Unique Site

There is one more theory. Noli explained, “Marine organisms may like wood, leather book covers, peach pips, jute sacking and leather shoes, but copper really puts them off their food – so a lot of stuff survived the 500 years on the bottom of the sea which should really not have done so.” “All this adds up to an extremely unusual situation, which led to truly excellent preservation of an in any event unique site.”

A Haul Of Treasure

Bruno Werz, the marine archaeologist was greatly relieved when he found that the chest’s haul of gold, ivory and the tin were safe and right in their place. Well, we should not forget that it happened due to the copper ingots worth 44,000 pounds. “If it hadn’t been for those copper ingots weighing everything down, there would be nothing left here to find.”

Crew?

So that was about the treasure found on the ship but what happened to the crew? There are few details about that too. It is believed that the “ship was captained by a Dom Francisco de Noronha, and carried around 300 sailors, soldiers, merchants, priests, nobles, and slaves.” However, “the only human remains recovered from the wreck are several toe bones in a shoe found pinned beneath a mass of timbers.”

Bartolomeu Dias

The company assumes that the remains of human and jewelry associated with the royalty give way to the possibility that it was the caravel of the Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias. It disappeared off the Cape of Good Hope in 1500.

Heavy Storms!

The seas are full of heavy storms. For obvious reasons, the chest that stayed ticked beneath the sea must have faced many devastating storms. Not only that, the crashing waves had the potential of sweeping away the shipwreck.  

A Precious Opportunity

The head of nautical archaeology (under the Ministry of Culture) and the doyen of Portuguese maritime archaeologists Francisco Alves called the discovery a precious opportunity to find out more about that great old vessel.