Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Culture and Blue Water Recoveries announced the discovery and archaeological excavation of a Portuguese East Indiaman. Details were published in the latest issue of the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
The ship is believed to be the nau Esmeralda commanded by Vicente Sodré, who was the maternal uncle of Vasco da Gama. It sank in a storm in May 1503 near Al Hallaniyah island, which lies along the southern coast of Oman.
The wreck site was initially discovered by a Blue Water Recoveries team in 1998, on the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama’s epic discovery of the direct sea route to India, but full-scale archaeological survey and excavation by the Oman government didn’t begin until 2013. Since then two more excavations have been conducted in 2014 and 2015, with more than 2,800 artefacts being recovered. T
Key individual artefacts that helped in identification of the wreck site as Vicente Sodré’s nau Esmeralda include:
- an important copper-alloy disc marked with the Portuguese royal coat of arms and an esfera armilar (armillary sphere), which was the personal emblem of King Dom Manuel I.
- a bronze bell with an inscription that suggests the date of the ship was 1498.
- gold cruzado coins minted in Lisbon between 1495 and 1501.
- an extraordinarily rare silver coin, called the Indio, that was commissioned by Dom Manuel in 1499 specifically for trade with India. The extreme rarity of the Indio (there is only one other known example in the world) is such that it has legendary status as the ‘lost’ or ‘ghost’ coin of Dom Manuel.
The bulk of the recovered artefacts were artillery and ordnance from the arsenal on board the ship. These included lead, iron and
stone shot of various calibres, a large number of bronze breech chambers and several ancient firearms. Together they provide tangible proof of the military objectives of this fleet as ordered by Dom Manuel and brutally carried out by Vasco da Gama and his two uncles Vicente and Brás Sodré.
500-Year-Old Shipwreck discovered off the coast of Oman
The remains of 500-year-old ship have been found near an island belonging to Oman. It is believed to have been a ship belonging to Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, which sunk in 1503.