The famous and precious treasure of the Spanish galleon sunk in the Bahamas well over 3.5 centuries ago has been recovered. It will be exhibited in an ad hoc museum.
Our Lady of Wonders was a Spanish galleon that sank in the Bahamas in 1656. The precious and vast treasure of jewels and trinkets it was carrying was said to have been lost forever. Well, after more than three and a half centuries it was recovered by archaeologists. The wreck at the bottom of the sea has returned gemstone pendants, gold chains and much more.
The mission involved archaeologists and divers from the Bahamas and America. All with the organization of the Allen Exploration association to recover as many precious finds as possible from the treasure and then exhibit them in a new museum in the Bahamas. The jewels are beautiful and really precious, probably intended for aristocrats or kings of the time. There are also jewels associated with Santiago de Compostela, today a great pilgrimage destination. In fact, there is a gold pendant with the cross of St. James on a huge oval emerald surrounded by twelve other smaller emeralds. Perhaps they symbolize the twelve apostles, then there is an Indian bezoar stone in the shape of a shell.
The Maravillas, the galleon’s original name, is in honor of the sculpture of the Virgin Mary which performed numerous miracles. The galleon was part of a fleet returning from Havana with American treasures. The cargo was made up of precious items destined for nobles and royalty, but also of contraband goods for the black market. The galleon then collided with the reef in shallow water and was shipwrecked in the winter of 1656. It is thought that the shipwreck was due to a mistake by the helmsman. She had 650 people on board, only 45 were saved.
- The legendary and very precious treasure of the Spanish galleon sunk in the Bahamas more than 3 and a half centuries ago has been recovered (greenme.it)