Bogotá (AFP) – Colombian authorities on Thursday showed off the first objects to be recovered from a treasure-crammed Spanish galleon that sank off the coast 300 years ago: three gold and bronze coins, a canon and a porcelain cup.
The items were the first to be brought to the surface, ten years after the wrecked San Jose was discovered in the Caribbean Sea.
The San Jose was owned by the Spanish crown when it sank near Cartagena in June 1708. Only a handful of its 600-strong crew survived.
British documents state that the ship suffered an "internal explosion," while Spanish reports point it being struck in battle.
The ship had been heading back from Panama in the New World to the court of King Philip V of Spain, laden with chests of emeralds and some 200 tons of gold coins.
Before Colombia announced the discovery in 2015, the ship had long been sought by adventurers.
Spain had laid claim to the ship and its contents under a UN convention Colombia is not party to, while Indigenous Qhara Qhara Bolivians claim the riches were stolen from them.
Colombia has insisted on examining the wreck for purposes of science and culture. The treasure it contains is thought to be worth billions of dollars.
Among the artifacts spotted by deep-sea cameras so far are an anchor and cargo such as jugs and glass bottles, cast iron cannons, porcelain pieces, pottery and objects apparently made of gold.
Investigators also recovered samples of the sediment accumulated in the ship over the years, which will be analyzed to "better understand the causes of the shipwreck," said Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH).
The wreck is also claimed by US-based salvage company Sea Search Armada -- which insists it found it first more than 40 years ago and has taken Colombia to the UN's Permanent Court of Arbitration, seeking $10 billion dollars.