The Lawyer Behind Spain's Sunken Treasure

Some lawyers get deal toys from clients. After winning back Spain's sunken treasure, Covington's Jim Goold received a knighthood. (Every gift we receive from this point on will seem underwhelming.)

When US treasure hunter Odyssey Marine Exploration found 17 tons of silver and gold coins in a shipwreck (it estimated half a billion dollars- worth) off Portugal's coast, it touched off a legal battle for ownership between them, 25 individuals, Peru, and Spain. (We imagine the courtroom battles were as fierce as the naval skirmishes that sunk the ships.) Jim represented Spain, which claimed the shipwrecked frigate as the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes that exploded and went down in an 1804 peacetime naval attack by Britain. (Nearly 300 died and the attack was one factor that led Spain to join the Napoleonic War on France's side.) To thank Jim for returning a part of its national history, the country awarded him with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit, by Royal Decree of King Juan Carlos, one order below that reserved for heads of state.

Jim traveled to Spain 20 times over the course of the case, but the most meaningful was the final trip carrying back the treasure. Above, Jim at a ceremony at MacDill Airforce Base in Tampa before he boarded one of the two military cargo planes carrying the 594,000 coins back to Spain (the Spanish Ambassador is at the microphone). Not long after take-off, they learned that Peru's emergency stay to prevent the flight had been rejected by the US Supreme Court. The Mercedes had been sailing from Peru with coins minted there when it sank, but a military vessel belongs to its sovereign nation, as the Eleventh Circuit held.

Here's a closer look at the medal, awarded at the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in DC before folks from the State Department, the Navy, the Spanish Navy, the Embassy, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It's actually somewhat of a promotion--Jim previously received a Knighthood, in the order of Isabela Catolica of Spain, for a case about two Spanish Navy ships that sank in US waters. When it comes to helping countries seeking their historical artifacts, Jim is a go-to: He's also represented France, Italy, and the UK.

Jim in the C-130 Hercules with thousands of coins and a Spanish TV crew. (We were hoping it would be in a large wooden chest, but you can't win 'em all.) Because the case was so highly publicized and emotional for Spain (he compares it to the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor), he's recognized when walking around Spain. His legal work is grounded in a love for nautical archaeology, which started as an undergrad working on projects in Italy and Greece. Now he's GC for the Society for American Archaeology, RPM Nautical, and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. He also dives to find shipwrecked remains for study and preservation, including a multi-year project off Sicily's coast that's recovering a warship from an Ancient Roman naval victory in 241 BCE that won the First Punic War.