The San José galleon, and its bounty, has been found
On May 28, 1708, the Spanish galleon San José left Portobelo, Panama for Cartagena, Colombia. She was one of three warships accompanying a fleet of merchant ships, with all the warships carrying sizable caches of gold and silver.
On June 8, 1708, just south of Cartagena, the Spanish fleet encountered a British squadron. A battle ensued, known as Wager’s Action, and two Spanish galleons sank, including the San José and its treasure estimated to be worth at least US$1 billion (RM4.3 billion) today.
On November 27, 2015, the wreck of San José was finally found, with the discovery made official by the President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos December 5.
The discovery marks the end to the search for the fabled galleon, considered the Holy Grail of shipwrecks, which began ever since it sank, all the way until the modern day. The romantic notion of diving for lost treasure has fascinated many over the centuries, including a group of wealthy American investors operating under the name Sea Search Armada who claimed to have found the site of the shipwreck in 1981. Disputes over ownership and rights to the bounty kept salvage operations in the courts for over thirty years, before the Colombian Navy located the wreck outright using an autonomous underwater vehicle. Bronze cannons engraved with the San José’s characteristic dolphins identified the lost ship once and for all.
The exact location of the San José is considered a state secret, and a museum will be built to house and display the artefacts. The exact contents of the San José is unknown, but it was definitively carrying a load of gold doubloons and silver coins mined from Potosí, Peru, along with jewellery, precious stones and church property, destined to finance the War of Spanish Succession in Europe.
Placing an exact value on the San José cargo is difficult, with most accounts settling on an inexact sum of ‘at least US$1 billion’. Jack Harbeston, managing director of Sea Search Armada, attempted a more detailed analysis, pegging its value in 1708 as exceeding the Spanish Empire’s GDP of the time, though warning that its worth was dependent on the fluctuating price of silver and gold. Even then, he settles on a figure of US$2 billion (RM8.6 billion), with a fantastical upper limit of US$50 billion.
Though the search for the San José is now over, there is still treasure out there. Innumerable wrecks, carrying precious bounties of gold and gems, still lie at the bottom of the sea, occasionally washing ashore like in Treasure Coast, Florida. Of the shipwrecks that remain, the most intriguing would be the Flor de la Mer, a Portuguese nau lost at sea in 1511 during a storm in the Straits of Malacca. It was carrying a treasure trove meant to impress the Portuguese King Manuel I of his empire’s riches in the East. The cargo’s estimated value? US$2.6 billion (RM11.2 billion).
Other lost ships holding potential fortunes include the Merchant Royal, off the coast of Cornwall, England (US$500 million, RM2.15 billion) and the legendary Spanish 1715 Treasure Fleet, 11 ships filled to the brim with the treasures of the New World heading home that were caught in a storm off Cuba and sank; seven ships have been located but four still remain, holding the majority of a cargo valued at US$2 billion (RM8.6 billion).
As long as these (and other ships) remain, the search will go on. Estimates suggest that there are over a million shipwrecks in the world, with a fortune of over US$60 billion (RM258 billion) at the bottom of the ocean. Recovering it will never be easy, but there are those who keep trying, lured by adventurous dreams and thrill-seeking adrenaline. These range from the NASDAQ-listed Odyssey Marine Exploration, currently engaging in multiple shipwreck projects across the world, and Global Marine Exploration, to smaller boutique outfits like Mel Fisher’s , founded in Key West, Florida by the man who discovered the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and her bounty of US$450 million (RM1.93 billion). Happy hunting, guys. The treasure is out there and down there, waiting to be found.
