Colombia has found two shipwrecks near the legendary San Jose Galleon, sunk 300 years ago and believed to carry billions of dollars worth of current money.
President Ivan Duque said this week that the unreported shipwrecks correspond to the colonial and republican periods, according to a preliminary analysis.
“Even though this heritage is submerged … it has all the guarantees of protection from thousands of photographs that were taken at more than 950 meters deep,” Duque said as he showed images of the ships.
Some of the objects found by the Colombian navy near the wreck of the legendary galleon San José. (AP)
“Thanks to this, a reconstruction of the entire morphological map of the area where this shipwreck is located was carried out.”
Colombia strengthened its underwater exploration capabilities after the San José galleon was found in 2015, still unrecovered, which is presumed to contain treasures and has been the subject of a legal battle with other countries such as Spain for the rights of extraction.
The U.S. Maritime Exploration Company, which claimed to have found the shipwreck for the first time in 1981, estimated that in 2015 the value of its contents was $ 17 billion ($ 23 billion).
With a remote reconnaissance vehicle, the Colombian navy approached the shipwreck and found that “it had not been intervened” by humans.
“All the treasures and items found there are protected and will remain so,” said Admiral Gabriel Pérez Garcés, commander of the Navy.
Part of a canyon of one of the remains found under the Caribbean. (AP) An 18th-century painting depicting the sinking of the San José Galleon by British ships in 1708. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Colombian government was able to identify and photograph swords, Chinese crockery and cannons from the galleon. The latter is said to have been made in 1655 in the Spanish cities of Seville and Cádiz.
Some gold objects were also found, such as an ingot and macuquins (coins) of eight reales.
The Colombian navy has indications that there may be other shipwrecks in the area where the San José galleon is located.
“We will continue to work in the future to be able to explore more than 13 sites that could have more information and be the site of a specific shipwreck,” said Maritime Director-General José Amézquita García.
The San Jose was sunk in June 1708 near the Rosary Islands off the Caribbean coast of Colombia during a battle with British ships attempting to take their cargo, as part of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Colombian authorities have identified some gold objects, such as an ingot, from images of the sunken Spanish galleon. (AP)
The galleon was the main ship of a fleet of treasures carrying gold, silver, and other valuables from the American colonies of Spain to King Philip V.
These ancient human teeth have an unusual feature in common
Only a handful of the ship’s 600 crew survived when the San Jose sank.