Stories of buried treasure and ancient shipwrecks have captivated for centuries, from pirate tales to Hollywood blockbusters. For one team of explorers, however, legend became reality when they uncovered a trove of artefacts from a 350-year-old sunken Spanish galleon — including coins, gemstones and priceless jewels once belonging to seafaring knights, BBC reports.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Lady of Wonders) sank in 1656 after it collided with another boat from its fleet and crashed into a coral reef off the Bahamas.
The vessel was carrying a haul of treasure, some of which was reserved as royal tax for King Philip IV, from Cuba to Seville, Spain. The 891-ton ship contained more cargo than usual, as it had also been tasked with transporting treasure retrieved from another ship that had sunk two years earlier.
There have already been several successful attempts to retrieve the ship’s cargo, with almost 3.5 million items recovered between the 1650s and 1990s, according to shipwreck specialist Allen Exploration, which carried out a two-year expedition from 2020.
But the latest discoveries, which are going on display this month at the new Bahamas Maritime Museum, offer fresh insight into life aboard the vessel. Working with local divers, archaeologists and other experts, the researchers are also in the process of “reconstructing the mystery of how the ship was wrecked and fell apart,” project marine archaeologist James Sinclair said in a press release.
Using remote-sensing technology, such as sonar and magnetometers, Allen Exploration tracked “a long and winding debris trail of finds” scattered over a 13-kilometre stretch of the ocean floor, founder Carl Allen added in a statement.
Written by Adekunle Biodun