SCIENCE

Three years after locating the ghostly galleon San José, researchers reveal how they made their famous find. (Science Alert)

Use our article to learn how marine archaeologists explore the history and cultures of ancient civilizations.

Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.

Discussion Ideas

• What was the San José? Why was it so laden with precious metals and gems?
  • The San José was a 62-cannon galleon that was part of the Spanish Treasure Fleet. The Spanish Treasure Fleet was exactly what it sounds like—a cargo fleet of hundreds of ships linking Spain with its resource-rich colonies in the Americas.
    • Americas → Spain: The Spanish Treasure Fleet certainly transported luxury goods such as precious metals and gems, but the real “treasures” shipped to Europe were lumber, agricultural resources, sugar, and tobacco.
    • Spain → Americas: Finished goods such as tools, textiles, and books were transported from Europe to the booming territories in the Americas.
  • In 1708, the San José was sailing from Portobelo, Panama, to Cartagena, Colombia. The ship carried gold, silver, and emeralds mined from Spanish colonies in what are now Bolivia and Peru.
    • The treasure of the San José was intended to fund the Bourbon side in the War of the Spanish Succession, a conflict in which western Europe was fighting over two contenders for the powerful Spanish throne. In 1708, the San José and the 16 other ships in its fleet (!) encountered a British fleet and engaged in a conflict known as Wager’s Action. (The United Kingdom supported the Hapsburg side in the war.) In the conflict, the gunpowder magazines of the San José suddenly exploded, and the ship sank very suddenly. Of the 600 men in her crew, only 11 survived.
  • The wreck sits on the seafloor, about 600 meters (2,000 feet) below the surface of the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Cartagena.

• How did the good folks at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) locate the wreck?
  • Robots! Engineers and explorers at WHOI used one of its autonomous underwater vehicles called Remote Environmental Monitoring UnitS—REMUS 6000. REMUS 6000 was developed specifically for deep-ocean surveys, and took photos of this famous wreck in the North Atlantic in 2010. Learn more about REMUS 6000 here.
    • REMUS 6000 explores the ocean using both acoustic (sound-based) and photographic navigation.
      • acoustic: “The search methodology consisted of obtaining graphic data of the seabed in previously defined areas, tracing long overlapping search swaths, using a process of linear and orderly search lines, known in the search business as ‘mowing the lawn’ at different frequencies with a side scan sonar on REMUS 6000.”
      • photographic: “After data from a large-scale survey is analyzed and smaller fields of interest are identified, the REMUS 6000 can gather more detailed, up-close images using high-resolution imaging systems located on the bottom of the vehicle.” REMUS ultimately took images from about 9 meters (30 feet) above the wreck.
  • WHOI worked with the Colombian Navy, the Colombian Ministry of Culture, and Maritime Archaeology Consultants (MAC) Switzerland AG, to search a specific area off the coast of Cartagena.

• If the site was discovered in 2015, and possibly as far back as 1981, why is it news now?
  • technology. WHOI withheld details about how REMUS 6000 contributed to the discovery “out of respect for the Colombian government” (which funded the operation). The government likely wanted to secure the site to prevent looting.
  • cultural heritage. Who does the San José belong to? The explorers who discovered the wreck? Colombia? the United Kingdom? Spain? Peru and Bolivia?
    • That question was pretty much settled three years ago: The wreck was recovered within Colombia’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and a series of court cases in both Colombia and the United States established that the shipwreck and all artifacts are property of the Colombian government.

• What is going to happen to the San José now?
  • That’s up to the government of Colombia, which still has not divulged the precise location of the wreck.
    • Colombia has not signed the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which would subject it to international standards and require it to inform UNESCO of its plans for the wreck.
    • Colombia says it may salvage the artifacts to display in a museum in Cartagena. MAC, which managed the discovery expedition, has “applied for the permit for the next phase of the project, which includes intervention and recovery, conservation and curation of this important archaeological site.”
    • Many underwater archaeologists are encouraging Colombia to protect the artifacts in situ. The United Nations supported this idea last month, calling for Colombia not to “commercially exploit the discovered wreck and the cultural heritage it represents.”

TEACHERS TOOLKIT

Science Alert: Scientists Have Found The ‘Holy Grail of Shipwrecks’ And Up to $17 Billion in Treasure

WHOI: New Details on Discovery of San Jose Shipwreck

Maritime Archaeology Consultants: San Jose Story

Nat Geo: Ancient Shipwrecks of the Black Sea

WHOI: REMUS 6000