Colombian authorities have announced that they may begin the salvage operation of the San José ship, which is laden with treasure including gold, silver, emeralds, and various other goods as early as next month.
The San José ship sank in 1708 and has been at the center of a dispute over ownership of the wreck, which includes a treasure valued at $17 billion. Since the Colombian Navy discovered the location of the Spanish galleon San José in 2015, the exact site has remained a national security secret, with the wreck and the valuable cargo it carried still lying deep beneath the Caribbean Sea.
The wreck of the San José lies at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. (Photo: Armada de Colombia).
The effort to salvage the ship and recover its treasure has led to a complex series of international disputes involving Colombia, Spain, the indigenous tribes of Bolivia, and a U.S. salvage company, all claiming ownership of the wreck along with the gold, silver, and emeralds worth $17 billion. As Colombia seeks to cover the enormous costs associated with the salvage operations, both UNESCO and the country’s high court have intervened. However, eight years after the discovery, authorities have stated they may begin recovering artifacts from the wreck as early as April 2024. “We are considering how to approach the historical and archaeological information from the wreck”, the Guardian quoted Alhena Caicedo, director of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, on April 19.
On its return journey to Europe with the treasure intended for financing the War of Spanish Succession, the San José was sunk by British warships in 1708 near the port city of Cartagena in the Caribbean. Historians believe the wreck could reveal much about the Spanish Empire at its height as well as the intertwined history of Europe and Latin America. Caicedo’s team hopes to salvage the wreck and display it in a museum for visitors to explore. However, as they continue to investigate the wreck site, the scale and complexity of the challenge are becoming evident.
Very few ships like the San José have ever been salvaged, and none have been raised from the warm tropical waters. “This is a colossal challenge and a project with very few precedents. We are pioneers”, Caicedo acknowledged. The closest comparison may be the Mary Rose, part of King Henry VIII’s fleet, which sank in 1545 during a battle with France off the coast of Portsmouth. The 16th-century wreck was explored by hundreds of divers over a decade before careful salvage operations began in 1981. The remains of the ship now reside in a $45 million museum exhibit.
The Colombian Navy is studying the Mary Rose and various other maritime conservation projects to learn how to lift and preserve the 40-meter-long ship and its cargo without causing it to disintegrate. The cargo of the San José includes glass, ceramics, and leather. Historians hope that these items will help them better understand the global trade networks of the 18th century, the complex colonial systems of Spain, and the lives of the 600 people who perished in the shipwreck.
