Megan G. Hills (CNN) experiences on the treasures of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, which sunk in 1656 off the Bahamas. The gadgets found on the shipwreck might be completely housed on the Bahamas Maritime Museum, which opens August 8 in Freeport, Bahamas.
Tales of buried treasure and historical shipwrecks have captivated for hundreds of years, from pirate tales to Hollywood blockbusters. For one crew of explorers, nevertheless, legend turned actuality after they uncovered a trove of artifacts from a 350-year-old sunken Spanish galleon — together with cash, gems and priceless jewels as soon as belonging to seafaring knights.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Woman of Wonders) sank in 1656 after it collided with one other boat from its fleet and crashed right into a coral reef off the Bahamas. The vessel was carrying a haul of treasure, a few of which was reserved as royal tax for King Philip IV, from Cuba to Seville, Spain. The 891-ton ship contained extra cargo than traditional, because it had additionally been tasked with transporting treasure retrieved from one other ship that had sunk two years earlier.
There have already been a number of profitable makes an attempt to retrieve the ship’s cargo, with virtually 3.5 million gadgets recovered between 1650s and Nineteen Nineties, in accordance with shipwreck specialist Allen Exploration, which carried out a two-year expedition from 2020.
However the newest discoveries, that are occurring show this month on the new Bahamas Maritime Museum, supply recent perception into life aboard the vessel. Working with native divers, archaeologists and different consultants, the researchers are additionally within the technique of “reconstructing the thriller of how the ship was wrecked and fell aside,” challenge marine archaeologist James Sinclair stated in a press launch.
Utilizing remote-sensing expertise, comparable to sonar and magnetometers, Allen Exploration tracked “an extended and winding particles path of finds” scattered over a 13-kilometer stretch of ocean ground, founder Carl Allen added in an announcement.
Among the many discoveries was a 1.76-meter-long gold filigree chain and several other bejeweled pendants that when belonged to knights of the Order of Santiago, a centuries-old non secular and army order. One of many gold pendants options a big oval Colombian emerald and a dozen smaller emeralds, which consultants consider might symbolize the 12 apostles, alongside the Cross of St. James. Three different knightly pendants had been additionally found, together with one formed to seem like a golden scallop shell.
“Once we introduced up the oval emerald and gold pendant, my breath caught in my throat,” Allen stated, including: “How these tiny pendants survived in these harsh waters, and the way we managed to seek out them, is the miracle of the Maravillas.”
Different recovered artifacts shine a light-weight on day by day life on the Maravillas, which sailed in the course of the “Spainish Golden Age,” [sic] together with Chinese language porcelain and olive jars, in addition to a silver sword deal with. A few of the galleon’s beneficial contents may have been contraband for the aim of “illegally greasing the palms of Spanish retailers and officers,” Allen stated
The gadgets found by Allen’s crew might be completely housed on the Bahamas Maritime Museum, which opens August 8 within the Caribbean nation’s second-largest metropolis, Freeport.
And Sinclair believes that there might but be extra discoveries to be made.
“The ship might have been obliterated by previous salvage and hurricanes … However we’re satisfied there are extra tales on the market,” he stated.
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