Merchant Royal

While we wait for the court battle to continue I came across another battle that was waged with the Spainish on April 25th, 1607.

http://http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-A-2163?page=0&lang=en&context_space=&context_id=

The painting by Dutch master Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen depicts the devastating defeat suffered by the Spanish fleet after it was surprised at anchor by Dutch warships.
The entire 21-ship Spanish fleet was sunk and 4000 men killed in the space of just four hours. The large, ocean-going Spanish galleons were no match for the smaller, nimbler Dutch vessels.
After the battle the Dutch deployed boats and killed hundreds of swimming Spanish sailors.
In the painting, Dutch sailors are seen shooting and bayoneting Spanish sailors as they cling to debris in the Bay of Gibraltar with the Rock as a backdrop.
In the background, figures can be seen on shore looking out at the horror at sea.
The auction catalogue published by London auctioneer Bonhams describes the battle as “a crucial event in the history of the Netherlands’ fight for independence against the Spanish.”
The work was completed in 1607 as a ‘modello’, or finished oil sketch, for a painting that the artist was commissioned to paint for Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau.
The main painting now hangs in the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam.

I thank Jeff from http://www.treasurelore.com for this interesting item. It is an article from a NY Times on July 2, 1882 about how gold was packed in kegs and transferred between the US Banks and Europe aboard ships.

Quite surprising is the fact that some banks shipped their gold without insurance, dividing up the cargo between 4 or 5 different carriers.

Also interesting is that they tried to use large denomination double eagles, as the abrasion from the rough ocean crossing would cause a loss of up to 20 ounces of gold in a "$1,000,000 shipment", which would have weighed 62,500 ounces. This would equal about $320 in the value of the day. ($17,000 in today's value).

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=2&res=9F00E5DB173DE533A25751C0A9619C94639FD7CF&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

The Ancona, one of the three shipwreck arrests filed by Odyssey Marine, sank 33 years after this article first appeared. Perhaps it is still pertinent to the supposed on board gold shipment, thought to be worth at least $20M in today's dollars.

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2007/12/17/daily13.html

Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. sold shares of a newly created class of convertible preferred stock for $11.9 million.

The company expects net proceeds to be used for general corporate purposes, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on operations planned for 2008, Odyssey believes the proceeds of the financing, combined with existing cash on hand and other sources of working capital will be sufficient to meet capital needs next year, the filing said.

Odyssey sold 22 shares of Series F convertible preferred stock for $540,000 a share to a purchaser who was not identified in the filing, other than saying the purchaser is an accredited investor who bought the shares for investment purposes.

The Series F preferred stock has no voting rights. Each share is convertible to 100,000 shares of Odyssey's common stock, although there are restrictions on that conversion, the filing said.

Odyssey (NASDAQ: OMEX) is a Tampa-based shipwreck exploration company with several salvage operations in progress.