Searching for luck

Collado says he has not managed to locate the ship's manifest to confirm its cargo.

But he believes it was carrying the gold from a Uruguay-bound cargo ship it had captured. And he has convinced investors to fund him.

He estimates his haul will total hundreds of millions of dollars - half of which will go to the Uruguayan government.

It will take two years to clear the rocks and mud covering the ship, run a huge metal lattice under it, raise it, patch it up and bring it to shore.

He and his team have already found cannonballs, bottles of rum, a fragment of the main-mast and shoes made with iron nails.

No one knows for sure what else lurks beneath the surface. But Collado is confident.

"You have to get out there and search to have good luck," he says.