Two more ancient vessels lie next to the galleon San José near Cartagena de Indias. The President of Colombia, Iván Duque, announced last night the discovery of a galleon from the colonial period and a schooner from the Republican period that were discovered by the Colombian Navy in the Caribbean Sea during an inspection carried out with new high-tech equipment to verify the state of San José, found in 2015. The remains of these two ancient ships will be studied by the Ministry of Culture and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (Icanh).
“We have already found two additional vessels: one vessel that is from the colonial period and another that, from the point of view of preliminary analysis, corresponds to the Republican period of our history,” Duque said in a statement.
He also stated that they have “history of around a dozen similar vessels”, which the Navy is investigating.
“In recent years, equipment has been purchased to reach the depths and obtain the best images that allow the integrity of the treasure to be protected and permanent and constant monitoring to be carried out so that everything is preserved and protected until the step of carrying out the investigation can be taken. respective extraction to later have the ability to make that wealth available to the world“, assured Duque. Last March, Colombia canceled the contracting process with the company that was going to plunder the San José galleon by declaring the tender for a public-private alliance with the MAC company void and announced the opening of a new call for the rescue of the wreck.
The images provided by these new pieces of equipment show more clearly the cannons of the San José, made in Seville, as well as some swords, amphorae and crockery with complete pieces, decorated with the insignia of the galleon. Macuquinas (coins minted in Spanish America manually) and a gold ingot have also been discovered. “We are talking about an important wealth that has a lot to tell us about our past,” said the General Maritime Director, José Joaquín Amézquita.
According to Admiral Gabriel Pérez, commander of the Navy, with the remote exploration vehicle they have been able to verify that “the area where the San José Galleon is located had not been intervened in any way by anthropic means or by the hand of man.”
