The Bom Jesus (“Good Jesus”) was on its way to India laden with gold and other treasure when it disappeared somewhere on Africa’s Atlantic coastline. The Gainesville News reports that miners at Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint operation between DeBeers and the government of Namibia, discovered pieces of the vessel as long as 8 years ago but up to now had no idea of the significance of their discovery.
Because the miners did not know what they had discovered, knowledge of the find has remained unreported. Luckily some of the workers made mention of finding pieces of metal, wood and pipes and an archaeologist, Dieter Noli, was eventually called to the scene.
Now a team of archaeologists led by Noli is able to reveal that the thousands of pure gold coins found on the sight are from Spain and Portugal. The coins confirm the vessels found is the Mom Jesus lost in 1533.
Amid the wreckage the team also found 44,000 pounds of copper ingots, which archaeologists believe allowed the ship to remain relatively intact all these years. The diamond mine’s security now protects the remains of the shipwreck. Timber, muskets, cannonballs and swords are kept damp, as they have been since the sixteenth century. By keeping its location secret, most of the find remains out of the public eye, but plans are afoot to build a museum featuring the shipwreck.
