ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered a 300-year-old shipwreck laden with treasure worth over £101 million.
The ship – believed to be the Nossa Senhora do Cabo – was sunk by pirates off Madagascar in 1721 during one of the most infamous raids in history.
The Portuguese vessel was transporting cargo from Goa, India, to Lisbon, Portugal, when it was raided.
The treasure ship is thought to have been attacked on April 8, 1721, by pirates under the command of Captain Olivier “The Buzzard” Levasseur, during what historians refer to as the Golden Age of Piracy.
The raid became one of the most notorious of the era due to its staggering plunder – thought to be one of the richest pirate hauls in history.
An estimated 200 enslaved people were also onboard at the time, and their fate remains unknown.
The Nossa Senhora do Cabo was a heavily armed, state-owned carrack, making its capture all the more humiliating for the Portuguese Empire.
Following 16 years of investigation, researchers at the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation discovered the wreck in Ambodifotatra Bay, near Nosy Boraha Island off Madagascar’s northeast coast.
More than 3,300 artefacts were pulled from the site, including religious figurines, gold ingots, pearls and treasure-filled chests.
One ivory plaque is inscribed with gold letters reading “INRI”, which is the Latin abbreviation for “Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum” – translating to “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”, as mentioned in the Roman gospels.
Brandon A. Clifford and Mark R. Agostini, researchers from Brown University behind the discovery, described the haul as “an eyewatering treasure, even by pirate standards”.
They estimate the cargo alone could be worth more than £108 million in today’s currency.
During the period that the Nossa Senhora do Cabo sailed, Portugal controlled key trade routes between India and Europe, transporting valuable goods from its colonies back to the Portuguese mainland.
Besides carrying spices and precious stones, the ship also transported enslaved people, who were forced to work in ports and mines throughout the empire.
Because of their material and human cargo, ships bound for Europe were prime targets for pirates, who could sell both goods and enslaved people for huge profit.
The discovery comes as researchers say they found a centuries-old Spanish galleon stacked with a £16bn treasure trove.
The San Jose, which was sunk by the British in 1708, was long thought to be lost beneath the Caribbean waters.
But academics in Colombia believe that a wreck found near Baru Island in 2015 is in fact the long-lost galleon.
An underwater drone mission a decade ago captured images of the cargo scattered in and around the shipwreck.
Among the items recovered were silver coins minted in Lima in 1707, Chinese porcelain from the Kangxi period and cannon inscriptions dating back to 1665.
