The Spanish vessel was discovered in 2015, but it was only this week that the first high-quality images of its remains and the ancient objects it hid inside were released. The underwater exploration was carried out by the Colombian Amada with state-of-the-art technological equipment.
This week, the Colombian government released new images of the remains of the Galleon San Josean old Spanish boat that hid inside valuable treasures from the colonial era. The ship has been sunk since 1708 in front of the coast of Cartagena de Indias.
According to the newspaper The nationthe records were obtained by the Colombian Navy and revealed numerous objects that remain in the depths of the caribbean seaamong which stand out gold bullion, cannons dating from 1665 and a chinese tableware in perfect state. In addition, hundreds of coins, swords, suitcases and ancient vessels were identified.
Also, in the recordings you can see the great variety of marine flora and fauna that coexists with the remains of the old wooden fleet, such as fish of different colors, corals, crabs, seaweed and other species.
Through a public statement, the president of Colombia, Ivan Dukecommented that these findings were possible thanks to modern equipment that allowed every corner of the ship, located at a depth of one thousand meters, to be meticulously explored.
We want to share that, thanks to the technological equipment and the work of the @ArmadaColombiawe were able to reach a level of precision, never seen before, of the San José Galleon, keeping this world heritage site intact and protecting it for later extraction. pic.twitter.com/wSfjaLWvCP
— Ivan Duke (@IvanDuque) June 6, 2022
“We made acquisitions of equipment to reach the depths of the sea and obtain the best images that allow us to protect the integrity of the treasure and carry out permanent monitoring so that everything is preserved and protected until the extraction can be carried out,” declared the president.
It also confirmed that two other similar vessels were found in the same area where the San José galleon is located. “We have a history of about a dozen similar vessels that will be located by our National Navy,” said Duque.
History of the galleon San José
This Spanish ship reached Cartagena in 1706, where it remained for two years. In 1708, she set sail for Panama, but the ship was sunk by English ships.
In 2015, his remains were located by personnel from the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (Icanh) and the Colombian navy.