Odyssey Marine Exploration officials examine a coin recovered from the "Black Swan" shipwreck. // Odyssey Marine Exploration via AP
I’m not saying that whatever is in your average sortie isn’t cool, but it’s hard to beat 17 tons of shipwrecked treasure worth at least half a billion dollars.
Airmen at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., will help return 594,000 coins and other artifacts to Spain later this week, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. The treasure is going back to Europe on two Spanish C-130s after a five-year legal battle.
According to the AP, the treasure is believed to be from Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes, a galleon sunk in 1804 by British warships traveling in the Atlantic Ocean. More than 200 people were aboard the ship, which was discovered by deep-sea explorers who flew the treasure to Tampa in May 2007.
