Treasure ship seized

(FSB Magazine) -- Odyssey Marine Exploration (Charts) is in hot water again. On Tuesday a Spanish military vessel intercepted one of the Florida treasure hunter's ships as it was trying to leave the port city of Algeciras, forced it back into port, and arrested its captain, Sterling Vorgus.

The seizure follows months of legal wrangling with the Spanish government over the fate of an estimated $500 million worth of silver coins and gold objects that Odyssey recovered from the eastern Atlantic Ocean in May. Claiming it had found the booty in international waters, Odyssey flew the coins to the United States.

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When we featured Odyssey founder Greg Stemm on our cover in March 2005, Odyssey had only one find under its belt - a $150 million treasure trove from a ship found 100 miles off the coast of Georgia. Odyssey's competitors in the deep-sea treasure hunting market include Deep Blue Marine (Charts), based in Midvale, Utah.

On May 18 Stemm announced a bigger find. Odyssey's dive vehicle retrieved 17 tons of treasure from a wreck that he identified only by the code name "Black Swan" (blackswanshipwreck.com).

Spanish authorities promptly filed suit in U.S. courts claiming that the treasure belonged to Spain because it was found in Spanish waters. Odyssey kept its vessel, the Explorer, docked on the coast of Gibraltar until this week. When the ship tried to leave port for another mission on Tuesday, Spanish authorities forced it to turn around for inspection.

Odyssey co-founder Greg Stemm argues that the dispute belongs in U.S. courts, not Spanish ones. "We had again invited Spanish officials to inspect the Explorer in advance of our departure and they chose not to take us up on it," he says. "We're not sure what the inspection of the Explorer is meant to accomplish."