US treasure hunter demands France pay for discovery of 16th century shipwreck

ATLANTA (CN) — A long-running fight over a centuries-old shipwreck off the coast of the Sunshine State docked at the 11th Circuit on Wednesday, with attorneys for France and a Florida-based treasure hunting company facing off to determine whether the company is entitled to payment for discovering the historic ship.

The wreckage of La Trinite was found by the private underwater research company Global Marine Exploration (GME) in 2016, more than 450 years after the ship sank during a hurricane just off the beaches of Cape Canaveral. The flagship of the 1565 French fleet, La Trinite’s mission to reinforce France’s colonial presence in Florida ended in defeat by the Spanish.

The ship languished 33 feet below the ocean’s surface for centuries until GME uncovered its bronze cannons and a marble monument featuring a French coat of arms. After Florida revoked GME’s exploration permit, the company sued France in Florida federal court in 2020 to recover costs for locating and identifying the shipwreck.

On Wednesday, GME’s attorney asked an 11th Circuit panel to overturn a Florida federal judge’s ruling in France’s favor. The company has a major obstacle to overcome: the Sunken Military Craft Act, a federal law barring salvage rights or awards for claims directed at foreign sunken military craft without the permission of the foreign state.

Arguing on behalf of the company, attorney Jennifer Winegardner of Rayboun Winegardner told the three-judge panel that the law does not apply to GME’s claims because La Trinite was not a warship on military non-commercial service when it sank. The company has asked the appeals court to find that the ship was not on a military mission because its official purpose was to deliver people, livestock and supplies to a French colony.

All three judges on the panel appeared unconvinced.

“It sank in a hurricane when it was en route to engage in conflict with the Spanish, isn’t that right?” Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, asked.

La Trinite was supposed to resupply the Fort Caroline Huguenot colony in Florida. Despite a mandate to avoid conflict with Spain, Capt. Jean Ribault ordered an impulsive attack on Spanish forces.

The ship ran aground and was destroyed in the storm.

Winegardner told the panel the decision to engage with the Spanish was “unauthorized” and that the ship “had orders to avoid Spain at all costs.”

James Goold of Covington & Burling, an attorney representing France, said that the orders referenced by Winegardner were issued in 1564, before “France learned that Spain was sending a fleet to slit their thoats.”

Both Pryor and U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Luck appeared to side with Goold, saying it was not clear to them that any dispute of fact existed.

“It seems undisputed [La Trinite] was chasing the Spanish fleet to engage in some sort of conflict when a hurricane hit and sunk it,” Luck, a Donald Trump appointee, said. “There doesn’t need to be a nexus between whether it’s authorized by the king of France at that particular moment or not, does it?”

Arguing on behalf of academics who filed an amici curiae brief in the case, University of Florida Levin College of Law professor Annie Brett cautioned the panel against wading into a “minute-by-minute inquiry” into the mindset of the ship’s disobedient captain.

“That’s an impossible inquiry and it’s one that Congress could not have intended this court to engage in,” Brett said. “An individual officer cannot decide to send France to war. It is not within the purview of any one captain.”

Goold also told the panel that GME’s salvage claim is a non-starter because “there can be no salvage where the owner has refused salvage.”

“France had nothing whatever to do with what GME did,” Goold said. “They did that all as part of a deal with Florida which they ultimately forfeited because of violating Florida law.”

GME lost its exploration permit after it removed artifacts from the shipwreck and failed to return them by a set deadline.

Trump appointee U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher rounded out the panel, which did not indicate when a decision will be issued.

The saga was previously before the 11th Circuit in 2022. The appeals court overturned the lower court’s dismissal of GME’s claims against France for misappropriation of trade secrets and interference with rights, stemming from France’s purported collaboration with Florida’s division of historical resources to recover artifacts from the wreck using GME’s location coordinates.

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