{"id":540,"date":"2022-12-14T05:25:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T05:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/travel\/a-shipwreck-worth-billions-off-the-coast-of-cartagena\/"},"modified":"2022-12-14T05:25:25","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T05:25:25","slug":"a-shipwreck-worth-billions-off-the-coast-of-cartagena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/travel\/a-shipwreck-worth-billions-off-the-coast-of-cartagena\/","title":{"rendered":"A shipwreck worth billions off the coast of Cartagena"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Sunken Civilisation<\/span> | <\/span><\/a>History<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A shipwreck worth billions off the coast of Cartagena<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

(Image credit: Luiz Ribeiro\/Alamy)<\/p>\n

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For centuries, the San Jos\u00e9 galleon lay lost on the ocean floor, but now it\u2019s at the centre of a custody dispute, with several parties all staking claim to its riches.<\/p>\n

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(This year, we published many inspiring and amazing stories that made us fall in love with the world \u2013 and this is one our favourites. Click <\/em>here<\/a> for the full list).<\/em><\/p>\n

It was on 8 June 1708 that Spanish galleon San Jos\u00e9 erupted into flames off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. The ship had been at battle with the British since late afternoon, and by night, the 62-cannon galleon had disappeared into the Caribbean Sea. With it, sunk nearly 600 people and up to $20bn worth of gold, silver and jewels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For centuries, the San Jos\u00e9 galleon lay lost on the ocean floor. But the mystery surrounding the ship began to unravel in 2015, when the Colombian government announced it had officially been found. Four years later, the galleon is still 600m deep in Colombian waters. Now, it\u2019s at the centre of a custody dispute among parties all staking claim to the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s riches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 1708, Spanish galleon San Jos\u00e9 sank off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, while carrying up to $20bn worth of gold, silver and jewels (Credit: travel4pictures\/Alamy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Colombian government hasn\u2019t revealed the exact location of the famed galleon, which is often called the \u201choly grail\u201d of shipwrecks. But the San Jos\u00e9 is said to be located close to the Rosario Islands, a tropical archipelago and national park 40km from Cartagena. Throngs of small motorboats zoom over the waters as they transport beach-going tourists to the islands each day. While being carried across the sea, it\u2019s difficult not to imagine the San Jos\u00e9 and its treasure, somewhere out there below.<\/p>\n

You may also be interested in:<\/strong>
\u2022\u00a0The slave ship hidden for 200 years<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0Israel\u2019s ancient underwater treasure<\/a>
\u2022\u00a0An epic search for Russia\u2019s lost gold<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, the real-life treasure ship has long been the subject of fascination. Nobel prize-winning author Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez wrote about the galleon in Love in The Time of Cholera; the novel\u2019s main character, Florentino Ariza, planned to dive down and retrieve the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s riches for his lifelong love.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Caribbean is very magical,\u201d said Bibiana Rojas Mej\u00eda, a traveller I spoke to from Bogota who spent the day at the beach with her family on Isla Grande, the largest of the islands. \u201cThis is the magical realism that exists in our country. We don\u2019t know how much [treasure] is actually in the San Jos\u00e9 galleon. It could all be a great legend.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The San Jos\u00e9 is said to be located close to the Rosario Islands, a tropical archipelago and national park 40km from Cartagena (Credit: Victoria Stunt)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The San Jos\u00e9 galleon left Panama\u2019s port city of Portobelo in late May 1708. It was laden with gold, silver and precious stones extracted from what was then Spanish-controlled Peru, which have been estimated to be worth between $10bn and $20bn today. The riches were destined for King Philip V of Spain, who relied on resources from his colonies to finance the War of the Spanish Succession<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The galleon\u2019s captain, Jose Fernandez de Santillan, knew that the British, who were involved in the war, might have ships waiting to attack in Cartagena; the city was only meant to be a quick stop to repair the San Jos\u00e9 before its longer journey to Havana, Cuba, and then on to Spain. But the captain pushed forward anyway. And by the evening of 8 June, a battle for the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s treasure had begun. The British Navy \u2013 armed with pistols, swords and knives \u2013 tried three times to board the galleon and take it as their own, said Gonzalo Zu\u00f1iga, a curator at the Naval Museum of the Caribbean<\/a> in Cartagena.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe San Jos\u00e9 was winning the battle,\u201d explained Zu\u00f1iga. \u201cBut… we don\u2019t know what condition the San Jos\u00e9 was in during its last [moments].\u201d The galleon could have lost a sail, he said, or the passengers could have revolted against the captain \u2013 most were civilians and weren\u2019t under anybody\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s undeniable that neither side wanted the galleon and its treasures to sink. Zu\u00f1iga\u2019s theory is that instead of surrendering the San Jos\u00e9 and returning to Spain empty-handed, its captain could have ignited the gunpowder on the ship and exploded the galleon himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The San Jos\u00e9 (not pictured) was attacked by the British Navy while making a stop in Cartagena for repairs (Credit: Timewatch Images\/Alamy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On 27 November 2015, the San Jos\u00e9 was \u201cofficially\u201d discovered by a robotic submarine called the REMUS 6000<\/a>, which is operated by the US-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The nearly 4m-long underwater autonomous vehicle can explore up to 6km below the sea\u2019s surface, and was able to descend just 9m above the San Jos\u00e9 to snap photos of the galleon \u2013 as well as its bronze, dolphin-engraved cannons, which were what helped researchers to distinguish the San Jos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe San Jos\u00e9 galleon is an epicentre of information about colonial [history],\u201d said the director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, Ernesto Montenegro. \u201cIt\u2019s representative of almost 300 years of colonial [history] from Europe, and particularly from Spain, about the American territory.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On 27 November 2015, the San Jos\u00e9 was “officially” discovered by a robotic submarine called the REMUS 6000 (Credit: Courtesy of ICANH)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There are an estimated 1,000 ships sunk off the coast of Colombia, waiting to be discovered. But despite the San Jos\u00e9 galleon being found in Colombian waters, there\u2019s no guarantee it will stay within its borders. Spain has shown interest in claiming part of the galleon, as has the Bolivian indigenous nation Qhara Qhara whose land (once part of the Viceroyalty of Peru) the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s riches were extracted from.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the San Jos\u00e9 has been entangled in legal battles for nearly 40 years. American salvage company Sea Search Armada (SSA) stated they\u2019d found the ship in the early 1980s and claimed 50% of its contents, which SSA says<\/a> was an agreement with Colombia at the time \u2013 and which the Supreme Court of Colombia ruled in favour of in 2007.<\/p>\n

Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos didn\u2019t credit SSA when he announced Colombia had found the galleon in 2015. Colombian Vice President Marta Luc\u00eda Ram\u00edrez said in a statement in June that \u201cSea Search Armada has no right over the San Jos\u00e9 galleon or its contents\u201d because the coordinates where they claim to have found the galleon don\u2019t match its actual location. The case is still in a Colombian superior court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos: \u201cThe San Jos\u00e9 galleon\u2026 is one of the greatest finds of history\u201d (Credit: EFE News Agency\/Alamy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This year, the government has also held off on signing a contract with another private company to extract the San Jos\u00e9 galleon. As of now, Maritime Archaeology Consultants<\/a> (MAC), who participated in the 2015 search, is the only contender. Partnering with a private salvage firm could once again divide the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s contents and reward them up to 45% of its contents \u2013 that is, those not classified under cultural heritage, items that still need to be determined by Colombia.<\/p>\n

This would be a worst-case scenario for historian and author Francisco Mu\u00f1oz, who is an expert on the San Jos\u00e9. \u201cHumanity has the indisputable right to get to know the [San Jos\u00e9 galleon], and get to know it completely. Colombia needs to serve as a worthy custodian.\u201d<\/p>\n

That would mean opening a museum in Cartagena to display the galleon\u2019s riches in full, said Mu\u00f1oz \u2013 something the government has also suggested. \u201cWho wouldn\u2019t visit this unique exhibit?\u201d he said. \u201cVisitors would be absorbed and obsessed with the stories the [San Jos\u00e9 galleon] would tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2018, former president Santos wrote on Twitter<\/a>, \u201cThe San Jos\u00e9 galleon, sunken in national waters, is one of the greatest finds of history. With the law of submerged cultural heritage, we can recover it.\u201d He ended the tweet with the hashtag #NuestraCulturaElMejorLegado, which translates to \u201cOur Culture, the Best Legacy\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Because of an ongoing custody dispute, the San Jos\u00e9 remains at the bottom of the sea (Credit: Luiz Ribeiro\/Alamy)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, say experts, it\u2019s a project that can\u2019t be rushed.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The ship] has been submerged for 300 years, and this guarantees the right to conservation,\u201d said underwater archaeologist Juan Guillermo Mart\u00edn. \u201cIf we don\u2019t have the conditions right now in Colombia to assume the rescue… it makes no sense to do it. It\u2019s a fundamental principle of responsibility for Colombian heritage, but also for humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the San Jos\u00e9 is rescued, a museum for Cartagena residents and visitors to enjoy is a long way off. And, Colombians still haven\u2019t won the guarantee for this prized ship to stay within their borders. For now, visitors to Cartagena and the Rosario Islands still have the opportunity to look out far into the sea, and picture the galleon as it remains today: nestled on the ocean floor and still guarding its riches.<\/p>\n

Sunken Civilisation<\/a> is a BBC Travel series that explores mythical underwater worlds that seem too fantastical to exist today but are astonishingly real.<\/em><\/p>\n

Join more than three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a>, or follow us on\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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