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Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
Archaeologists from the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation discovered a 1721 shipwreck off the coast of Madagascar.
The Portuguese ship was overtaken by pirates in a known piracy region.
The ship was loaded with gold, diamonds, and emeralds when the pirates attacked.
When famed pirates overtook a Portuguese ship in 1721 once laden with treasure (now valued over $138 million), the battle went well for the pirates, who eventually sank the ship off the coast of Madagascar.
A pair of American archaeologists now claim they’ve discovered the final site of the lost vessel.
Known as the Nossa Senhora do Cabo—translated as Our Lady of the Cape—the ship left India with a Portuguese viceroy and the Archbishop of Goa, 200 slaves, and treasure aplenty. Pirates were ready and Olivier “The Buzzard” Levasseur led an ambush of the ship near Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean with a fleet of pirate ships aiming to take down the larger Portuguese ship.
Already tossed about by a storm, the pirates easily took control of not only the ship, but the treasure aboard, eventually sailing it roughly 400 miles west of Reunion Island before ditching it in what is now Nosy Boraha——then known as Ile Sainte-Marie. After 16 years of searching off Madagascar’s northeast coast, American archaeologists Brandon Clifford and Mark Agostini from the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation wrote in Wreckwatch magazine they discovered the wreck and over 3,300 artifacts.
While not confirmed beyond the two archaeologists, Clifford told Live Science the identification is “supported by multiple lines of evidence,” including analysis of the ship itself and how historical record and artifacts found at the site match the ship’s history.
The loot—dubbed “an eye-watering treasure, even by pirate standards,” according to the hunters—would fetch at least $138 million in today’s money, they pair claimed, with records noting gold and silver bars, coins, silks, and more than 400 gemstones, including 110 diamonds and 250 emeralds, part of the ship’s store, as reported by ZME Science. Denis Piat, in his 2014 book “Pirates & Privateers in Mauritius,” wrote the ship carried blocks of gold and chests crammed full of pearls, Live Science reported.
The find came some 400 miles from the site of the historic attack, the archaeologist said, near the harbor of Nosy Boraha. It took more than a decade of sonar and remote sensing to locate a ship on the seafloor. From there, they team found a bevy of artifacts, including religious statuettes and plaques—some of the Virgin Mary and others honoring “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”—the experts believe were likely created in Goa, India, and bound for use in Lisbon’s cathedrals.
The team also found plenty of pottery fragments and Arabic-inscribed gold coins now buried under the sand and silt of the seafloor.
Of course, the bulk of the treasure never made it to the bottom of the sea. The feared “The Buzzard” and his crew picked off much of the value. They eventually ransomed the viceroy and some of the valuables back to Lisbon, although the historical record has no account of the fate of the 200 slaves or the archbishop.
Known as the Golden Age of Piracy, the island once known as Ile Sainte-Marie was a pirate hotbed thanks to the calm waters and freedom from colonial authority, according to ZME Science, and dozens of pirates made the island a launching point for patrolling the shipping channels.
Clifford said that there could be as many as 10 ships wrecked around the island and he believes at least four are in the same harbor as the Nossa Senhora do Cabo.
“The site has historically been overlooked by researchers,” Agostini said, “and so there’s ample room for more discoveries that give us a glimpse into the past.” He hopes to make it happen. “Ideally,” Agostini told Live Science, “future fieldwork will lead to more analysis of the many wrecks there.”
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