The San Jose was lost for centuries, its £16bn treasure trove of gold and emeralds swallowed up by the Caribbean Sea. Not any more.
Researchers say they have identified the “world’s richest shipwreck”, a discovery likely to fuel an international row over which country owns the 300-year-old galleon.
The San Jose was sailing in 1708 as the flagship of a treasure fleet, made up of three Spanish warships and 14 merchant vessels, when it was sunk after an attack by the Royal Navy off the coast of Colombia.
Powder magazines on board the ship detonated during the battle, destroying the vessel and sending almost all of its 600-man crew to the bottom, along with her hoard of gold, silver, and emeralds.
More than three centuries later, a wreck believed to be the San Jose was discovered in 2015 at a depth of 600 metres in the Caribbean Sea.
Researchers analysed the coins – or cobs – found amid the wreck. Pic: Ariza et al/ARC-DIMAR 2022
To determine whether the ship was indeed the San Jose, the Colombian navy used an unmanned, remotely operated underwater vehicle to survey the wreck non-invasively.
Sonar images identified bronze cannons, weapons, ceramics and other artefacts among its cargo – but the real interest was the gold.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Tap to follow
Read more from Sky News:
William: Oceans ‘diminishing before our eyes’
Crucial study to save Britain’s bees
Twix advert banned after five complaints
A number of coins on the sea floor have been revealed in high-resolution pictures, according to research published in the journal Antiquity on Tuesday.
“Coins are crucial artefacts for dating and understanding material culture, particularly in shipwreck contexts”, says lead researcher Daniela Vargas Ariza.
“Hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins – known as cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish – served as the primary currency in the Americas for more than two centuries.”
By analysing features on the coins, such as the Jerusalem Cross, researchers have been able to gain an understanding of the ship’s function and the events surrounding its sinking.
“This case study highlights the value of coins as key chronological markers in the identification of shipwrecks,” Ms Vargas Ariza adds.
While the coins may still be 600 metres below the waves, the identification of the wreck as the San Jose is likely to add fuel to an ongoing international row over who owns the treasure.
Who owns the San Jose?
Spain, which owned the San Jose back in 1708 when it sank, considers it a state ship; its remains are classified as an underwater graveyard and cannot be commercially exploited.
Colombia, in whose waters the wreck is located, has suggested that Spain renounce its claim in its favour, a move that some worry could set a dangerous precedent.
Colombian law favours treasure hunters.
Cannons found in the wreckage of Spanish galleon San Jose. Pic: Reuters/Colombian Ministry of Culture
Lawyer Jose Maria Lancho, an expert in underwater heritage, said: “If Spain, in this case, renounces its sovereign immunity, there will be no state or treasure-hunting company that does not invoke this precedent.”
Mr Lancho has filed a request to Spain and UNESCO on behalf of three South American indigenous communities, asking them to declare the San Jose “common and shared heritage” from which they too should benefit.
The Killakas, Carangas and Chichas peoples estimate that their ancestors, often working in slave-like conditions, extracted the metals that make up around half of the ship’s cargo from mines in what is now Bolivia, then under Spanish control, which were then transported north to Cartagena.
“Our native communities consider any act of intervention and unilateral appropriation of the galleon, without consulting us directly and without expressly and effectively considering its common and shared character, to be an act of plunder and neo-colonialism,” the indigenous communities said in the letters sent to UNESCO and Spain last year.
Full image credits: Daniela Vargas Ariza, Antonio Jaramillo Arango, Jesus Alberto Aldana Mendoza, Carlos Del Cairo Hurtado, Juan David Sarmiento Rodriguez and ARC-DIMAR 2022
