There’s buried treasure in the Caribbean—and a fight over the spoils
Lesson summary
Hi there everyone, it’s Jeff and this is Plain English, where we help you upgrade your English with stories about current events and trending topics. By listening to stories about a wide variety of topics, you’ll expand your vocabulary, improve your English, and maybe even have some fun at the same time, who knows?
Coming up today: there is buried treasure off the coast of Colombia. There are hundreds of shipwrecks in Colombia’s waters, but one in particular carries a massive treasure. It’s the San José and it has been sitting on the seafloor for over three hundred years. Today, you’ll hear about all the people who think they deserve the buried treasure.
In the second half of the lesson, I’ll show you how to use the phrasal verb “destined for.” And we have a quote of the week. Let’s dive in.
Fight for buried treasure off Colombia’s coast
Tell me if you’ve heard something like this before: when the doomed ship left Europe, it was considered one of the most advanced of its age…
I’m not talking about the Titanic. I’m talking about the San José. And it’s not buried in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, but in the warm Caribbean waters off Cartagena, Colombia. It sank two hundred years before the Titanic.
The San José was part of the Spanish treasure fleet, large ships designed to facilitate trade between Spain and its colonies in the Americas. And in June 1708, it set sail from Portobelo, Panama, to Cartagena, Colombia.
It was in a fleet of 17 ships traveling together. And it carried a treasure trove of gold, silver, gems, and jewelry mined and collected from the South American colonies. The treasure was destined for Spain, to help finance King Philip V’s efforts in the War of Spanish Succession.
But off the coast of Cartagena, the San José encountered an unfriendly British naval ship. Spain and Britain were on opposite sides of the war back in Europe. The British ship knew there was treasure in the fleet, and a battle started. The San José sank—taking all its treasure to the bottom of the sea. And that is where it has been for 325 years.
For almost all that time, though, nobody knew where the shipwreck was. The San José sank two hundred years before the Titanic, before there was radio. But in 1981, a private group of explorers called Glocca Morra said they had found the San José. Glocca Morra told the Colombian government where it was—on the condition that they, Glocca Morra, could share in the profits.
But still nobody went to excavate it. In 2013, Colombia passed a law stating that any shipwrecks found in its territorial waters would be property of the government. The law leaves only a small finder’s fee to anyone who discovers a treasure.
Then, two years later, in 2015, the Colombian government said it had found the San José—but not where Glocca Morra had said it was. So Colombia claims full ownership of the shipwreck, and they don’t believe they have to share any of its treasure with anyone else. Glocca Morra has disbanded, but its successor company disagrees and is suing Colombia for half the value of the treasure.
They’re not the only ones. Spain contends that it is the rightful owner of the treasure. You have to admire the audacity!
It is true that the San José did belong to the government of Spain when it sank. But it was carrying treasure that was mined and collected throughout its colonies, in present-day Peru and Bolivia. And indigenous groups from those areas argue that it was their ancestors who were forced to mine that treasure from their territory—so they should be entitled to part of the treasure.
There’s a number being tossed around: 20 billion. That’s what some people have said the treasure would be worth, in U.S. dollars. I am highly skeptical of that number. First, it’s based on the best estimate of what the ship was carrying at the time. But that may or may not be fully correct; a true inventory is not known. Second, the value is based on the market value of the metals and the jewels in today’s market. But there’s no way to know what condition the treasure is in.
Why are we talking about this today? The current president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, has instructed his culture ministry to fast-track a project to resurrect the San José from its resting place, so that the treasure can be brought to the surface—you guessed it!—before his term in office ends in 2026.
Archeologists and preservationists in Colombia say the government has not assembled a team of experts on deep-sea preservation and they have not established scientifically valid procedures to excavate the wreckage in a way that would allow it to be studied in the future. They worry that irreplaceable clues to the history of their continent are needlessly being put at risk—all for an artificial, political timeline.
When I read that Spain wanted it back, I just laughed out loud—I thought it had to have been a joke. Like, “Yes, we plundered the colonies, but you must understand that we are the real victims here.”
But I learned there is a concept called “sovereign immunity.” And that says that any country’s warship is its own property forever—so if a warship sinks in another country’s territory, that ship always belongs to the original government, no matter where it sank and no matter how much time has passed. So Spain does have a leg to stand on, legally speaking. That doesn’t mean it’s a good look!
By the way, gold does not oxidize. So if a gold coin spends three hundred years under the ocean, you could just spray it down and it would be as shiny and brilliant as the day it was minted. Silver is not the same; the silver would be ruined if it were exposed to the water.
Quote of the Week
It’s Monday, so I have a quote of the week for you. It’s from John Steinbeck. He says, “Anything that just costs money is cheap.” Because of course we can pay with things that are more valuable than money. Here it is again, “Anything that just costs money is cheap,” says John Steinbeck, the author.
Next up, the expression. It’s “destined for.”
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