odyssey Marine recovered more than 500,000 coins from the Black Swan site. It has been stated that the coins are in mint state, which to me means they are pretty much identical. Since the archaeologists are against selling any recovered artifact for profit just what would they do with the 499,000 coins that they didn't have a need for? I keep thinking about the ending of the "Raiders of the lost Ark" where the curators boxed the ark and placed it in the huge warehoused inventory of artifacts, never to be seen again.

Shipwrecks of Isle Royale National Park: The Archeological Survey

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070612005731&newsLang=en

Odyssey Marine Exploration (AMEX:OMR), the world's leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, has been added to the preliminary list of companies scheduled to constitute part of the Russell 3000 Index. This is due to the run up in share price following the recent discovery of the $500Mil "Black Swan" treasure, a codename that many believe is really the Merchant Royal, a ship that sank in 1641 loaded with Spanish Treasure.

Further Reading: The Index Trading Course (Wiley Trading)

With little news coming from Odyssey Marine about the recent "Black Swan" treasure recovery, I thought it would be a good time to investigate the current maritime laws as they relate to shipwrecks and territorial water claims. Odyssey Marine announced that they recovered 500,000 silver and gold coins from the "Black Swan" on May 18, 2007.

Alison Kentuck, Britain's deputy receiver of wrecks said, referring to the Merchant Royal: "It certainly sounds likely that that is what they have recovered," she said. "It is a well-known wreck, which is known to have sunk in that area."

The Merchant Royal is the holy grail of shipwrecks. "The ship — owned by a group of London merchants — reportedly had "£300,000 in silver, £100,000 in gold and as much again in jewels" lying in its hold."

In positioning itself for a possible legal claim to the treasure, Spain and the Spanish press has issued many statements; many have turned out to be false. In trying to make sense of this complicated matter I ran across the following two items:

Gibraltars Territorial Waters - The first is the legal basis regarding Gibraltar territorial waters. After looking at the map it's surprising to see that Odyssey's ships cannot leave the Mediterranean without traveling through Spanish territorial waters. Spain has issued a warrant to seize and search Odyssey's Ships once they are in Spanish waters. In essence, they are trapped in Mediterranean.

http://www.gibnet.com/fish/waters.htm

Maritime Law and Underwater Archaeology - The second is a website that was designed as a source of information, ideas, and course materials for college and university professors in the United States who teach undergraduate archaeology. It has very good reference material concerning such items as Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), High Seas as well as Admiralty Law / Law of Salvage, The Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987 and so on.

http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:gHJMGr2aGdkJ:www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ael/ael_mod12.htm+shipwreck+effect&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=70&gl=us

Treasure Books:
America's Lost Treasure
Treasure Lost at Sea: Diving to the World's Great Shipwrecks
Lost Gold and Silver Mines of the Southwest

http://www.gibfocus.gi/details_headlines.php?id=1419

It seems like the Spanish authorities are being fed information from their misinformed media with regards to Odyssey Marine and their ships. With the Odyssey Explorer and Ocean Alert trapped in Gibraltar's port there has been speculation by some Spanish journalists that Odyssey Marine is using cargo ships that dock nearby to offload equipment and possible treasure in order to escape the blockade. Spanish reporters indicated that the ROV Zeus was missing from the Odyssey Explorer and since the Swift Secure was docked close to the two Odyssey ships it was speculated that the ROV was transferred to it.

Although the tanker Swift Secure has no relationship or association with Odyssey Marine, the Guardia Civil officers boarded and searched the vessel on June 15th, 2007 delaying it for over two hours. It seems that this was done purely on media speculation.

http://www.gibfocus.gi/details_headlines.php?id=1421

The Gibraltar news journal Gibfocus has been following this story closely and can state that the Zeus ROV never left the Explorer. The misinterpretation seems to have originated from a misunderstanding over the local logistics at what is locally known as the Dockyard. Since the release of the naval docks by the MoD to the private sector, the southern berths within the port have been separated by a security fence which splits the waterside berths between the Ministry of Defence and a private commercial ship repair yard, Cammell Laird, with neither having any relation to the other.

There have been several inaccurate news accounts from the Spanish Press trying to discredit Odyssey Marine and their latest treasure find. Andalusia thinks that the treasure came from a wreck in their territorial waters while many believe that the shipwreck was the Merchant Royal, a 17th Century merchant ship lost off of the coast of England in international waters.

Lost Gold of the Republic: The Remarkable Quest for the Greatest Shipwreck Treasure of the Civil War Era

http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=10736

One of the reasons Spain has contested the recent treasure find of Odyssey Marine is that Spain had seen Odyssey's ships operate in and around the Spanish coast. Odyssey has maintained that the treasure find was in international waters off the coast of England. Spain was not so sure.

Now it is revealed that Odyssey's ships were indeed operating near the Spanish coast but not to take treasure from it's depths but to actually plant some. Odyssey has finally announced this weekend that the presence of its ships in Gibraltar was unconnected with any salvage operation. They were there to participate in a promotion run by Volvo as a promotion for the Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The company was commissioned by Volvo to place a treasure chest full of gold doubloons and the keys to a new Volvo for the winner of the competition. They found the perfect site just off of the Gibraltar coast.

In the meantime, however, they also discovered a huge treasure find that many believe is the Merchant Royal off of the coast of England. This find was worth about $500Mil. Spain cried foul and launched a scathing media attack as well as some legal action against Odyssey.

Odyssey has now said that the secretive nature of the ships' movements around the Spanish coast was due to the fact that the company was contractually bound by a nondisclosure agreement with Volvo. Greg Stemm, Odyssey's co-founder said: "It has been a terrible misunderstanding that has inconvenienced a lot of people and cost a lot of money."

Odyssey is now in a stand-off with the Spanish government and it looks like it will stay that way until they announce the identity of the "Black Swan" discovery. Ali Nesser, Odyssey's director for international development, said: "We are trying to defuse the situation as much as possible".

http://www.gibfocus.gi/details_todaysnews.php?id=2514

Spain now believes that the recent treasure find of Odyssey Marine came from a Spanish wreck in international waters.

This is "the most likely hypothesis" Carmen Calvo, Spanish Culture Minister, told Parliament in Madrid yesterday. Her comments came just 24 hours after the Spanish Director General for Foreign Affairs Jose Pons is believed to have a heated discussion with the British Embassy over the release of documents relating to the treasure transferred from Gibraltar.

Spain has been shooting from the hip on this matter ever since the "Black Swan" find was announced on May 18th. Most of their speculation as to where the recovery was made has since been proven false and forced them to backpedal on many statements. A recent revelation concerning Odyssey's non-disclosure with Volvo seems to have finally pressured Spain and it's cultural minister to stand down. That revelation shed light on why Odyssey's ships were in and around the Spanish coast as they were hired by Volvo to place a treasure chest of gold and the keys to a car on the ocean bottom as part of a promotion.

Initially the treasure was suspected to be from the 366 year old Merchant Royal, an English merchant ship which sank off of the Isles of Scilly with a cargo of Spanish coins. Recently Spain has claimed that it came from the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes which sunk in 1804.

According to the latest reports a note verbale was delivered on June 26th during a tense meeting in Madrid between the British ambassador Denise Holt and Jose Pons, Director General for Europe at the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Chronicle said today.

The renewed tensions this week comes at a sensitive political moment when the UK undergoes changes in its Government, and as both the Gibraltar and Spanish Governments look towards a summer break, with possibilities of elections following that. Both Governments appear to be trying to keep the air of co-operation stable, while trying to resolve the rift over the operations by Odyssey Marine Exploration which continues to operate from naval base berths in Gibraltar.

http://shipwreck.net/pr139.php

"Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (currently AMEX:OMR), the world leader in the field of deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, announced today that its application for listing its common stock on The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC® has been approved, and the transfer of trading from the American Stock Exchange to NASDAQ will become effective on or about July 10, 2007. Odyssey Marine Exploration will trade under the symbol NASDAQ:OMEX."

Last week Odyssey had been officially included in the Russell 3000, the Russell 2000, and the Russell Microcap Indexes. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies.

NASDAQ® is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, its systems trade more shares per day than any other U.S. market. NASDAQ is home to companies that are leaders across all areas of business including technology, retail, communications, financial services, transportation, media and biotechnology.

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. is engaged in the exploration of deep-water shipwrecks and uses innovative methods and state-of-the-art technology to conduct extensive deep-ocean search and recovery operations around the world. The Company recovered more than 51,000 silver and gold coins from the shipwreck of the SS Republic at a depth of approximately 1700 feet. On May 18, 2007, Odyssey announced the discovery and recovery of more than 500,000 coins from a Colonial era site in the Atlantic Ocean code-named "Black Swan". Odyssey has several other shipwreck projects in various stages of development around the world.

The "Black Swan" discovery is regarded by many to be that of the Merchant Royal. The Merchant Royal was a 17th century English merchant ship lost at sea off Land's End, Cornwall in rough weather on 23 September 1641. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold (nearly one billion USD in today's money), 400 bars of Mexican silver (another 1 million) and nearly 500,000 pieces of eight and other coins, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all times.