A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a Columbus receivership has salvage rights to treasure from the sunken SS Central America shipwreck, rebuffing an earlier salvage group that claimed it was entitled to the treasure.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith ruled this week that Recovery Limited Partnership, now run by court-appointed receiver Ira O. Kane, is the salvor-in-possession of the Central America wreck.

The ship sank during an 1857 hurricane, and its wreck lies 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina.

The decision means that Recovery Limited has the rights to the treasure it retrieved from the wreck this spring as well as to anything else it recovers.

In March, Kane hired Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa to bring up the treasure, which includes tons of gold bars, silver coins and artifacts believed to be worth millions of dollars. The company has been working at the Central America site since then.

The wreck was discovered in the late 1980s by a crew headed by former Battelle scientist Tommy Thompson of Columbus...

Last year, Franklin County Judge Pat Sheeran appointed Kane to oversee Recovery Limited, and salvage efforts resumed after 23 years.

Several members of Thompson's original team opposed the new salvage effort and filed objections in the Virginia federal court, which had awarded Thompson's Columbus-America group salvage rights to the shipwreck in the early 1990s.

Under a 1987 agreement between Recovery Limited and Columbus-America, Recovery Limited was the legal owner of the Central America salvage and Columbus-America was the company's agent.

The Thompson group included former Thompson lawyer Richard T. Robol, former Thompson photographer Milt T. Butterworth Jr., and Mike Lorz, the group's spokesman.

Following the court decision, I spoke with Milt Butterworth, president of Columbus-America Discovery Group. Here is the brief statement he released then:

Also attached is a link to the AP story, which I believe you and readers of The E-Sylum will find interesting. Thanks for your continuing commitment to keeping your readers informed.

To read the complete Associated Press article, see:Ohio company wins rights to treasure of 1857 shipwreck embroiled in decades-long legal battle(www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2014/07/10/ohio-company-wins-rights-to-shipwrecks-gold)

To read the complete Columbus Dispatch article, see:Federal judge rules in favor of new SS Central America salvage group(www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/07/10/Federal-court-rules-on-USS-Central-America-treasure.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
COLUMBUS-AMERICA GROUP SUES ODYSSEY(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n21a10.html)
MICHAEL LORZ ON THE SS CENTRAL AMERICA LITIGATION(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n21a11.html)