Treasure ship is Spain's

That is because the ship, the court accepted, was a legitimate flagged naval Spanish ship.

Odyssey Marine Exploration salved the wreck in early 2007 off Portugal, in a project codenamed Black Swan.

The court accepted that, from analysis of finds, the wreck was the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, sunk by the British in 1804.

The ship was en route from South America to Spain carrying gold and silver coins. Included were gold doubloons minted in 1803 in Peru, and bearing the head of Spain's King Carlos IV.

Odyssey has maintained that the ship, although a naval vessel, was on a commercial voyage, carrying cargo of which a large percentage did not belong to Spain.

The vessel therefore should not, it claimed, be defined as a flagged vessel.

The court in Tampa, Florida, determined that the ship remained a Spanish-flagged vessel whatever the nature of its voyage.

Under international law, as a flagged naval vessel the Mercedes cannot be salvaged without Spain’s permission, which has not been given.

It has been argued that a flagged wreck left on the bottom by its country for centuries, with no effort made at location, can be regarded as having been abandoned.

In turn Spain has pointed out that, in 2004, it informed the US Federal Register that it had not abandoned any of its wrecked historic vessels, and forbade interference with them.

Other, unsuccessful litigants for the cargo of the Mercedes have included Peru and descendants of Spanish colonial figures who had private material aboard the ship.

Odyssey Marine Exploration has said that it plans to appeal.