Experts have found shipwreck of the San Jose, a long-lost Spanish treasure galleon laden with gold and precious stones, and sunk by the British 300 years ago in the Caribbean. Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed finding of the shipwreck that worth billions of dollars and touted as the most valuable treasure found in the history of humanity.
Treasure hunters had been searching for the shipwrecks for decades. The San Jose was sunk in June 1708 off Colombia’s Caribbean coast during combat with British ships attempting to take its cargo. The galleon was the main ship in a treasure fleet carrying gold, silver and other valuable items from Spain’s American colonies to King Philip V.
A team of Colombian and foreign researchers studied winds and currents of the Caribbean 307 years ago and delved into colonial archives in Spain and Colombia searching for clues. They found the San Jose on November 27 in a place never before referenced by previous research. Sea Search Armada, a US company, had claimed earlier to have found the wreck but was not confirmed.
