The bullion-dollar question

The wax-sealed sheet of vellum sent to Louis XIV of France early in 1694 from one of his spies in Italy would have been received with undisguised glee.

Scrawled across the parchment were: "The Admiral ship of England was lost in the storm. There was on the ship a million piastres, of which 800,000 were for the Duke of Savoy."

The vessel was HMS Sussex, the pride of the Royal Navy which had set sail from Portsmouth on December 27, 1693, for the Mediterranean, carrying a huge political bribe.

In iron-clad chests stowed in the cavernous hold was 1 million in gold coins, worth at least 600 million ($1.5 billion) today, destined to persuade the ruler of Savoy to attack the French monarch on his poorly defended southern border at the height of the Nine Years War.

But in the early hours of February 19, 1694, the warship, built only eight months earlier, foundered during a fierce storm off Gibraltar and sank in 900m of water. Now the bribe is once more provoking political rancour and division over its on-board treasure and the fate of its lost souls.

The case of HMS Sussex has far-reaching implications for each of the estimated three million wrecks in the world's oceans and the opposing forces of poorly funded marine archaeologists and rich commercial salvagers.

It is also a debate about a treasure hunt which, if it succeeds, will net the British Treasury anything up to 360 million ($950 million).

When news of the Sussex's loss reached the Italian port of Livorno in 1694, the French spy hurried his message to his paymasters in Versailles. The parchment was filed and forgotten for the next three centuries. Then in 1994 it was rediscovered by an Italian researcher, sparking one of the most fevered treasure hunts in history.

Within the next six months, a state-of-the-art salvage vessel owned by private American corporation Odyssey Marine Exploration will arrive at the site off Gibraltar.

Armed with the most advanced robotic submarine on the planet, the salvagers will begin examining the 17th-century wreck they believe is HMS Sussex and try to bring its golden piastres and any other artefacts to the surface. It will be the deepest salvage operation ever undertaken for a ship of that age.

The project, which will cost an estimated 24 million, has been made possible by a ground-breaking agreement with the Ministry of Defence in London to share the proceeds.

But although the scheme could prove hugely lucrative - up to 1 billion, according to some estimates - it is causing concern among archaeologists. They fear it could signal the start of the looting the world's underwater heritage.

As plans for the dive are being completed, a coalition of eminent academics has challenged the obscure MoD agency co-ordinating the salvage, claiming the project amounts to sub-aquatic asset stripping.

In a letter sent by the Council for British Archaeology to the Disposal Services Agency, concern is expressed that too few guidelines have been laid down for such areas as recording items found, the funding of future conservation and preserving the dignity of the wreck as a grave.

Mike Heyworth, director of the council, said: "To be honest, we would prefer this wreck had never been found. But now it has, it is our role to try to ensure the archaeological integrity of the site is preserved.

"This must be an archaeological operation, rather than some sort of smash-and-grab with a robotic bucket on the sea floor. For example, we don't know what they plan to do if and when human remains are found."

From such artefacts, archaeologists hope to piece together a picture of life on board HMS Sussex, a ship from a period where virtually no first-hand documentary evidence survives on the life of an ordinary seaman.

Brian Lavery, curator of the National Maritime Museum, said: "Sailors in this era of the Navy were not military men - there was no uniform for seamen or their officers. Instead, they prided themselves on their professionalism and their fearlessness."

In the letter, sent with the support of five archaeological bodies, including the British arm of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the CBA calls for the "project plan" - the hitherto undisclosed blueprint for the dive - to be made public before work starts on site.

The letter expresses particular concern that commercial pressures to realise a profit by selling the bullion will leave not enough time to study all objects from the warship before they are dispersed.

 

ODYSSEY and the MoD rejected the archaeologists' concerns and insisted the Sussex salvage would be carried out to the "highest archaeological standards", pointing out that two independent monitors would be present and a respected firm of British marine archaeologists was overseeing the operation.

An MoD spokesman said: "We are certainly aware that there have been concerns and we are working closely with Odyssey to resolve them.

"The priority is to minimise disturbance to what is considered a valuable heritage site."

Sceptics point out, however, that were it not for the iron crates holding the gold in an undisclosed part of the 1200-tonne vessel, neither Odyssey nor the Government would have shown any interest in the pile of muddy wreckage.

Indeed, the potential rewards for both parties are huge. The value by weight of the nine tonnes of coins from the reign of William III is relatively small at about 80 million. The true value of any treasure haul is in its attraction to collectors, increasing the so-called melt value by up to thirtyfold.

A leading London antiquarian dealer said: "There is an extra cachet to an object that has been lost to humanity in the depths of the sea. Just look at the stuff from the Titanic. This applies particularly to gold coinage. It is redolent of a swashbuckling age, when monarchs bought favours and armies to pique their rivals. You are buying into the glamour and myth of that age."

Under the deal between the MoD and Odyssey, the British Government will receive an increasing share of the proceeds of the exploration according to the value of what is found - 20 per cent of the first US$45 million ($62 million), half of what is found between US$45 million and US$500 million and 60 per cent of anything above US$500 million.

Odyssey, based in Tampa, Florida, announced last month that it made US$9.6 million from the sale of bullion recovered from the SS Republic, an American vessel carrying gold during the civil war, in just six months and expects to make up to US$15 million by the end of the year.

But although archaeologists recognise Odyssey and the MoD are making significant efforts to meet their concerns, there is anxiety that the Sussex dive could open the door to more unscrupulous treasure-seekers. Some 250,000 wrecks can be found in British waters alone and, says the United Nations, up to three million worldwide. The CBA points out that the exploration of a wreck to produce artefacts for sale contradicts international attempts to bring in a law which forbids the trade in such antiquities.

Despite lauding the aims of the Unesco convention on underwater heritage, the British Government has so far failed to ratify the conservation agreement laid out six years ago.

Archaeologists believe that with the wider use of the ultra-sophisticated sonar used by Odyssey to discover the potential site of HMS Sussex, time is running out for governments to conclude an agreement to protect rather than exploit their underwater heritage.

- INDEPENDENT