It's been a long, very tiring day for all of us at HH Watch (and we're sure you too). Between reading the various press reports, the HHI website, and slogging through the stinking heap of poo laid over at Yahoo (Doc and Smitty combined for over 35 worthless posts alone, as someone pointed out), our collective head is throbbing.
So, rather than parse to death all that's happened today (and there was a lot), we thought we'd give you our unprofessional, uninformed and unsolicited view from 35,000 feet.
First, the press conference.
How in the world did Jim Goold convince his client, Spain, to go out on a limb like this? In front of the entire world, and in advance of Judge Pizzo even having an opportunity to review Spain's filings, Goold announced the BS treasure was definitively from the Mercedes and his client was therefore entitled to 100% of the find, with zero compensation to Odyssey.
But Goold went even further, making what we think was a potentially fatal, profoundly stupid, miscalculation: he dramatically personalized the case, and in the process, completely and unfairly demonized Odyssey in the public eye, particularly in Spain and probably throughout Europe, where Odyssey is currently operating. In addition to essentially calling Odyssey immoral liars, he also incredibly said they had desecrated a Spanish war grave (of course, this is a completely ridiculous and unfounded charge, and we'll address it in more detail later).
Wow. We can only imagine how Judge Pizzo will react to this tomorrow when he opens his newspaper. How happy do you think he's going to be that Jim Goold arbitrarily decided to serve as judge, jury and executioner before the judge even had a chance to sip his morning coffee? Think he'll dig that move?
Worse, and this is where we think Goold seriously fucked up, his actions today virtually ensure that no compromise or settlement can be reached between the two parties, something the court almost always prefers. By purposely trying to paint a false mental picture of Odyssey shoving aside rotting Spanish corpses to greedily get at the BS treasure, Goold has forced his client into a sharp corner we're not sure he can escape from. How, for example, can he possibly say to the people and government of Spain: "Well, we know we initially said Odyssey is an immoral, grave-robbing, lying profit-mongrel, but today we think settling is our best course of action." (In other words, when Goold's losing the case and it's become obvious to everyone.)
We can't imagine any scenario where Judge Pizzo is going to be too happy about this behavior. If you think he was mad at Stemm for talking to a single Spanish reporter about the BS find the day when Odyssey's interrogatories were due, imagine how he's going to react about Goold spouting off to the world that as far as he's concerned, this trial is over and he's won. Call us crazy, but we think Judge Pizzo might have a thought or two about that.
So, how did the nimrods over at HHI respond? About as you'd expect. Interestingly, despite not one word ever being written on the site about the Mercedes as a "war grave," the whole bunch is all over it now, with one member even calling Stemm a "sick SOB." Smitty, or "SatDiver" on HHI, went so far as to argue that if a person believes and supports Odyssey about the BS find, then they're no different from those religious nutjobs who protest our servicemens' funerals after their ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It never fails to amaze us the depths these people will go to score points against their hated enemy, Odyssey. Go read the site and see if you can find one decent voice of reason or sanity. You can't. Between Doc's endless accusations of OMEX malfeasance, Solomon's increasingly shrill, venomous insults hurled at Stemm and Odyssey investors, or those HHI members who, without basis, delight in calling the good people of Odyssey "frauds," "criminals," and of course, now thanks to Goold, "war grave desecraters."
Lovely, eh?
To conclude: We see nothing in today's actions that represent a credible threat against Odyssey. We don't see that Spain provided any evidence to buttress their arguments about the Mercedes. And, as we all know, the burden is on them to prove their ownership interest. Frankly, with no shipwreck to speak of, we don't know how they think they're going to pull this argument off, but we're going to have fun watching them try. Finally, Odyssey's press release tonight communicated a calm assuredness. The company clearly seems quietly confident about where this is all headed, and we're thrilled with that, obviously.
So, stay tuned. We're off to collapse now.
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Atrocities of the Spanish Conquistadors in the West Indies c. 1513
This account is from Bartolome de Las Casas. He was a missionary and conquistador. He took part in the conquest of Cuba. These accounts happened after this and one has to believe he was very troubled by what he witnessed. There is no doubt about it; the Spanish were cruel in the conquest for gold and land. Events like these listed below did nothing to help relations between the vastly different cultures. Instead it was a major reason why the Taino and Arawak peoples became extinct.
The Spaniards with their horses, their spears and lances, began to commit murders and other strange cruelties. They entered into towns and villages, sparing neither children nor old men and women. They ripped their bellies and cut them to pieces as if they had been slaughtering lambs in a field. They made bets with each other over who could thrust a sword into the middle of a man or who could cut off his head with one stroke. They took little ones by their heels and crushed their heads against the cliffs. Others they threw into the rivers laughing and mocking them as they tumbled into the water. They put everyone they met to the edge of the sword.
One time I saw four or five important native nobles roasted and broiled upon makeshift grills. The cried out pitifully. This thing troubled our Captain that he could not sleep. He commanded that they be strangled. The Sergeant (I know him and his friends from Seville) would not strangle them but put bullets into their mouths instead.
I have seen all these things and others infinite. Most tried to flee. They tried to hide in the mountains. They tried to flee from these men. Men who were empty of all pity, behaving like savage beasts. They are nothing more than slaughterers and enemies of mankind. These evil men had even taught their hounds, fierce dogs, to tear natives to pieces at first sight.
AND, when, although rare, the Indians put to death some Spaniards upon good right and law of justice; the Spaniards made an agreement that for every one Spaniard killed they had to slay one hundred Indians.
One time the Indians came to meet us and receive us with food and good cheer! Instead, the devil, which had put himself in the Spaniards, put them all to the edge of the sword in my presence, without any cause whatsoever, more than three thousand souls. I saw there such great cruelties, that never any man living either have or shall see the like.
In three or four months (myself being present) there died more than six thousand children, which the Spanish had sent into the Gold mines.
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