Galleon San Jose

The holy grail of shipwrecks!

Estimated at 20 billion dollars, the San Jose Galleon treasure is considered the most valuable treasure ever found!

San José was a 64-gun, three-masted galleon of the Spanish Armada de la Guardia de la Carrera de las India, it was designed by Francisco Antonio Garrote and built by Pedro de Aróstegui. Construction began in 1697 and ended in 1698. They built twin ships simultaneously and named them San José and San Joaquín.

Image created with AI, based on real characteristics of San Jose.

General characteristics:

Type: Galleon

Gross tonnage: 1,051 tons

Length: 71.00 cubits (29.8 m) on the lower deck: 60.18 cubits (25.27 m)

Beam: 21.91 cubits (9.2 m)

Draft: 11.75 cubits (4.9 m) estimated

Hold depth: 10 cubits (4.2 m)

Propulsion: Sails

Armament: 64 cannons

Lower deck: 26 cannons of 18 pounds

Middle deck: 26 cannons of 10 pounds

Stern deck and forecastle: 12 cannons of 6 pounds

THE SINKING:

"The San José, the flagship of the continental fleet, set sail alongside its twin, the San Joaquín, the flagship, and 10 cargo ships from Cádiz on March 10, 1706, bound for Cartagena de Indias.

With the presence of hostile English ships (due to the conflict over the Spanish throne succession), King Philip V ordered strong protection represented by 26 vessels. The galleon arrived in Cartagena in May, intending to head to Portobelo to collect a large amount of gold, silver, and other valuable objects from the Viceroyalty of Peru. However, its departure to Portobelo would be delayed by two years. On February 2, 1708, its captain, General José Fernández de Santillán, Conde de Casa Alegre, finally decided to depart accompanied by the protection fleet.

Despite the risk, Captain Fernández set sail for Cartagena on May 28 of the same year, accompanied by 16 ships, including the military ships San Joaquín, the most emblematic of the fleet with 64 cannons, and the Santa Cruz, which stood out. It had 55, but at that moment, it only had 44. These two ships, along with the San José, were the ones that transported most of the cargo, thanks to their offensive power.

But that wasn't enough to repel the British.

Wager's fleet consisted of the ships: HMS Expedition, armed with 74 cannons and serving as a flagship; HMS Kingston with 60 cannons, commanded by Captain Simon 'Timothy' Bridge; HMS Portland with 50 cannons, captained by Edward Windsor, and the fire ship Vulture, with 8 cannons, commanded by Captain B. Crooke.

On the night of June 7, 1708, the commander of the Spanish fleet decided to anchor at the Coral Islands of Rosario, about 20 leagues from the Bay of Cartagena. The next day, Wager slowly approached the Spanish.

The San José, in the center of the formation, was escorted at the bow by the French frigate Saint Esprit and by the urca Concepción.

Around five in the afternoon, the British commodore ordered the attack on the Spaniards. The Kingston opened fire on the San Joaquín, destroying the main mast, which delayed it, but it was heroically defended by the urca Concepción and the Saint Esprit, allowing it to escape.

Wager believed that the treasure was distributed among the 3 largest ships, so the HMS Expedition headed directly towards the galleon San José to board it, advancing with cannon shots. About 300 meters from its target, the Expedition fired at the sails and the rudder, but the Spanish ship responded to the fire with its starboard cannons. The British continued to shoot at the weak side of the San José, but with only 60 meters to start boarding, around seven-thirty in the evening, the San José exploded into thousands of pieces, also damaging the enemy. The astonished English watched as their loot was lost in the waters and sank to a depth of 210 meters. Of the nearly 600 people aboard the San José, only 11 were rescued, picked up by an English boat."

THE DISCOVERY: EL TESORO PECIO

The discovery of the Holy Grail of shipwrecks is still a matter of debate. A search group called Glocca Morra claims to have found the San Jose in 1981 and is legally fighting to obtain the treasure. The Colombian government, however, claims they found the treasure in 2015, in a different location from where the Glocca Morra group alleges to have found it. The Colombian government is demanding 100% of the treasure to be recovered. According to speculation, the galleon is located 600 meters deep in Colombian waters. Its exact location has not been revealed, but it is estimated to be near the Rosario Islands, 40 km from Cartagena.

THE TREASURE:

Valued at $20 billion, the San Jose treasure is already considered the most valuable treasure ever found, containing gold, silver, and jewels. Based on speculation that it had up to 11 million 4-doubloons (meaning 11 million gold coins of 8 escudos each, or 11 million coins each of 27 grams of 92% gold, totaling 8.8 million troy ounces AGW, or $11.5 billion) and many silver coins on board at the time of its sinking, similar to its surviving sister ship, San Joaquín. The silver and gold are from the mines of Potosí, Bolivia. The immense value of this cargo led San José to be called the "Holy Grail of Shipwrecks."

WHO CLAIMS THE TREASURE:

Despite the official discovery of the galleon San José being announced in 2015 by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, on December 5, 1981, a group of investors called Glocca Morra, operating under the name "Sea Search Armada" (SSA), claimed to have found the shipwreck off the coast of Colombia. There was an attempted negotiation by SSA, but the Colombian government rejected the proposal and prevented SSA from carrying out salvage operations at the wreck site. After losing rights to the found treasure, SSA sued Colombia in its own courts in 1989. After many years, in 2007, the Colombian Supreme Court concluded that any recovered treasure would be divided equitably between the Colombian government and the explorers. In addition to SSA and the Colombian government, the Qhara Qhara nation, an indigenous people of Bolivia, also claims a share of the wreck, pointing out that all the silver and gold came from their territory over 290 years ago, the plundering of which cost millions of lives due to inhumane exploitation by the Spanish in the mines and mills of Potosí and other mining centers. Therefore, as owners not only of sacred sites like Potosí but because they are alive with their own self-government and territory of their Ayllus, Markas, and in memory of their ancestors, they requested from Colombia administratively and judicially in 2017, a process that has been ongoing for over seven years, with significant advancements demonstrating the cargo and its historical relationship to their population, such as land contributions as taxes to the King and a loan of 123,000 silver coins. They emphatically state that it is not only silver and gold but other items that were looted from their territory and melted and transformed into coins and bars, which the galleon collected from Portobelo, and later the direction of its sinking, the amount of cargo, and how many souls perished on June 8, 1708, whose letter reached the Potosí council on November 27 of the same year. The indigenous population of Bolivia exhausted any cooperation in Bolivia from 2015 to 2019, receiving only encouragement for this great challenge; now they achieve inclusion in the exploration, a historic participation, and they point out that the spiritual reunion will be a new milestone and initiate the defense processes against any threat, such as Spain, which wants to desecrate, as their Spanish ancestors did by plundering the natives of the region. They also warn treasure hunters not to attempt it because justice will fall upon them when the peoples are alive, no one can be an owner. They also caution the IACHR and the ICJ that the rights of natives as indigenous peoples must be protected as the assets of the wreck. However, states like Spain must compensate for the material and immaterial damages they caused to indigenous peoples like the Qhara Qhara nation.

SAN JOSE COINS

(Courtesy of Glenn Murray)