A dispute has arisen as to whether the wreck of a ship with cargo of gold, silver, and priceless royal belongings of British King Charles I has been located on Scotland's Firth of Forth estuary, just north of Edinburgh.
Recent British newspaper reports suggest that a Scottish heritage group has found the shipwreck, known as the Blessing of Burntisland, which capsized in a storm and sank in 1633.
However, National Geographic reports that a local man leading the search says many of the details reported in the media are incorrect.
It says that maritime archaeologists not involved with the work are also sceptical about the claims.
Burntisland Heritage Trust convenor Ian Archibald, a retired cartographer leading the search, told National Geographic that the organisation’s plans had been “improperly publicised”.
The trust, a volunteer history group based in Burntisland on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, will make a formal statement about the search in a few months or next year, it reports.
Experts not involved in the search efforts have told the magazine that there is little evidence that the king's sunken treasure even exists. Maritime archaeologist Sean Kingsley, who is editor of Wreckwatch magazine, said that no evidence of the ship had ever been found in the area, in spite of the fact that many groups had travelled to the area over 30 years.
Read National Geographic here
