The Colombian government announced on Friday the start in April of the extraction by robot of objects of “incalculable value” from the wreck of the legendary Spanish galleon San José, sunk three centuries ago in the Caribbean with its holds filled with gold and precious stones.
The vessel, one of the largest in the Spanish armada, was sunk by the British fleet during the night of June 7, 1708 near the Rosario Islands, off the coast of Cartagena de Indias, in northwestern Colombia. .
In the midst of the War of Succession in Spain (1701-1712), the ship transported gold, silver and precious stones from the Spanish colonies in America to the court of King Philip V. Only a few crew members, on the 600 on board had survived the sinking.
Seven years after the discovery of the wreck, the Colombian authorities will begin to reassemble the objects visible around the wreck, “without modifying or damaging the wreck”, such as ceramic pieces, the minister told AFP. of Culture Juan David Correa.
It's about seeing how these objects
"behave when they come out (of the water) and understanding what we can do"
to recover the rest, he explained aboard the ARC navy ship. Caribe, sea base for future operations.
He did not specify whether during this first phase some of the most valuable objects could be extracted.
The work, costing $4.5 million, will be carried out using a robot capable of descending to a depth of 600 meters, where the wreck is located.
Its exact location is, however, kept secret, in order to protect what is considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history from pirates and other malicious treasure hunters.
The Colombian army revealed previously unpublished images of the wreck in 2022, after four observation campaigns.
On these, we could see cast iron cannons, pieces of porcelain tableware, pottery, pieces apparently made of gold and part of the bow of the ship covered with seaweed and shells.
The ownership of the galleon has been disputed since its discovery by researchers and members of the Colombian naval force.
Spain has claimed ownership of the wreck and its valuable cargo on the basis of a Unesco convention to which Colombia is not a party, and indigenous Bolivians have claimed that the ship's riches had been taken from their land.