Yo, Ho, Ho

Well, it seems the British have their collective noses a bit out of joint about the American company that recovered the huge trove of silver and gold coins, using words like "stole" to describe how the treasure was obtained. The company, Odyssey Marine Exploration was extremely careful to keep their operation secret and especially careful not to land one bit of the treasure in Britain - because the British government would have immediately seized it.

Gee, I wonder why they didn't land it there.

The treasure hunters who recovered gold and silver worth an estimated £250million from a shipwreck off Cornwall spirited their haul to the United States in an apparent attempt to stop Britain staking a claim.

In a highly secretive operation, American firm Odyssey Marine Exploration worked on the wreck of an English ship, believed to be the 17th Century Merchant Royal, less than 40 miles from the British coast.

But Odyssey carefully avoided landing their treasure on UK soil.

If the 17 tons of coins, gold ornaments and tableware had been brought ashore, Odyssey would have been obliged to inform the Government's Receiver of Wreck, which would probably have impounded the haul, triggering a potentially lengthy legal row about ownership rights.

Instead, the trove was secretly moved to the tax haven of Gibraltar. Odyssey then chartered a jet to take hundreds of plastic containers brimming with coins to the United States on Thursday, where they have been analysed by Nick Bruyer, an expert in antique coinage.

He said: "The find is unprecedented. I don't know of anything equal or comparable to it."

Salvage companies have spent years looking for the wreck of the Merchant Royal, known as the "Eldorado of the seas', which sank in bad weather near the Isles of Scilly in 1641.

Under salvage law, Odyssey could get up to 90 per cent of the haul's value, although this may depend on whether other claimants come forward. With the treasure now on American soil, it is highly unlikely that Britain will seek a share of it. But experts believe that, as the cargo originally belonged to Spain, its government will have a better case.

The arcane salvage laws have grown up over a long period of time and can get quite complicated as I understand it. There is at least one descendant of the Merchant Royal's captain who is reportedly investigating whether he (or she) might have a claim. But it sounds like Odyssey isn't free and clear on their haul just yet. Which is no real surprise. Any time a treasure is recovered everybody and their brother wants a slice of the pie. Starting with the government, of course. (The Daily Mail link has a good bit of historical background on the ship.)