The ships angled toward each other, firearms good to go, fight banners raised. Billions of dollars in gems and valuable metals and the result of what some consider the first modern worldwide war remained in a critical state.
The showdown would end in a harshness of cannon discharge and a final, deadly impact that sent the Spanish ship and its costly load plunging to the ocean floor. Neither the British nor the Spanish and their French associates would have the capacity to utilize the loot to fund their efforts in the bloody War of Spanish Succession; the battle would delay for six more years and end uncertainly, prompting 100 years of power battles between the European countries.
In the interim, the San Jose and its wealth stayed submerged some place at the base of the Caribbean. The Holy Grail of shipwrecks thought to contain at least $1 billion and as much as $14 billion in emeralds, silver and gold has figured in books, histories and even a worldwide fight in court, but proved as tricky to treasure seekers in the 21st century as it was in the eighteenth.
In an announcement released Saturday, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos declared that specialists with the nation's Ministry of Culture had discovered a wreck coordinating the San Jose utilizing sonar, submerged cameras and remotely-worked robots.
A universal group drove by Colombia's Institute of Anthropology and History and the Colombian naval force made the find on Nov. 27 and almost 1,000 feet underneath the surface of the sea around 16 miles from Cartagena.
A video released by Santos' office shows research teams testing a sandy patch of ocean floor close to the coast. The submerged pictures are ambiguous to the casual observer a high contrast wreckage of pots and bottles, single cannon noticeable among bubbles and blue murk yet authorities say the bronze guns, along with the measurements and area of the wreck, mark it as the San Jose.
A museum will be constructed in Cartagena to house the new discovery.
It will require more time to absolutely distinguish the vessel and its contents, and years to dig them up from their sea grave. But if Santos' proclamation is borne out, it will put a conclusion to three centuries of interest and hypothesis.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
