A Spanish galleon full of gold that sank in the Caribbean along the Colombian coast more than 300 years ago was found three years ago with the help of an autonomous underwater vehicle operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the institute revealed.
\nThe new data about the San Jos\u00e9 were made public on Monday with the authorization of the agencies involved in the search, including the Colombian government.
\nRob Munier, vice president in charge of the WHOI marine installations and operations, said they had not revealed the data out of respect for the Colombian government.
\nThe location of the San Jos\u00e9, the most coveted by all the shipwreck seekers, was one of the most lasting maritime mysteries.
\nThe galleon, which had 62 cannons and three masts, sank on June 8, 1708 with a shipment of gold, silver and emeralds in its holds during a battle with the British navy in the Spanish Succession War. The treasure is valued at some 17 billion dollars according to current market value.
\nThe WHOI, based in Massachusetts, was invited to join the search because of its renowned expertise in deep-sea exploration. The REMUS 6000 autonomous underwater vehicle in 2011 helped find the remains of Air France\u2019s flight 447, which in 2009 fell several kilometers from the coast of Brazil.
\nThe REMUS 6000\u2019s sonar images found the San Jos\u00e9 at a depth of 600 meters in November 2015.
\nThe vehicle descended nine meters over the sunken ship to take photos of the shipwreck, even of the dolphin engravings on the San Jos\u00e9\u2019s cannons, a crucial visual proof.
\nWHOI engineer and head of the expedition Mike Purcell said that the sunken ship was partially covered with sediments, but they were able to see new details with the photo images of the low altitude missions, adding that the resolution was sufficiently good to discern the decorative carvings on the cannons.
\nThe treasure is the object of lawsuits from several countries and private enterprises. Several weeks ago UNESCO asked Colombia to not commercially exploit the shipwreck, whose exact location is a state secret.
\nThe treasure remains in the deep sea\u2026for now.
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A Spanish galleon full of gold that sank in the Caribbean along the Colombian coast more than 300 years ago was found three years ago with the help of an autonomous underwater vehicle operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the institute revealed. The new data about the San Jos\u00e9 were made public on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3134,"featured_media":111312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[33546],"class_list":["post-127015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n