Treasure has now been recovered from a Spanish ship that sank off the coast of the Bahamas in 1656.
The ill-fated ship was at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in less than 30 minutes and only 45 of the 650 crew survived.
Among the treasures recovered from the ship were silver and gold coins, emeralds and sapphires, a gold chain 1.8 meters long and 34Includes silver bars weighing kg.
When was the ship actually wrecked and sunk in the sea? We know very little about this in history. However, Spanish, English, French, Dutch, American and Bahamian missions recovered many pieces of the ship during the 17th and 18th centuries. The team believes there are more treasures out there.
One of the most important pieces found by the last expedition was a gold necklace with the cross of Santiago (St. James) in the center.
The second piece has the same embossed cross, a large oval Colombian emerald. The bezel was originally set with 12 other emeralds.
Over the past four centuries, several expeditions have attempted to retrieve the Maravilla wreck, located 70 kilometers off the coast of the Bahamas, but have never been successful.
But over the past two years, an international team of divers, including archaeologists, has begun to rediscover it. The Maravela has become an important part of the maritime history of the Bahamas.
These findings are evidence that the Knights of Santiago, a prestigious religious and military organization established in Spain and Portugal in the 12th century, were on board. His knights were particularly active in maritime trade.
When Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, the first European to sail to India, commanded a fleet of 21 ships between 1502 and 1503, he sailed with eight horsemen.