2016-02-17 Wed

Some say that this considered to be is greatest discovery of underwater heritage in history. On 5th December, President Santos announced that Colombian archaeologists had located the wreck of the long-sought San José, a ship that the British sank in 1708 amid the heat of the War of Spanish Succession.

The ship was loaded with treasures of silver, gold and possibly emeralds that would be worth at least $1 billion today, Santos said.

According to Daniel Frank Sedwick, president of the coin firm of the same name, “It’s all speculation at this point and will probably take years before we really know anything. We don’t even really know for sure it is the San José, which really would be among the most important Spanish wrecks of all time, filled with gold and silver cobs and ingots from Peru and Colombia.”

The San José was the lead ship of the only significant Spanish fleet able to sail to the New World that year which carried an inordinate amount of treasure because the war had interfered with shipments of riches between the New World and the old. It was a prime target for the English, who engaged the ship, which was thought to have exploded and sank. The ship went down in 800 feet of water off the island of Baru near Cartagena. The wreck site was reportedly discovered on 27th November in Colombian Caribbean waters.