Booty!

The wreck of the Santa Margarita off the coast of Florida is being divided up in a Key West Courtroom.

In a courtroom last week in Key West, Columbus's wisdom of the ages was once again vindicated. Spectators were enthralled as riches recovered from the 1622 Fleet Spanish galleon Santa Margarita went on display. The "formed treasures", laid out on a six-foot long table, amounted to a fortune in "most excellent" gold chains, bars and ornaments, ancient silver coins and thousands of pearls.

The scene had Judge James Lawrence King, senior Federal Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, presiding over the adjudication of artifacts recovered by the historic shipwreck search and recovery group, Blue Water Ventures Key West