San Jose Shipwreck is Getting Exhumed by Columbia to Recover $20 Billion Worth of Treasure

Isaiah Richard, Tech Times 07 November 2023, 09:11 pm

Dubbed the "holy grail of shipwrecks," the San Jose will soon be exhumed from its resting place at the bottom of the ocean near the port of Cartagena, off the country's cost that it shares with the Caribbean. It was said that at its resting place, the Spanish galleon is known to carry massive treasures, with those that discovered it estimating as much as $20 billion lies beneath.

For more than three centuries, the shipwreck was unseen, with many claims differing from the other, but the Colombian navy's latest discovery motivates them to recover what was once lost.

San Jose Shipwreck is Getting Exhumed from the Ocean

(Photo : Greg Nerantzakis on Unsplash)

The Independent reported that the Colombian government is now putting a significant effort into recovering the San Jose, a renowned Spanish galleon that was sunk in 1708 by the British navy off the port of Cartagena. The wreck was initially discovered in 2015, and it was regarded as "the most valuable that has been found in the history of humanity," as claimed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

Its recovery of the San Jose is a matter of urgency for the country, and since its discovery, there have been plans to exhume the ship from the ocean's depths.

The team of divers who initially found it claimed that it was 3,100 feet below the ocean's surface, with massive challenges and extreme conditions awaiting its future efforts.

¡Qué orgullo! Expedición no intrusiva de @ArmadaColombia en el Galeón San José permitió hallazgo de 2 naufragios.

Esta es una demostración más del trabajo de nuestros hombres y mujeres de Armada, siempre protegiendo los intereses marítimos de la Nación y la soberanía del país. pic.twitter.com/vfjf83sF4W
— Diego Molano Aponte (@Diego_Molano) June 7, 2022

Colombia Claims $20B Treasure to Be Recovered

The previous efforts and undertakings by the Armada de Colombia claimed that there was as much as $20 billion worth of treasure, in today's money, which is lying underneath the ocean floor. Amidst the massive shipwreck, the San Jose treasure remains, with future efforts looking to take back what is for the Colombian government, soon to recover what lies in the depths.

Shipwrecks and the Efforts to Recover

The San Jose is one of the most iconic galleon ships of the Spanish during its time, but it is only one of the many shipwrecks that have been lost throughout the early years of using this mode of transportation. Technology now plays a massive role in locating the sunken ships, with NOAA offering its ocean mapping tech, previously helping find the Ironton which capsized in Lake Huron last 1894.

While there are also shipwrecks that have been found and exhumed before, the technology present today helps deliver explanations as to what happened from the events of the past. One example was the recent rare footage that features the "haunting wreckage" of the infamous Titanic, the British passenger line which sunk in the Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage.

There are still massive efforts in locating boats and ships of the past, and while some may have been forgotten in history, others remain a top priority to relocate and recover. Columbia is now going all-in for its discovery five years ago, with the San Jose soon seeing the surface yet again since 315 years ago, offering the country as much as $20 billion of the sunken treasure.