Explorers have discovered a nearly three-mile-long trail in Bahamian waters filled with the remains of a sunken treasure ship filled with incredible cultural finds.
Experts believed it was a 17th-century Spanish galleon (commonly known as a galleon). Nuestra Senora de las Maravillas (meaning “Our Lady of Wonders”) — “Saved into oblivion,” said editor-in-chief Sean Kingsley. shipwreck talked about in a magazine newsweek.
But four years of underwater archeology conducted by Allen Exploration (AllenX) have painstakingly mapped the 891-ton galleon’s scattered wreckage. The team identified various parts of the ship and thousands of artifacts, including silver ingots, emeralds, and amethysts.
This research ocean dispatch The report also revealed where the finds originally came from on the ship and how the galleon was disassembled.
of Maravilas Around midnight on January 4, 1656, the ship sank in the northern Bahamas while on its way back to Cadiz in southwestern Spain, with approximately 650 people on board, killing most of them. The galleon was rammed by the flagship, collided with a reef, and was severely damaged. At the time, the ship was carrying treasure, including a large amount of contraband and items recovered from another galleon lost off the coast of Ecuador two years earlier.
“This ship was one of the richest treasure ships ever sunk at sea,” said report author Kingsley. “In 1656, Spain’s Golden Age was in rapid decline. The courtiers and officials flocking to the court of Philip IV in Madrid were accused of being lazy, wasteful, and corrupt. His palace It was said to be the most evil thing in history. Trade with India was at its peak.” Unregistered treasure paralyzes the king.
“Smuggled goods from the bottomless Americas” MaravilasStowing it under the floorboards or stuffing it under the bed shows how right the 17th century writers were to worry,” Kingsley added. One chronicler said, “The king’s treasury is like an owl from which every little bird plucks its feathers.” AllenX’s unregistered Mexican coins, unmarked silver ingots, and chunks of Colombian emeralds and amethysts epitomize the get-rich-quick schemes of this era. ”
In the years after the galleon sank, it was largely stripped by various expeditions led by Spanish salvors and later by crews from European countries and the Americas. This shipwreck was fished for treasure at least 21 times between 1656 and 1683, during which approximately 5 million pesos worth of silver bars, coins, and processed silver were recovered. I did.
Then, between 1972 and 1991, modern salvage teams rediscovered the wreck and recovered an estimated 30 tons of gold bars, coins, silver bullion, jewelry, emeralds, iron anchors, and cannons.
“Many experts believe this story. Maravilas Gone are the days when salvage of the past left old ships parched. “Nothing survived,” Carl Allen, founder of Allen Explorations and American entrepreneur, philanthropist and explorer, said in a press release, adding, “Although Allen , now we have proven that not all shipwrecks are gone.”
Surveys carried out by Allen Ta.
“The 8,800 magnetometer targets are strange anomalies designated for examination,” Kingsley said, noting that many of them turned out to be cultural remains.
“A magnetometer ‘fish’ is being towed behind the research vessel and reads both the magnetic levels of the ocean floor and what lies above it with a different magnetic profile. The technology suggests that those ‘spikes’ are debris and , to decide if it’s worth the dive.Dan Porter and his offshore team have spotted these spikes in Florida, the Caribbean, and throughout Latin America as if they were visible to the naked eye, like an X-ray. “We have decades of experience observing them. To most people, they would look like meaningless dirt,” Kingsley said.
After identifying potential targets of interest, divers explored them and recorded a vast field of artifacts extending more than three miles southeast of where the galleon originally sank.
Hidden under waves and sand, the team discovered several parts of the ship, including ballast stone, iron fittings, and two iron swivel guns. They also recorded artillery shells, rifles, more than 800 lead musket balls, about 11,000 olive jar fragments, about 3,000 silver coins, and other items such as emeralds and amethysts. All finds have been carefully mapped.
“At first glance, you might think that hurricanes and storms have destroyed this world for centuries. Maravilas. But archeology has forced us to rethink that theory,” Dan Porter, the project’s offshore manager who oversaw the mapping, said in a press release.
“If galleon after galleon were torn apart by hurricane after hurricane, the wreckage would be scattered around all four points on the compass. That’s not reality. Those wreckage would primarily be in one corner running south-east. We are concentrating on the remains where the remains are scattered,” Porter said.
The debris field also contained some “unique” items. These include gold chains made in Manila, Philippines, and gold and jewel pendants made for the Knights of Santiago, a Christian military religious order founded in Spain in the 12th century. Masu. It is likely that such items were in the possession of high-ranking officials on board.
“If these valuable items were still buried in the main shipwreck, that’s for sure. Maravilas “If they had been salvaged in 1656, they would have been raised,” Jim Sinclair, the project’s lead archaeologist, said in a press release, adding, “This suggests that the treasures discovered by Allen “It just means that it was scattered over the five months before it was discovered.” Salvage work began in June 1656. ”
AllenX believes that a storm may have created the debris trail between January and June 1656. The team also developed a model that links sunken artifacts to their original locations on the ocean floor. Maravilas 367 years ago.
“How can proxy evidence be Maravilas “After the ship sank, we quickly left a strong storm,” Kingsley said. newsweek. “Old galleons had little respect in the hands of salvors from 1656 until her 1990s. The Allen Maravilas Claim your rightful place in history. ”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, finding common ground and finding connections.