职业寻宝人天价宝藏得而复失

    上个月，两架C-130型运输机受命从西班牙飞往美国佛罗里达州，以运回寻宝公司奥德赛海洋勘探公司（Odyssey Marine Exploration）找到的594,000枚银币及其他手工艺品。奥德赛公司于2007年在葡萄牙海岸外的一处沉船地点找到了这些古董，并将它们运到了佛罗里达州西部港市坦帕市。人们认为这笔宝藏可能来自1804年被英国战舰击沉的一艘西班牙大型帆船，它很可能是迄今为止寻宝史上的最大发现。然而，日前，美国联邦法院判决将其归还给西班牙。这个判决对奥德赛公司而言可谓晴天霹雳，因为整个打捞行动已经耗费了260万美元。奥德赛的股价在金融危机时曾经遭受重创，虽然这次又遭打击，但其股价今年却逆市反弹，很大程度得益于市场看好它发现新宝藏的前景。该公司即将打捞名舰胜利号（HMS Victory），后者沉没于英吉利海峡，可能装载着多达三吨的金币。此外，奥德赛还将与英国政府合作（看来它已经学乖了），搜寻两艘英国船只。

    译者：项航

    Last month two C-130 transports flew a mission from Spain to Florida to retrieve the 594,000 silver coins and other artifacts that a treasure-hunting company called Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMEX) recovered from a shipwreck site off the Portuguese coast in 2007 and transported to Tampa. A U.S. federal judge ordered that the treasure -- perhaps the largest find in history and thought to be from a Spanish galleon sunk in 1804 by British warships -- be returned to Spain. That was a blow to Odyssey, which had spent $2.6 million recovering the booty. Despite the bad news, Odyssey's stock, which was hammered during the financial crisis, has climbed back this year largely on the prospect of new finds. The company will soon excavate the HMS Victory, which sank in the English Channel and could hold as much as three tons of gold coins. It will also -- with the cooperation of the U.K. government (it seems Odyssey has learned its lesson) -- forage two British ships. --Caitlin Keating