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The remains of a Portuguese ship that disappeared on its way to India laden with gold and other treasure about 500 years ago have been found in Namibia’s desert coastline.
Workers at Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint operation between DeBeers and the government of Namibia, were the ones to find the vessel in 2008, known as Bom Jesus (“Good Jesus”), Gainesville News reports.
About 2,000 gold coins were found. (Image courtesy of Dieter Noli)
Since the miners did not know what they had hit when they discovered pieces of metal, wood and pipes, they called in archaeologist Dieter Noli. But not even he knew at the time how big that find would be.
Fast-forward eight years and the team led by Noli is now able to say that the thousands of mint condition, pure gold coins from Spain and Portugal found on the site, indicate the ship found was the one that disappeared in 1533.
Rosary beads and a silver Portuguese coin. (Image courtesy of Dieter Noli)
Amid the wreckage the team also found about 44,000 pounds of copper ingots, which archaeologists believe allowed the ship remain relatively intact all these years.
The diamond mine’s security now protects the remains of the shipwreck. Timber, muskets, cannonballs and swords are kept damp, as they have been since the sixteenth century. By keeping its location secretive, most of the find remains out of the public eye.
The situation may soon change, as there are plans to build a museum featuring the shipwreck, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
12 Comments
Bob Sounder
An wonderful find. Some people don’t believe a ship can be in a desert. What they fall to understand is some of these deserts hundreds of years ago were rivers.
Madbull
How much is all that gold worth? And the copper? Who keeps the bounty? Cecilia what do your contacts say about some possible locations? Are the guards around the wreckage armed?
Altaf
Oh! No problem at all. The guards are in fact waiting to hand over all the gold and copper to some one like you so that they dont have to guard anything and they can go home. Location ? Once again no problem at all. Once you land there, you can ask any local for directions for a “lost ship with lots of gold and copper”. The locals are kind enough to take you there. All you need is buy an air ticket, take lots and lots of bags (to fill the gold and copper”. Oh! forgot to mention, there are motels near the ship site and all along the road so that you wont feel the strain of travel. Go ahead, all the best.
Leon
Haha, ja you know the ship in the middle of the spergebied, which is diamond area, you wouldn’t even be able to get a 100km from it before they pick you up… If i were you, id forget about the gold and sniff out some diamonds if i had to go in there.
Altaf
Just for arguments sake 🙂
Every one agrees that the ship was bringing gold and copper to India.
So India has a better claim on the gold :))
In fact we want to levy an interest for late hand over of the gold to us. 500 years delay? Highly unacceptable. We need more compensation :)))
Vern Johnson
WOW!
klgmac
Gosh, the climate must have changed since the 1500’s eh?
bruce wayne
There was a so called “mini ice age” from the 16th to the 19th Century. Oddly, one of the theories behind what caused it was the sudden decline in world population from the plague. The plague wiped out a third of the population, and many more in Asia. 50% of the population of China died during the Black Death. The sudden decline in population allowed reforestation and has been directly linked to lower CO2 levels in the Antarctic ice pack. Aside from that, had you bothered to do any research, you would have found that the Skeleton Coast has been extending further and further into the ocean as the desert sands are continuously blown and deposited. The wreck of the Eduard Bohlen is over a quarter mile from the sea, and it wrecked in 1909. Basically what I am saying, is you are uneducated and parrot whatever Fox News tells you. Eh?
klgmac
so the desertification has been going on for centuries? And how about this?
“The sudden decline in population allowed reforestation and has been directly linked to lower CO2 levels in the Antarctic ice pack. ”
So reforestation will lead to lower CO2 levels? That’s good news right?
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36130346
klgmac
“Basically what I am saying, is you are uneducated and parrot whatever Fox News tells you. Eh?”
I can tell you are a genius. Can you tell me the scientific name of the climate model that 97% of “climate scientists” allegedly agree on? There couldn’t be that much “consensus” unless there was a working model. What’s the name? I want to Google it. LOL.
klgmac
Hey Mr Super Genius. What is the scientific name of the climate model that correctly models the earth’s climate? There isn’t one, is there? Nope. I’ll bet you get your science news from the NYT? Or is it NBC?
klj
What I read was that because of the cold, people moved their animals closer, living very closely (in houses) for warmth. Consequently the fleas carrying the plague came in contact with people who were weakened by lack of food (crops dying w/ unseasonal cold). I didn’t know about China! I do know there was a year in New England known as the Year Without Summer, 1816 … the ‘mini ice age’ had not left yet.