Spain sues US firm over treasure ship

MADRID, Spain - The Spanish government said Thursday it has filed a lawsuit in a US federal court against an American firm over a shipwreck the company has found laden with a colonial-era treasure.

In this photo provided by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Ground crew members unload more than 17 tons of silver coins Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at an undisclosed location. [AP]

If the vessel was Spanish or was removed from Spanish waters, any treasure would belong to Spain, Spain says.

"Odyssey Marine Exploration has been requested in a letter to provide information concerning the identity of the ship and the material recovered, and has not responded with the details we were asking for," said Susana Tello, Culture Ministry spokeswoman.

"Spain has decided to go to (the) courts to claim its right in case the discovery is Spanish," she added. The lawsuit was filed in Tampa, Fla. on Tuesday, Tello said.

A message and e-mail left for an Odyssey spokeswoman were not immediately returned early Thursday.

Odyssey announced two weeks ago that it had discovered a shipwreck containing 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. The Florida-based company said the site was outside any country's territorial waters but would not give the exact location or name of the ship.

In Britain, the find generated press reports that Odyssey had salvaged the wreck of the long-sought British vessel Merchant Royal, which sank in bad weather off England in 1641. Odyssey has not confirmed or denied these reports.

Odyssey has said that the ship was not in Spanish territorial waters and was not HMS Sussex, a shipwreck that Odyssey recently got permission from the Spanish government to search for in the Strait of Gibraltar.

But Spain has called the new discovery suspicious and said the booty may have come from a wrecked Spanish galleon.