State, U.S. Exchange Broadsides Over Sunken Galleon
The state of California and the federal government are battling over which entity has jurisdiction over a Spanish galleon that sank just north of San Francisco nearly 400 years ago.
Robert Marx, a marine archeologist from Florida, has applied with the State Lands Commission for permission to dig up the treasure-laden ship, now buried under the sands of Drakes Bay, Marin County.
The state was to decide after a June 30 public hearing whether to issue Marx a preliminary research permit. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, is opposed to the project.
The ship was believed to contain about 130 tons of valuable artifacts, and possibly large quantities of gold and jewels.
The oceanic agency, in a letter to Marx, claimed that it had jurisdiction over the ship because the wreck was within the sanctuary boundaries. It would be “unacceptable” for any artifacts recovered from the galleon to be sold to help pay for the salvage operation, Administrator Herbert Kaufman wrote.
The entire cargo, Kaufman continued, must “remain intact as a single collection.”
Claire Dedrick of the State Lands Commission said a congressional act in 1953 gave California specific title and salvage rights to all submerged lands within three miles of the shore.
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