After a two-year mission to excavate the remains of a 350-year-old Spanish galley that sank in 1656, a sunken treasure will go on display at the Maritime Museum of the Bahamas this month. In fact, the museum opened in part because of these discoveries. The findings are thanks to wreck expert Carl Allen, of Allen Explorations, and archaeologists and divers from the Bahamas and the US who are trying to solve the mystery of how this luxury ship met its end.
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Story continues below ad Gold chains, jewel-encrusted lockets, a silver sword and precious stones, coins and ingots were among the artifacts salvaged from a watery grave on the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Miracles). Following a hidden debris trail 13 kilometers long, researchers believe they have located the ship’s lost stern castle, where these latest finds were recovered. Among the notable items were a 1.76m gold chain with rosette motifs and a set of lockets belonging to a religious order of knights founded in the 12th century known as the Order of Santiago. A 1.76m gold chain has been recovered from a 350-year-old shipwreck off the coast of the Bahamas. Bahamas Maritime Museum A gold scallop-shaped locket bears the Cross of Santiago (or St. James) on an Indian bezoar stone, which was believed to have healing properties in Europe at the time. Another knightly locket features a large Colombian emerald with twelve smaller emeralds surrounding it. Story continues below ad This necklace was also adorned with the Cross of Santiago and experts believe that the 12 emeralds represent the 12 apostles of Christ. “When we picked up the oval emerald and gold locket, my breath caught in my throat,” Allen told CNN, adding: “How these tiny lockets survived in these rough waters and how we managed to find them is a miracle of Maravillas.” Two medallions from the Order of Santiago were found in the wreckage of the Maravillas off the coast of the Bahamas. Bahamas Maritime Museum Everyday objects such as stone ballast, iron clasps, rigging pins, olive jars and Chinese and Mexican dishes were also found on the ocean floor, along with a soldier’s silver handle and a pearl ring believed to be a personal item of one of the sailors. Trending Stories
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The presence of mined emeralds and amethysts from Colombia, found in the wreckage, suggests that the ship’s crew was involved in smuggling, as no mention of jewelry was found in the ship’s manifest. Story continues below ad An olive jar and roughly cut emeralds and amethysts mined in Colombia were found in the Maravillas wreck. Bahamas Maritime Museum Maravillas means wonders and miracles in Spanish, but the gruesome ending of Maravillas was anything but. The ship was the victim of a collision that occurred near midnight on January 4, 1656, according to the Bahamas Maritime Museum. A navigational error caused the flagship of her fleet to ram into Maravillas, where she then crashed violently on a coral reef. The ship sank like a stone about 70 kilometers off the coast of Little Bahama Bank. He was burdened with a double cargo of treasure: his own delivery of silver, as well as silver the crew had salvaged from the wreck of the Jesús María de la Limpia Concepción, a Spanish galleon sunk two years before.
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Story continues below ad The 650 sailors aboard the ship clung to pieces of debris overnight in icy waters. By morning, only 45 people had survived, the others having been eaten by sharks or succumbing to exposure. Much of the silver on board was to be paid as tribute to King Philip IV of Spain, so over the next two decades after the wreck, the Spanish monarchy commissioned 10 salvage operations to collect the wreck of the Maravillas. They recovered all 36 of the ship’s bronze cannons as well as 2.9 million in silver. The wreck was rediscovered in modern times in 1972 by Robert Marx, a treasure hunter who found thousands of coins and silver bars where they had lain on the sea floor for centuries. By the 1990s, 3.9 million artifacts had been recovered. These were hardly scientific enterprises, with treasure hunters often using smash and grab tactics before selling their finds to the highest bidder. Divers exploring the Maravillas wreck. Bahamas Maritime Museum But Allen Explorations used sonar, seabed geology, current patterns and 8,800 magnetometers (instruments that measure magnetic fields) to find what’s left of the wreck. Although the company shares ownership of the treasure with the Bahamian government, it is committed to keeping the collection together and open to the public. Story continues below ad So committed, in fact, that they sponsored the opening of the Bahamas Maritime Museum, which will open to visitors for the first time on August 8. Its first exhibits will examine the history of Lucayan free divers, the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade and, of course, the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas. 2:14 Centuries-old shipwrecks, hoard of gold coins discovered off Colombia Previous Video Next Video © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
