The Wreck of the San José
Since 1708 there has been vicious competition over the Spanish treasure galleon San José, its cargo, and, now, its sunken remains.
On 8 June 1708, near the Caribbean coast of present-day Colombia, British warships destroyed the San José, the flagship of a fleet carrying treasure from South America for Spain. As the confused exchange of broadsides rumbled into the night, the dark and the smoke were split by a huge flash: an officer on another Spanish ship later recalled seeing ‘a great fire … with enormous flames’. A stray shot or spark had ignited the gunpowder aboard the galleon, which exploded and immediately sank. Today, it is thought to be the world’s richest shipwreck, worth an estimated £15 billion.
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