Exploration Team Finds Treasure From An Ancient Spanish Ship That Sinked 350 Years Ago: From Coins To Gems

Items that the explorer team managed to capture from the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas. (Source: The Bahamas Maritime Museum via CNN)

JAKARTA - For this team of explorers, legend becomes a reality when they discover a treasure trove of artifacts from a sunken 350-year-old Spanish galleon, including coins, gemstones, and priceless gems once owned by seafaring knights, much like the story of the discovery of ships. ancient.

The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Lady of Wonders) sank in 1656 after colliding with another ship from her fleet and crashing into a reef off the coast of the Bahamas.

The ship carried treasure, some of which was reserved as a royal tax for King Philip IV, from Cuba to Seville, Spain. The 891-ton ship was carrying more cargo than usual, having also been tasked with transporting treasure retrieved from another ship that sank two years earlier.

There have been several successful attempts to retrieve the ship's cargo, with nearly 3.5 million items recovered between the 1650s and the 1990s, according to shipwreck specialist Allen Exploration, which carried out the two-year expedition from 2020.

But the latest find, which will be on display this month at the new Maritime Museum of the Bahamas, offers new insights into life on board. Working with local divers, archaeologists and other experts, the researchers are also in the process of "reconstructing the mystery of how the ship was destroyed and sunk," marine project archaeologist James Sinclair said in a press release.

Items that the explorer team managed to capture from the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas. (Source: The Bahamas Maritime Museum via CNN)

Using remote sensing technology, such as sonar and magnetometer, Allen Exploration tracked a long, winding debris trail scattered across a 13-kilometer stretch of the ocean floor, founder Carl Allen added in a statement.

Among the finds were a 1.76-meter-long gold filigree chain and several bejeweled pendants that once belonged to the knights of the Order of Santiago, a centuries-old religious and military order.

One of the gold pendants features a large oval Colombian emerald and a dozen smaller emeralds, which experts believe may represent the 12 apostles, in addition to the St. Cross. James. Three other knight pendants were also found, including one shaped like a golden clam shell.

"When we brought the oval emerald and gold pendant my breath hitched," Allen said, adding: "How this little pendant survived these harsh waters, and how we managed to find it, is the magic of Maravillas."

Other artifacts found illuminating everyday life on the Maravillas, which sailed during the "Spanish Golden Age", include Chinese porcelain and olive jars, as well as silver sword hilts.

Some of the valuable items from the galleons may also have been smuggled in for the purpose of "illegally lubricating the palms of Spanish merchants and officials," Allen said.

The items found by Allen's team will be permanently housed in the Maritime Museum of the Bahamas, which opens August 8 in the Caribbean nation's second-largest city, Freeport.

And Sinclair believes that there may still be more discoveries to be made.

"The ship may have been obliterated by rescues and storms in the past. But we believe there is more to the story out there."