350-year-old Spanish shipwreck treasures recovered

Stories of buried treasure and ancient shipwrecks have captivated for centuries, from pirate tales to Hollywood blockbusters. For a team of explorers, however, the legend came true when they discovered a treasure trove of artifacts from a 350-year-old sunken Spanish galleon – including priceless coins, gems and jewels that once belonged to sea knights.

The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (or Our Lady of Wonders) sank in 1656 after colliding with another boat in her fleet and crashing into a coral reef in the Bahamas. The ship carried treasure, part of which was reserved as a royal tax for King Philip IV of Cuba to Seville, Spain. The 891-ton ship contained more cargo than usual as she had also been tasked with transporting treasure recovered from another ship she had sunk two years earlier.

There have already been several successful attempts to recover the ship’s cargo, with nearly 3.5 million items recovered between 1650 and 1990, according to wreck expert Allen Exploration, who undertook a two-year expedition starting in 2020.

But the latest finds, which will be on display this month at the new Maritime Museum of the Bahamas, offer a new look at life aboard the ship. Working with local divers, archaeologists and other experts, the researchers are also in the process of “rebuilding the mystery of how the ship sank and came apart,” project marine archaeologist James Sinclair said in a press release.

Using remote sensing technology such as sonar and magnetometers, Allen Exploration tracked “a long, winding trail of debris” scattered over an 13-kilometer stretch of ocean floor, founder Carl Allen added in a statement.

Among the finds was a 1.76 meter long gold filigree chain and several jeweled pendants that belonged to knights of the Order of Santiago, a centuries-old religious and military order.

One of the gold pendants features a large oval Colombian emerald and a dozen smaller emeralds, which experts believe may represent the 12 apostles, alongside the Cross of Saint James. Three other knight pendants were also discovered, including one shaped like a golden scallop shell.

“When we brought in the emerald and gold oval pendant, my breath caught in my throat,” Allen said, adding, “How these tiny pendants survived in these rough waters and how we managed to find them. It is the miracle of the Maravillas.”

Other recovered artifacts showed some of everyday life on the Maravillas, which sailed during the “Golden Age of Spain”, including Chinese porcelain and olive jars, as well as a silver sword hilt. Some of the galleon’s valuable contents may also have been contraband, for the purpose of “illegally oiling the hands of Spanish traders and officials,” Allen said.

The items discovered by Allen’s team will be housed permanently at the Maritime Museum of the Bahamas, which opens Aug. 8 in the Caribbean nation’s second-largest city, Freeport.

And Sinclair believes there may still be more discoveries to be made.

“The ship may have been destroyed by previous rescues and hurricanes… But we are convinced there are more stories out there,” he said.