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Stunning underwater photos have brought researchers one step closer to confirming the placement of the ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’.
The San José, a Spanish ship, sunk in June 1708 after an attack by the British Royal Navy off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia.
At the very least 200 tonnes of gold, silver, gems, jewellery and other treasures collected in Spain’s South American colonies were being shipped to King Philip V to finance his war of succession against the British.
Spain and Britain were fighting the War of the Spanish Succession.
But the large hoard, considered price about £14.8billion ($20billion) in today’s money, went down with the ship and only 11 of its 600 sailors survived.
The Colombian navy claimed it found the San José wreck in 2015, but evidence of its identity was limited – but latest research published this week provides the strongest evidence yet that they’re correct.
The study, published within the Antiquity journal, includes pictures taken by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) examining the shipwreck which rests about 1,970ft below the surface.
The high-quality images, using advanced underwater imaging and high-resolution scans of the coins, revealed the date the coins were struck.
The coins, often called cobs in English and macuquinas in Spanish, feature the mark of Lima, Peru. Some are stamped with the royal symbols of Castile and León, the emblems of Spain’s empire.
Crucially they’re dated 1707, which is the 12 months the San José set sail.
Archaeologist Daniela Vargas Ariza, of Colombia’s Naval Cadet School and the National Institute of Anthropology and History, explained: Hand-struck, irregularly shaped coins served as the first currency within the Americas for greater than two centuries.
‘This body of evidence substantiates the identification of the wreck because the San José Galleon.
‘The finding of cobs created in 1707 on the Lima Mint points to a vessel navigating the Tierra Firme route within the early eighteenth century.
‘The San José galleon is the one ship that matches these characteristics.’
In 2023, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he would raise the wreckage before his time in office ends in 2026.
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