Divers have revealed new treasures from a legendary 17th century shipwreck that have been hidden beneath the Bahamas’ shark-infested waters for 350 years.
The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) was a two-deck Spanish galleon ship that sank off the Little Bahama Bank in the northern Bahamas on January 4, 1656.
The majority of its treasure – an estimated 3.5 million pieces of eight – was salvaged between 1656 and the early 1990s, but recent efforts using modern technology have uncovered artefacts on the ship that have never been touched since the sinking.
Included in the hoard are Spanish olive jars, Chinese porcelain, iron rigging, and gold and silver coins, as well as a silver sword handle that belonged to the soldier Don Martin de Aranda y Gusmán.
Three gold chains have also been saved, as well as four pendants worn by members of the sacred Order of Santiago, a religious band of knights deeply active in Spanish maritime trade.
Some of the items were contraband that was ‘illegally greasing the palms of Spanish merchants and officials’.
All these finds are unique among the world’s three million shipwrecks, according to experts, and will be exhibited at a new museum at the Bahamas for the first time staring next week.
Included in the hoard are Spanish olive jars, Chinese porcelain, iron rigging, and gold and silver coins, as well as a silver sword handle that belonged to the soldier Don Martin de Aranda y Gusmán. Pictured, high-status personal belongings – gold jewellery, chain, pendants and coins from the Maravillas
Here, the Allen Exploration team are snapped underwater while recording an iron anchor along the Maravillas shipwreck trail
In 2019, after the Bahamian government granted it a license to explore the wreck, Allen Exploration used a vast network of 8,800 magnetometers – devices that measure anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic field, caused by the presence items with magnetic properties.
These mapped the location of the untouched artefacts, from potsherds and iron hull fasteners to rigging, coins, ballast and high-status goods.
Divers were also employed to recover them and bring them back to land for the first time in 350 years. Now the collection is back on land, Allen Exploration has no intention to split it up or sell it.
The ship’s debris trail spans a whopping eight miles (13km), although Allen Exploration is not releasing information about its exact position to protect the site.
One of the ‘stunning’ discoveries is an 887-gram gold filigree chain, about 70 inches long, made up of 80 alternating circular flat and tubular links, decorated with four-lobed rosette motifs.
It was intended for a wealthy aristocrat or even royalty, and was probably crafted in the Philippines from local gold using Chinese craftsmen, and then exported to Spain by way of Mexico on a Manila galleon.
Another item is an oval-shaped golden pendant with a gold Cross of St. James on top of a large green oval Colombian emerald.
The outer edge is framed by 12 more square emeralds, perhaps symbolising the 12 apostles.
A second golden pendant found on the Maravillas’ debris trail is oval in shape and 4.7 centimeters long. At its center a gold Cross of St. James overlies a large green oval Colombian emerald. The outer edge is framed by 12 more square emeralds, perhaps symbolizing the 12 apostles
A gold and pearl ring from the Maravillas shipwreck. New finds are unique among the world’s three million shipwrecks, according to experts, and will be exhibited at a new museum at the Bahamas for the first time
Allen said the priceless artefacts were found lying on ‘dead gray reefs’ and that seeing the sea floor gave him ‘mixed feelings’.
‘The sea bottom is barren,’ he said. ‘The colorful coral that divers remembered from the 1970s is gone, poisoned by ocean acidification and choked by meters of shifting sand. It’s painfully sad.
‘Still lying on those dead gray reefs, though, are sparkling finds: olive jars, the spikes that held the Maravillas together, the odd cannon and anchors.’
Silver and gold coins and emeralds and amethysts, as well as a 75-pound silver bar, are among those thought to be illegal contraband consignments, unauthorised by the Spanish Crown.
Spanish Americas’ galleons carried at least 20 per cent contraband above what was declared on manifests, some even over 200 per cent.
Allen Exploration’s Bahamas Maritime Museum – in the city of Freeport, Grand Bahama – will open on August 8.
An ‘olive’ jar from the wreck of the Maravillas, used to transport general foodstuffs. Allen Exploration has no intentions to split up the collection or sell it
Personal belongings range from the silver sword hilt of the soldier Don Martin de Aranda y Gusmán to a pearl ring, two glass wine bottles and four pendants worn by knights of the Order of Santiago. Pictured, a glass wine bottle discovered on the Maravills wreck site
Gold and bezoar stone scallop-shaped pendant of the Order of Santiago with a cross of St. James at its centre from the Maravillas shipwreck