San José galleon

San José was a Spanish warship with 64 guns, launched in 1698 in the Basque Country of Spain. In 1708 she sank off the coast of Colombia while carrying a treasure of gold, silver and emeralds from South America. She is often called the holy grail of shipwrecks.

On 8 June 1708 San José was the flagship of a treasure fleet when it met a British squadron near Barú Island. During the battle her gunpowder store blew up and she sank, killing nearly all of the roughly 600 people on board. In November 2015 the wreck was found about 600 metres deep, and its cargo is estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

The last voyage

San José and a twin ship, San Joaquín, were built together by the Spanish Crown. Spain was fighting the War of the Spanish Succession, and it needed the gold, silver, emeralds and jewels from its American lands to pay for the war. The fleet was carrying treasure from Portobelo in Panama to Cartagena in Colombia. Near Barú the British attacked in a fight known as Wager's Action, and the powder magazines on San José exploded, sinking her within moments.

Finding the wreck, and who owns it

Colombia announced in 2015 that the wreck had been located, and the exact spot is kept secret. Since 2017, Colombian scientists and the navy have been exploring the site, and they plan a future museum in Cartagena. Spain says the wreck is a warship and a war grave, and Colombia says it is part of its national heritage. A salvage company and Indigenous groups from Bolivia also claim a share, so the ownership dispute is not settled.

On the globe

The model shows a wreck lying on the sea floor, not on the surface. On the globe it looks like a ship sunk under water.