MADRID (Reuters) - Three hundred years after the British warship Sussex sank in a storm off southern Spain, researchers are preparing to dive to the site to see if it was carrying a fortune in gold coins.
Spain and Britain said on Friday they had agreed to start underwater exploration to find the ship that sank near Gibraltar in 1694. Any treasure will be claimed by Britain, the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.
A deal Britain has been done with Florida-based salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration, which will run the dives under which Odyssey will receive a share of whatever is found on the wreck.
It has been reported that the cargo may be worth millions.
According to a report carried out by Odyssey Marine 'the wreck site in deep of water of a vessel
which may have been carrying a valuable cargo of coin'. The ship itself was launched from Chatham Dockyard on April 11th 1693.
In a recent press release they confirm that the Sussex project is an expedition to locate and recover artifacts and cargo of a large colonial-period British warship, HMS Sussex, which was lost in a severe storm in 1694. Based on documentary research conducted by contract researchers and Odyssey's in-house research team in libraries and historical archives in Great Britain, France and other countries, the Company believes there is a high probability the ship was carrying a cargo of coins with a substantial numismatic value.
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