Legendary Spanish ship wreck found off coast of Colombia

Only a handful of the ship’s crew of 600 survived when the San Jose sank.

Juan Manual Santos said the exact location of the Galleon San Jose and how it was discovered with the help of an global team of experts was a state secret that he would personally safeguard. The ship, which maritime specialists contemplate the holy grail of Spanish colonial shipwrecks, has remained submerged ever since off the coast of Cartagena whilst a legal battle has raged in U.S., Colombia & Spain over who owns the rights to the sunken treasure.

The San Jose was sunk in June 1708 near the Islas del Rosario, off the coast of Cartegena, during combat with British ships attempting to take its cargo, part of the War of Spanish Succession.

He said that a museum would be built in Cartagena to house the ship’s treasures.

ICANH director Ernesto Montenegro said identification of the ship was made possible by “the presence of bronze cannons cast especially for the galleon”, whose photos were displayed Saturday and which, for the expert, “leave no doubt about the identity of this archaeological site”.

The discovery off Colombia’s coast is sure to intensify an global dispute over the treasure.

“Great news! We have found the San Jose galleon”, the president tweeted.

A U.S. salvage company SSA claims it located the area where the ship sank back in 1981 but an American court ruled in 2011 that the San Jose is the property of the Colombian government.

The hunt for the San Jose has already been a long legal saga over how the booty should be split between the Colombian government and an American company based in Bellevue, Washington.

The San Jose was the flagship and largest galleon of a Spanish fleet carrying gold and silver from the mines of Potosi, Peru.

Colombia says it has found the shipwreck of a storied Spanish galleon laden with gold and precious stones, three centuries after it was sunk by the British in the Caribbean.

The Colombian government discovered the ship on November 27, saying they observed bonze cannons, drawers, ceramic and porcelain vases, and personal weapons, according to an announcement by Santos’ office.

The wreck is reported to fall within the United Nations’ definition of an underwater cultural heritage site.

Commodore Charles Wager described the close quarters broadsides – and said the San Jose exploded with such intensity he could feel the heat from his own ship. “She immediately sank with all her riches”.