No Diamonds... Just Sunken Treasure

Looking for diamonds, and find sunken treasure.

While searching for diamonds off the African Coast, archaeologists found a little more than diamonds.

In searching the dry sea bed, a treasure of copper, ivory tusks , ingots & cannons were discovered. Believed to be from around the early 1500's.

In its search for diamonds, the company had originally cleared and drained a stretch of seabed, building an earthen wall to keep the water out so geologists could work.

Noli said one of the geologists saw a few ingots but had no idea what they were. Then the team found what looked like cannon barrels

Its not known what or the ship was, although early speculation believes it was a trading ship on official business from the Spanish government.

the ship went down in the late 1400s or early 1500s, around the time Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus were plying the waters of the New World.

National Geographic Article


One thing that has many puzzled, is why so much loot with the ivory tusks?
A ship fully laden with cannons was not uncommon for the time, but if they were on a mission to buy tusks, etc. Why would they still have so much 'spending money left' when they went down? Pirates maybe?

They may have been headed out from Europe to the orient but had done some trading prior.

reply to post by Grailkeeper


It's quite possible they were pirates.

It's also possible what we have here is an example of game theory in action - as in, the spanish government's forces decided that rather than handing over it's loot to some backwater hunters, they would simply steal the tusks and kill the hunters.

Such was the way of the world back then...

Many many possibilities, one wonders how many of the crews survived the wreck and how long they survived on that forbidding coast.

reply to post by Hanslune


There's a thought.

I wonder how many were able to bring some of the treasures with them as they scurried for shore.

Could be a gold mine sitting on some uninhabited island somewhere.