Agreement may soon be reached among contending parties regarding the disposition of a Panamanian shipwreck that some identify as La Vizcaina, abandoned by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final voyage in 1503. According to Carlos Fitzgerald, National Director of Cultural Heritage of the Panamanian National Institute of Culture (INAC), a cooperative agreement for further research is expected between the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) from Texas A&M University and Marine Investigations of the Isthmus (IMDI), a for-profit group that recovered the first artifacts from the wreck in 2001. This agreement will clear the way toward initiation of a research program to investigate one of the earliest shipwrecks yet found in the Western Hemisphere from the period of European exploration.The shipwreck, discovered at Playa Damas near Nombre de Dios on the Caribbean coast of Panama in 1998 by amateur historian and diver Warren White, an American expatriate living in Panama, has involved the interests of several groups with overlapping interests. One of the first was IMDI, a salvage company formed by White with Nilda Vasquez of Panama and a group of investors and technical specialists, which removed the first artifacts from the site in 2001. Subsequently, White became estranged from IMDI and has publicly charged that the shipwreck is threatened by IMDI plans to remove more artifacts from the ship. White states that his biggest concerns for the site are “bureaucratic and governmental mis-management.” In interviews with Archaeological Legacy Institute Executive Director Richard Pettigrew, Vasquez insisted that IMDI has a legal Panamanian government permit to conduct archaeological exploration of the wreck, but Fitzgerald responded that IMDI’s permit covers production of a video documentary but not archaeological excavation.

Vasquez admits that IMDI lacks the archaeological expertise by itself to conduct a proper excavation. INA, a leading nautical archaeology research institution with the necessary archaeological credentials and a pledge of funding support from German media corporation Der Spiegel, has been in discussions with INAC regarding full-scale archaeological exploration of the site. Although Fitzgerald reports that IMDI has no legal right to explore the wreck or remove additional artifacts, Dr. Filipe Castro, INA project manager for the Playa Damas site, has submitted a formal proposal for collaboration to Ernesto Cordovez, head of IMDI and Nilda Vasquez’s son. The proposed plan calls for a cooperative research program by which INA and IMDI both would have a role in the project. According to Vasquez, the last sticking point before agreement can be reached is IMDI’s insistence that artifacts not be allowed to leave Panama. However, Fitzgerald believes that resolution of this matter soon will be reached. This agreement would avert a confrontation between INAC and IMDI, which has threatened court action if not allowed to pursue research activities on the wreck. Such a confrontation could cause a scandal with potential impact on the Panamanian national election to be held in 2004.


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