U.S. treasure hunters say boat set to leave Spain

MIAMI (Reuters) - An American-owned ship that was boarded and forced into Spanish port last week by authorities who suspect it snatched a treasure worth millions from a sunken Spanish galleon has been cleared to leave Spain, its owners said on Tuesday.

In a statement from its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Odyssey Marine Exploration said the ship, the Ocean Alert, had been cleared for departure on Saturday after an inspection in the Spanish port of Algeciras.

The ship had not yet set sail, however, because of delays caused by a local holiday that had prevented the owners from getting the paperwork needed for departure, Odyssey said.

A Spanish Civil Guard patrol boat challenged the Ocean Alert on Thursday after it left the British colony of Gibraltar, on Spain's southern tip, and confronted the captain with a court order to search the vessel.

The boat was then forced into Algeciras where Odyssey said it underwent a thorough inspection by the Spanish police.

Spain says Odyssey Marine has treasure that it believes could have been retrieved from Spanish waters or from a Spanish galleon that sank in the Atlantic during the colonial period.

The Tampa-based treasure hunting company has said only that it legally recovered gold and coins worth an estimated $500 million from a colonial-era wreck code-named "Black Swan" at a location in the Atlantic Ocean which it has not disclosed.

"Odyssey has repeatedly stated that the 'Black Swan' recovery was conducted in the Atlantic Ocean outside of any country's territorial waters or contiguous zone," the company said in its statement.

"The company has also stated that the site has not been conclusively identified and once it is identified, Odyssey will notify any potential claimants," it said.

The Ocean Alert is one of three vessels belonging to Odyssey that are subject to a search warrant issued by a Spanish court last month.