26 May 2016: OK - in the last post we promised - well, perhaps that's too strong a word - may I say, suggested? - that we would not do any more underwater archeology for a while....... so, what is this? Well, friends, and loyal readers, this one in NOT underwater; in fact, it's anything but. This shipwreck is in the middle of the desert in Africa and is so amazing, I felt you would allow me one more shipwreck post.... for now!
Anyway, here you are, courtesy of CNN. Enjoy it!
The
long-ago mystery of a missing Portuguese ship laden with gold has been solved,
with the discovery of 500-year-old coins and pieces of The Bom Jesus buried in
the desert coastline of Namibia according to reports on Monday (23 May).
It's
the oldest shipwreck
ever found in sub-Saharan Africa. The first hints of the discovery were found
in 2008 by miners bulldozing for diamonds in the sands of the Namib Desert.
Instead
they found pieces of wood and metal that pricked the curiosity of Dieter Noli,
chief archaeologist of the Southern Africa Institute of Maritime Archaeology,
who was certain they had stumbled upon evidence of a shipwreck.
A
massive treasure chest of 2,000 mint-condition gold coins were eventually
unearthed and dated from 1525 to 1538 and helped to identify the exact name of
the ship that they had discovered.
Because
of the dates and the coins' perfect condition, the ship had to have set sail at
the time dated on the currency. The money, and the other artifacts, fit the
profile of The Bom Jesus, which set sail for India in 1533 before vanishing.
The 16th century book, Memorias Das Armadas, lists the ship as lost, notes the Gainesville News.
Noli
believes the coins were protected because of the nature of the shipwreck. The
Bom Jeus likely broke upon rocks lining the coast of Namibia, before tilting
and sinking to the bottom upended , with a broken piece of the ship's side
thought to have protected the treasure chest when it hit the sea bed.
"We
figured out the ship came in, it hit a rock and it leaned over," Noli told
CNN.
"The superstructure started breaking up. The chest with the coins was in
the captain's cabin, and it broke free and fell to the bottom of the sea
intact. In breaking up, a very heavy part of the side of the ship fell on that
chest and bent some of the coins. You can see the force by which the chest was
hit, but it also protected the chest."
Though
the treacherous seas and burial by sand broke up the ship into bits, more than
5,000 artifacts of archaeological significance were recovered, including bronze
bowls, pewter tableware, a musket, long metal poles later found to be canons,
compasses, swords, astrological tools and even a time capsule. Five anchors,
copper ingots and more than 50 elephant tusks were also were uncovered.
Have a look at this video of the site and the wreck found therein, under the desert sands. Click the link below:
Miners
have been mining diamonds from a vast area of the Namib Desert called
the Sperrgebiet (or "forbidden territory" in the language of the
German prospectors who first ventured there) for more than a century. Due to the extreme security of the area (it IS a diamond mine, after all!) very few people have ever seen these amazing 16th century artifacts from the Bom Jesus.
Diamond
company DeBeers and the Namibian
government still run a joint operation in the area, where a drive
for diamonds has now discovered an archaeological breakthrough, with security
already in place for the diamond mining operation now protecting the remains of
the shipwreck.
So don't book a plane reservation to go see it; even experts have been denied!
But you saw it here on Maritime Maunder, and we hope you enjoyed it. And ok, no more shipwrecks - for a while!
Until next time,
Fair Winds,
Old Salt
