11.5 million euros discovered: gold coins, muskets, cannons, copper pieces, gold ingots. The treasure discovered on board the caravel Bom Jesus.

 “Bom Jesus” disappeared, without a trace, in 1533. It was destined for one of the most important colonies of the Portuguese empire: . It was carrying a shipment of Portuguese and Spanish gold coins with an estimated value of 11.5 million euros.

This story begins in 2008, but was recently recovered by the North American station “Fox News” and of course, the article immediately caught the attention of the Portuguese media.

Now, thanks to greater interest on the part of readers and also dissemination on social media, the story of one of the greatest discoveries of shipwrecks ever is back in the spotlight.

This amazing discovery was a simple chance: Namibian miners were looking for diamonds and decided to empty an artificial lagoon in Oranjemund, in the Namib Desert and, unintentionally, discovered a Portuguese caravel lost more than 500 years ago.

Faced with this discovery, archaeologist Dieter Noli stated that he was not very surprised to find a sunken ship there – it seems that the area in question was a bad omen for Portuguese and Spanish sailors, even becoming known as the “Gates of Hell ”.

There really is a large number of historical records of ships that met their tragic end there.

But, more than the discovery of the missing Portuguese ship, it was its contents that most impressed the archaeologist.

“I just expected to find some Spanish swords or, if I was lucky, a bag of gold, but the that was discovered was immense: around 11.5 million euros in gold coins, muskets, cannons, copper pieces, gold ingots, tin, ivory tusks and even more than a sword.”

He also adds that the “Bom Jesus” is the oldest shipwreck that has ever been found in that location and that most of the shipwrecks occurred in the last 120 years.

Regarding the loot found inside the ship, as it once belonged to the King of Portugal, it was offered to the Government of Portugal, but the latter left the rescued products to the government of Namibia, according to sources from the leader of the investigation.

The research team studied the Portuguese ship for two weeks and managed to discover that the boat had sunk around 1535, after leaving , and that it was on its way to India.

Despite everything, the causes that led the ship to sink at the “Gates of Hell” are not yet known, but bad weather and excess cargo (these were the two main reasons why most ships sank) will have led to the shipwreck of the “Bom Jesus”.
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