Judge makes ruling on who can claim historic shipwreck — and its valuable treasures — off Florida coast

More than 450 years ago, a three-masted ship sank in a hurricane off the coast of Florida, taking with it France's hopes of colonizing the peninsula.

Since the wreckage of "La Trinite" was discovered in 2016, it has been at the center of an epic legal battle between an American treasure hunter and the French government, with Paris recently claiming a decisive victory — or so officials hope.

A 24-page judgment, delivered on September 29 by US Magistrate Judge Allen Winsor in Tallahassee, delved into the distant and largely forgotten era of "French Florida," when a colony was established there by French Huguenots in the mid-16th century.