ODYSSEY VESSEL FORCED TO ALGECIRAS BY GUARDIA CIVIL
Brian Reyes, Gibraltar Chronicle reporter, is on board Odyssey Alert.
‘Ocean Alert’ one the of treasure hunting ships of the Odyssey Marine Exploration salvage company has been taken to a berth in Campamento near Algeciras port, Spain under threat of arrest. It is set to be searched under an order from a La Linea court. The vessel left Gibraltar this morning having informed the Spanish authorities of its intended departure and was shadowed out of Gibraltar waters by a Guardia Civil patrol boat.
Once three miles off Europa Point, Gibraltar in international waters – claimed by the Guardia Civil to be Spanish waters - the vessel was forcefully boarded at 10am CET. Odyssey had a Spanish lawyer on board and the captain of Ocean Alert agreed to be escorted to port. Four Guardia Civil officers are onboard. There was a corvette and a small rib accompanying the Guardia Civil patrol boat.
The move follows two Odyssey vessels having spent the past three weeks effectively imprisoned in Gibraltar as the company negotiated with the Spanish Government to seek to secure free passage.
Aladar Nesser who is in charge of Odysseys International Business Development and on board the vessel said "We made it clear to them that we were being illegally boarded in international waters under threat of force."
This followed exchanges between the captain and the Guardia Civil in which to the Odyssey repeatedly stated that it was in international waters and the Guardia Civil inisisted the waters are Spanish.
Spain does not formally recognise British waters around the Rock which are set at a three mile perimetre and instead says that all waters 12 miles off Spain are Spanish.
Lawyer for Odyssey Marie Rogers, also on board said: "The master was not given an option. They came on board and that was it."
Spain was furious when it emerged that a vast treasure trove of silver and gold coins was flown out from Gibraltar having been recovered from an unidentified vessel codenamed Black Swan. Odyssey say that the Black Swan vessel was discovered in international waters but Spain is convinced it may have a right to a claim. The issue is also set to be considered in a Miami court, which originally authorised the salvage, in a fortnight.
In May the "Black Swan", a Colonial period shipwreck was discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration in the Atlantic Ocean. Yielding over 500,000 silver coins weighing more than 17 tons, hundreds of gold coins, worked gold, and other artifacts, it is believed that this recovery constitutes the largest collection of coins ever excavated from a historical shipwreck site.
