At a depth of 950 meters and “with a precision never seen before”, the San José Galleon – known as the “Holy Grail of shipwrecks” – revealed intact dishes, gold ingots and coins and hundreds of other artifacts with an economic value. and archaeological invaluable for the history of Colombia.
Very close to it, and with similar characteristics, the expedition found two more boats that remained lost in the depths of the sea and that, after this discovery, could become the most important finds of the time, as President Iván described them Duke.
According to preliminary analysis, both date back hundreds of years and belong to the colonial and republican eras. Although it has not yet been investigated what the new boats contain and their history before the shipwreck, experts say that it is likely that they are also loaded with gold and pieces of the time, since it was common to find boats loaded with these materials at the time of the shipwreck. the story in which they were shipwrecked.
6 years looking at the Galleon
The San José Galleon was built by an important Spanish family and arrived in Cartagena de Indias in 1706. Two years later it left loaded with gold and merchandise and was shipwrecked on the Barú peninsula after attacks by English ships in the well-known Battle of Barú. From that moment, the ship remained in the depths of the Caribbean Sea until the end of 2015, when it was discovered by researchers from the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History and the National Navy.
But the difficulty of diving into the terrain and the depth of the waters had only allowed multiple views from the surface; However, with a great exploration in 2018, it was confirmed that it was the Galleon and that inside there were gold and silver coins, vessels and various remains of what was the great ship.
For this reason, as explained by the commander of the Navy, Gabriel Pérez Garcés, this new exploration of 2022 found unpublished material with video images that measure the magnitude of that treasure.
The expedition
The investigation that allowed the experts to reach more than a kilometer deep took more than three years of work and included state-of-the-art programs and cameras acquired by the Colombian Government in order to explore said treasure.
After studying the terrain, the team set up a control center from where the images were evaluated and submerged the state-of-the-art equipment on several occasions.
In this way, the team managed to find “almost intact” crockery from the time; cannons made in Seville, Spain; unmarked gold bars; gold coins worth 8 reais of the time and all kinds of wood and metal remains that were part of the boat and the cargo with which it left Cartagena.
“With these technologies we were able to reach a level of precision never seen before. They captured thousands of images at a depth of more than 950 meters and we obtained information that will be crucial to protect the treasure and extract it. Then we will see it in museums around the world,” said President Duque minutes before announcing changes in the country’s Air Force command. (See: To know more). For now, the dispute between Spain and Colombia to define to whom these assets belong has been calm.
In dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO, the director of the National Agency for Legal Defense, Camilo Gómez, assured that there are currently no pending litigations for the Galleon and that said treasure “has always belonged to Colombia, and this is confirmed by the declaration of the Galleon San José as Cultural Patrimony of the Nation.
While the investigations continue, Colombia is evaluating how it will extract the remains of the Galleon and its innumerable riches. The difference is that now, as Duque said, there are another 13 points that will be subject to possible exploration to find new boats.