The São José met her demise grounded on a reef off the Mozambique coast, victim to final assault by the Anglo-Dutch fleet. A reported 66,000 Spanish reales were salvaged by the enemy, a small share of the total treasure aboard the ship, lost with some 300-400 passengers and crew as the vessel broke up and sank to the bottom of the Mozambique Channel. For nearly 400 years, the wreck of the São José remained hidden off the isolated coast of East Africa until her discovery in May 2005 by Portuguese marine archaeology company Arqueonautas. The most extraordinary find are the over 24,000 silver reales coins recovered so far, representing a rare collection of Old and New World mints with a wide variety of dates and denominations-the stunning remains of King Philip IIIs royal treasure once bound for India when Spain and Portugal together claimed a vast overseas empire.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 18:23:59 +0000
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