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Laden with treasures plundered from Madagascar, the French galleon La Vierge du Bon Port was barely a day from home and safety on July 9 1666, when it was attacked by British privateers off the Channel Islands.
It was a testimony to the value of the French vessel's cargo, and the greed of its captors, that 36 English sailors drowned while trying to drag the riches from their sinking prize.
The loss of La Vierge, the pride of the newly-founded French East India Company, along with two more of the four vessels in its flotilla ended the ambitions of Louis XIV, the Sun King, to turn Madagascar into one of the first colonial possessions of France. The ship's booty was valued at £1.5 million ($3.89 million) at the time and included gold, silver, spices and ambergris, the waxy discharge from sperm whales that was prized as a base for perfume. In modern terms, its value could be as much as £200 million.
La Vierge would enter the ranks of near mythical "El Dorado" wrecks that have been the subject of attempts by a new generation of controversial salvage companies to pinpoint their watery resting place.
Two weeks ago, Odyssey Marine Exploration, the Florida-based company which has become the most high profile and contentious of the high-tech "treasure hunters" now plying the world's oceans and archives for evidence of lucrative wrecks, filed a claim at the District Court in Tampa to two "cannon wrecks of the Colonial period" lying within the English Channel between 40 and 64km from British waters. Documents state that Odyssey "believes that potentially valuable cargo may be located at or near the site", which remains a closely-guarded secret.
Coupled with the knowledge that Odyssey's main wreck-finding vessel, the Explorer, which is loaded with sophisticated sensors and remote-controlled submarines, spent four weeks trawling an area to the west of Guernsey, the inevitable question is being asked: has Odyssey found La Vierge du Bon Port?
With an estimated £73 billion of treasure believed to be lying on the floor of the Mediterranean alone and deep-sea technology advancing to the point where thousands of previously unreachable wrecks are now easily explored, the debate over whether sunken vessels should be protected sites or opened up to companies like Odyssey is taking on increased urgency.
Under international maritime law, a naval vessel remains the property of its sovereign government in perpetuity, meaning that Paris could at the very least stake a strong claim to ownership of La Vierge.
Sources said both Paris and London are keeping a close eye on the company's claim.
In the meantime, the rectitude of pinpointing sunken vessels and raising their contents is the subject of a fierce tussle between the salvagers, conservationists and governments.
Critics say the refusal of the UK and the US to sign the Unesco convention on the protection of underwater cultural heritage is laying open the three million wrecks that lie undiscovered around the world to the work of profiteers.
For its part, Odyssey is adamant it will continue work on at least eight shipwrecks it has identified around the world.
- INDEPENDENT
