The discovery of a ship in a southwest African desert that went missing five centuries ago and had gold coins on board is one of the most exciting archeological finds of the last few years.
Friday, March 7, 1533, saw the departure of a Portuguese vessel from Lisbon. Its whereabouts were unknown until 2008, when its bones were discovered while doing diamond mining in Namibia’s desert near the shore.
A powerful storm caused it to capsize as it was traveling towards India, taking treasures like copper and gold ingots with it. Two thousand pieces of pure gold and tens of thousands of pounds of copper ingots were discovered on board the ship, almost all of which were found unharmed.
