What's the Sussex gold

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A. The British warship, HMS Sussex, carrying a cargo of gold and silver, was lost in the Atlantic off Gibraltar in a sudden storm in 1694. The wreckage is thought to contain 10 tons of bullion, worth billions.< xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Ten tons Why was it carrying that much

A.� The gold, it is thought, was being secretly ferried by the 80-gun Sussex to the Duke of Savoy to buy his assistance in the Nine Years War against Louis XIV of France. The vessel was Admiral Sir Francis Wheeler's flagship for a fleet of 40 warships and 166 merchant ships. His body was washed ashore in his nightshirt. All but two of its 550 crew drowned.

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Evidence of the cargo comes from a 300-year-old document saying that William III had ordered the exchequer to approve 'a million of money' in coins - 10 tons of gold or 100 tons of silver.

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Q.� And now the wreck has been found

A.� Yes. After a seven-year search, the American-based Odyssey Marine Exploration believes it has pinpointed the Sussex half a mile down.

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Q.� So has any gold been salvaged

A.� Not yet. So far Odyssey has salvaged 19 cannon, cannonballs, an anchor, and other artefacts. Study by British maritime experts showed the wreck was almost certainly Sussex. Underwater robots could excavate the site as soon as the Ministry of Defence agrees.

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Q.� And whom does the money belong to

A.� Tricky. The ministry says that it belongs to the Crown. However, Odyssey has spent �2.1m on the project, and is likely to claim a proportion of any treasure.

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Under the 1989 International Convention on Salvage, the ship and all its contents are still retained as the sovereign property of Britain. But Greg Stemm, for Odyssey Marine, said it was negotiating a deal with the MoD that could well 'create a precedent for private-public partnerships in the management of deep ocean cultural heritage'.

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Q.� And what do archaeologists - never ones to step out of the limelight - think about that

A.� Many are angry. An MoD spokesman insisted that 'the finders-keepers school of thought doesn't exist' in relation to HMS Sussex. Archaeologists claim that the negotiations are too similar to the American system of dealing with historical artefacts as 'product'.

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Mike Williams, an expert on maritime law, said: 'American courts have gone along with the idea that private profit and archaeology can go hand in hand, but in Europe the archaeological community is very much opposed to any private profit from archaeological finds. The idea of the Government doing a deal with a salver [Odyssey] is wholly objectionable ... There is an enormous amount of concern building up that the Government is going to run a smash-and-grab.'

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Q.� And what does Odyssey say to that

A.� Odyssey Marine is staying positive about its negotiations with the MoD - despite two legal rulings in America when Spanish ships were returned by the Supreme Court to their sovereign state. Mr Stemm said: 'Any financial benefit from the cargo of coins which we hope to find will provide funding for one of the most advanced archaeological excavations ever undertaken.'

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Steve Cunningham