Black Swan Project
It was later proved in trial that the recovered cargo was being carried by the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was sunk by the British Royal Navy off Portugal in 1804.
[1] Knowledge of the recovery became public on May 18, 2007, when the company flew 17 tons[2] of coins, mostly silver, from Gibraltar to a secure location of unknown address in Florida, United States.
On February 27, 2012, the ship's treasure was flown back to Spain where the coins and other artifacts from the shipwreck are now in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena (Murcia).
[3] It was also thought the treasure might be from a ship that Odyssey had petitioned a federal court for permission to salvage, which was located off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom,[3] within a five-mile (8 km) radius of 49°25′N 6°0′W / 49.417°N 6.000°W / 49.417; -6.000.
[7] In 2005, the co-founder of Odyssey Marine, Greg Stemm, had admitted to British shipwreck expert Richard Larn that his firm was searching for Merchant Royal.
[citation needed] Odyssey Marine's sonar search ships trawled the area extensively in 2005 and 2006, frequently calling in Falmouth for crew rest.
[4] Graphic novelist Paco Roca, who with Spanish diplomat Guillermo Corral wrote a fictionalised version of the project, says that they were "critical of the company's manner of extracting the treasure, using a kind of giant vacuum cleaner and destroying the wreck site, which is also a marine cemetery".
[11] However, Peru, as well as the descendants of the merchants who shipped the coins as cargo aboard the Mercedes, are contesting Spain's right to the treasure, along with Odyssey, in a pending court case.
Once in port, Vorus was eventually arrested for disobedience after refusing inspection of the vessel without first receiving approval of Odyssey Explorer's flag state, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
Aboard the Odyssey Explorer at the time of seizure, were about a dozen journalists and photographers, all of whom had their videotapes, tape recorders, and computer memory storage devices seized by Spanish officials.
[16] On December 22, 2009, a U.S. district judge validated the magistrate's report and recommendations but stayed the order to turn over the treasure to Spain until the Appeals process was completed.
[17] In January 2011, Odyssey Marine claimed that the language used in recently leaked diplomatic cables showed that the US State Department had been involved with negotiations to assist the Spanish government in receiving the treasure in exchange for the return of allegedly stolen artwork to a US private citizen.
[21] On February 9, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an emergency application for a stay filed by Odyssey Marine, which said it wanted to maintain possession of a half-billion dollars' worth of gold and silver coins until a final decision is made about who owns them.
Justice Clarence Thomas, who has jurisdiction over applications from Florida, denied without comment the motion in Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. v. Kingdom of Spain.
On December 2, 2012, the Spanish Government deposited the 14.5 tons of gold and silver coins recovered in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena (Murcia) for cataloging, study and permanent display.
The same year, a Spanish action film directed by Jaume Balagueró called The Vault, that bears a passing resemblance to the Black Swan story, was released by Sony Pictures.
National Geographic's 2021 film, 'Battle for the Black Swan', written and directed by Christopher Riley, tells the story of the discovery of the wreck, the salvage, and subsequent dispute.
