Colombia unearths 18th-century ship sinking with artifacts worth billions of dollars

The Colombian government has announced an expedition to recover priceless artifacts from the wreck of the legendary Galleon San Jose, which sank in 1708

Colombia’s Ministry of Culture announced last Friday that it has launched an expedition to recover “priceless artifacts” from the legendary San Jose Galleon, sunk in 1708 by the British navy near Cartagena while loaded with gold, silver and emeralds estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

Seven years after discovering the wreck off the coast of Colombia, an underwater robot will be sent to recover part of the prize, Culture Minister Juan David Correa told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The operation will cost more than $4.5 million and the robot will work at a depth of 600 meters to extract pieces such as ceramics, pieces of wood and shells “without altering or damaging the wreckage,” Correa told AFP aboard a large navy ship.

The expedition’s location is being kept secret to protect the ship, considered one of history’s most significant archaeological finds, from malicious treasure hunters.

Only a handful of the 600-strong crew of the sunken ship, some 950 meters (3,100 feet) deep off Colombia’s Caribbean coast, survived.

Treasure hunters long sought it before its discovery in 2015.

Experts believed it contains at least 200 tons of gold, silver and emeralds.

While Spain insists the prize belongs to them because it was on a Spanish ship, Bolivia’s Qhara Qhara said the Spanish should get the treasures because they forced the community’s people to extract the precious metals.

When the wreck was discovered, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos hailed it as “the most valuable treasure ever found in world history.”

Source: Newsroom

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