The Best Guide

Seeking sunken treasure

It would take over 400 years to excavate all of the wrecked ships currently unclaimed on the oceans floors. But just think of all the treasure you might find.

Seeking sunken treasure. Flor de la Mar – Sumatra, Malaysia: Among the richest shipwrecks never recovered, the 16th Century Portuguese vessel, Flor De La Mar was lost around 1511 in a storm off the northern coast of Sumatra.

Frol de la mar or Flor de la Mar (Flower of the Sea) was a Portuguese nau (carrack) of 400 tons, which over nine years participated in decisive events in the Indian Ocean until her sinking in 1512. There traveled Afonso de Albuquerque returning from the conquest of Malacca, with a huge booty and treasure to the Portuguese king, lost off the coast of Sumatra, making it one of the mythical lost treasures. Containing the stolen treasures of the Melaka kingdom in modern day Malaysia, the Flor de la Mar’s cargo, including 60 tons of gold remains undiscovered despite lying in some of the best diving waters of the world.

Merchant Royal – Dartmouth, UK: Britain’s largest unrecovered treasure haul lies just 21 miles (34 km) from Land’s End in Cornwall.

The most valuable shipwreck of all-time was the Merchant Royal shipwreck of 1641, which sank about 40 miles off the coast of Cornwall. The ship was carrying at least 100,000 pounds of gold (about $1 billion), 400 bars of Mexican silver (about $1 million), and about 500,000 coins when it began taking on water and eventually sank due to rough weather. It is believed that this shipwreck was recently discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. of Tampa, Florida. The Merchant Royal, returning to England with a cargo of Spanish treasure sank in bad weather on 23 September 1641, containing 500 bars of gold, silver and precious stones. Bring a dry suit and a torch.

San Jose – Baru Peninsula, Colombia: In 1708, during the War of Spanish Succession, English Commodore, Charles Wagner captured and sank Spanish treasure ship,

The Spanish galleon San Jose was trying to outrun a fleet of British warships off Colombia on June 8, 1708, when a mysterious explosion sent it to the bottom of the sea with gold, silver and emeralds owned by private Peruvian and European merchants, and lies about 700 feet below the water’s surface, a few miles from the historic Caribbean port of Cartagena, on the edge of the Continental Shelf. The San Jose in less than 1000 feet (305 metres) of crystal blue water, between the Isla del Tesoro (known as treasure island) and Baru Peninsula. The San Jose’s cargo is estimated today at a value of more than $1 billion.

Nuestra Senora de Atocha – Key West, Florida, USA: In 1985, Florida treasure hunter Mel Fischer hit the mother lode when, after 16 years of dedicated hunting, he located the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha about 35 miles (56 km) off the coast of Key West, Florida.

The Atocha was found in 55 feet of water, right where the original salvage seekers centuries earlier had said it would be. Carrying a haul that included over 40 tonnes of silver and gold, 100,000 Spanish coins and Columbian emeralds, Fischer’s family now run diving holidays around the Atocha where artefacts continue to be uncovered.

HMS Victory – English Channel, UK: In 2009 US company Odyssey Marine Exploration announced that it had discovered the predecessor of Lord Nelson’s Victory, sunk in 1744, on a group of rocks known as The Casquets near to the Channel Islands.

The HMS Victory was returning from Lisbon, Portugal, and was probably transporting 100,000 gold Portuguese coins for merchants. The ship had sailed there to help rescue a Mediterranean convoy blockaded by the French in the River Tagus at Lisbon. Thought to contain 100,000 gold coins, a legal row continues as to ownership of the haul.

Notre Dame de la Deliverance – Key West, Florida, USA: In November 1755 Spanish Galleon Notre Dame de la Deliverance left Havana with treasures collected from mines in Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

An incomplete manifest of the Deliverance cargo that was on board at the time of sinking declares those riches to include 17 chests packed with nearly 1,200 pounds of gold bullion, 15,000 gold doubloons, six chests of gems, and more than a million silver pieces. That doesn't count contraband or any valuable belongings of passengers. A day later the ship was caught in a hurricane and sank with almost all hands, 40 miles from Florida’s Key West. Containing an estimated $2 billion in lost gold and silver, the site of the Deliverance was allegedly discovered in 2003 but has yet to be raised.

Hoi An Junk – Da Nang Peninsula, Vietnam: During the 1990s a junk was discovered which sank in over 260 feet (79 metres) of water, 14 miles (22.5 km) from the Da Nang peninsula in Vietnam.

A Thai vessel, carrying the cargo, sank in the 15th century near the port of Hoi An. In the early 1990s,fishermen trawling for squid and red snapper stumbled upon the wreck. Many pieces were sold in the Vietnamese antique market before the Vietnamese government stepped in and engaged a Malaysian salvage company to recover the remaining items during the summers of 1998 – 1999. Appearing to be of Thai origin, its spectacular cargo of blue and white and polychrome ceramics, painted with human figures, landscapes, fish, birds, and mythological animals, dates to Vietnam’s Golden Age of the mid-15th century.

Source: Sabotage Times [December 22, 2010]