Namibian Diamond Miners Discover 500-Year-Old Shipwreck Filled With Gold Coins
Shipwrecks are not new discoveries. They have been found for centuries now and each find isn’t an important one. There was once a time when ships were the best and only means of transport and trade. But the seas and oceans are hard to tame. Many of them sunk and with them sunk a part of history. But now we have begun unearthing those sunk ships. Some of them have nothing of value to show us while others happen to become some of the most important discoveries of all time.
1The insane discovery
Namibian diamond miners who were working off the coast of Africa discovered a 500-year-old shipwreck. This would not be a surprise but what they found inside it was a huge surprise. They discovered gold in the shipwreck and not just a little bit. But around $14 million worth of gold and coins.
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2What was this shipwreck?
This ship was called ‘Bom Jesus’ or ‘Good Jesus’. This was a ship that set sail from Lisbon in 1533 and disappeared with its entire crew onboard near the Namibian diamond mining town of Oranjemund. It was headed to India at the time of its mysterious and unsolved disappearance.
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3The miners called in the experts
When the wreckage was discovered the miners called in the experts to handle it. They knew what they had found was something that needed to be preserved. It was the experts who figured out what this ship was. And the miners didn’t just stumble upon the wreck they were lead to it by a trail of items.
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4How the wreck was discovered
It was the miners who found the wreckage. They discovered strange pieces of wood and metal along the beach. They were draining a man-made saltwater lake when they started seeing the clues. This was not the first wreck that was discovered along the coast. Many shipwrecks have been discovered along the coastal area.
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5What did the ship contain?
The ship contained German copper ingots, West African ivory, Portuguese, Spanish, Florentine, and Venetian gold and silver currency, weapons, including swords and knives, and even clothing. These were all important finds that needed to be recorded and kept safely which is why the called in the experts.
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