Diamond Miners Find 500-year-old Shipwreck Loaded with £9 Million of Gold in the Middle of an African Desert
Diamond miners recently discovered a ship that went down 500 years ago after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast. While shipwrecks are often found along Africa’s Skeleton Coast, this one just so happened to be loaded with $13,000,000 worth of gold coins.
It also answers a centuries–old mystery and is what some archaeologists are calling one of the most significant shipwrecks ever found.
The wreck was first discovered along the coast near Oranjemund by geologists from the mining company De Beers in April 2008. One reason it took centuries to find is because it was underneath the ocean floor.
The ship was identified as “The Bom Jesus” or “The Good Jesus”, a Portuguese ship that went missing 500 years ago while en route to India. The ship was loaded down with gold, tin, ivory tusks, and 44,000 pounds of copper ingots when it apparently went to its watery grave. In fact, it was the copper ingots that ended up playing a key role in the wreck preservation.
How the ship went down and what it was doing off a notorious stretch of coast famous for its storms and fog remains unknown.
Archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli believes that a combination of too much heavy cargo and poor weather made the captain decide to run the vessel ashore by putting out his bow anchors and slowly beaching her. The ship then hit a blinder in the surf zone, where she heeled over in the pounding waves. All attempts to free her failed and she broke up, starting with the superstructure.
Source: Fox News
