The revelation that diamond miners recently discovered a Portuguese ship which went down 500 years ago, after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast, was made by Fox News in an extensive online piece published last week.
The wreck – the oldest ever to be found in that region – was first discovered along the coast near Oranjemund by geologists from the mining company De Beers in April 2008. But due to the inaccessibility of the site, a lagoon had to be created and drained to access the remains.
“The mining site concerned was actually located in the surf zone, where the violent action of the waves theoretically made mining impossible,” archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli told FoxNews.com, explaining “so what the chaps do is push up a huge sea-wall with bulldozers parallel to the beach, with the ends running back to the beach. The result is a large man-made lagoon, with the surf pounding on the outside. Then they pump the sea-water out of the lagoon.”
It was in this drained lagoon that the wreck was recently unearthed.
Back in 2008, when signs of a possible shipwreck were first detected, Portugal was asked to participate in an archaeological study to ascertain suspicions that the vessel was a 16th century Portuguese ship.
At the time João Pedro Cunha Ribeiro, then deputy director of Lisbon’s architectural and archaeological heritage management agency IGESPAR, told Lusa News Agency that Portuguese authorities had been contacted to help in the identification process by the NAMDEB diamond consortium, and indicated the likelihood that the vessel was part of Portugal’s Indian fleet.
NAMDEB, which is composed of the Namibian government and South Africa’s De Beers mining company, announced their find on 30 April 2008, which included a 16th century Portuguese gold coin.
According to Dr. Noli the ship has now been identified as the Portuguese Bom Jesus, which went missing some 500 years ago while en-route to India.
At the time of its ill-fated voyage the ship was reportedly loaded with gold, tin, ivory tusks, and 44,000 pounds of copper ingots, thought to be worth today in the region of €11 million.
The vessel’s treasure chest was located on day six of the dig.
Dr. Noli said it was in fact the copper ingots that ended up playing a key role in the wreck’s preservation.
“Marine organisms may like wood, leather book covers, peach pips, jute sacking and leather shoes, but copper really puts them off their food – so a lot of stuff survived the 500 years on the bottom of the sea which should really not have done so,” Noli told Fox News, adding: “All this adds up to an extremely unusual situation, which led to truly excellent preservation of an in any event unique site.”
What has yet to be determined is how the ship went down and what it was doing off a notorious stretch of coast famous for its storms and fog, known among Portuguese and Spanish sailors as ‘the gates to hell’.
Noli shares his personal theories with Fox News, elaborating that a combination of too much heavy cargo and poor weather made the captain decide to run the vessel ashore by putting out his bow anchors and slowly beaching her.
He believes the ship then hit a blinder in the surf zone, where she heeled over in the pounding waves. All attempts to free her failed and she broke up, starting with the superstructure.
Dr. Noli also revealed that, despite its considerable worth, the Portuguese government has conceded its right to lay claim to the vessel and its loot.
The archaeologist explained that as the Bom Jesus would have belonged to the King of Portugal and is therefore a ship of state, the country under whose flag the ship was sailing should technically take ownership of it and all its contents.
But in this case, he elaborated, the Portuguese government has reportedly “waived that right, allowing Namibia to keep the lot.”