A shipwreck discovered off the coast of Oman is likely the remains of the Esmeralda, a vessel that was part of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s fleet during his second voyage to India, the country’s Ministry of Heritage and Culture announced on Tuesday.
The wreckage, which was originally discovered in 1998 and excavated between 2013 and 2015, was likely one of the ships de Gama commanded when he returned in India in 1502 and 1503, a report from researchers with Blue Water Recoveries and Bournemouth University in the UK and the National Museum of Natural History in Washington has concluded.
One of the ship’s bells found at the site. Credit: David Mearns, National Geographic
According to National Geographic and Gulf Business magazine, the study authors are still in the process of analyzing more than 2,500 objects recovered from the wreckage. However, their early findings, based on the discovery of a special Portuguese coin minted for trade with India (one of just two known to exist) and cannonballs engraved with the initials of de Gama’s maternal uncle, Vincente Sodré, commander of the Esmeralda, indicate that it was likely that vessel.
The discovery is expected to be formally announced later on today, and if it is confirmed to have been a ship from de Gama’s fleet, it would be the earliest vessel ever located and recovered from the Age of Exploration, the period between the mid-1500s and the 1700s viewed by many as the golden age of maritime exploration in Europe, the publications added.
Analyzing the bell gave researchers insight into the origins of the vessel. Credit: David Mearns, National Geographic
Portuguese coins, initialed cannonballs point to the Esmeralda
De Gama was put in charge of Portugal’s fourth expedition to India by King Dom Manuel I in 1502, according to Nat Geo. He commanded a fleet of 20 ships, including the Esmeralda, all of which were well-armed in case they encountered potentially hostile Muslim merchants.
When de Gama returned to from India to Lisbon in 1503, he left the Esmeralda and four other ships behind to protect Portuguese factories in southwestern India. Sodré and his colleagues left the area and sailed to the Gulf of Aden between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa, where he led raids on Arab ships. That May, ignoring warnings of an incoming storm while docked at one of the the Khuriya Muriya Islands near modern-day Oman, Sodré’s ship was torn from its moorings and dashed against the rocks. The ship and its crew were lost at sea.
A gold coin found at the site. Credit: David Mearns, National Geograpic
In 1998, the 500th anniversary of da Gama’s discovery of the Carreira da India, David Mearns and his colleagues at Blue Water Recoveries began searching for the remains of the Esmeralda, and after just 20 minutes, they discovered cannonballs that clearly belonged to a European ship. They went on to discover more than 2,500 artifacts, including a ship’s bell that was revealed to contain the letter ‘M’ and the number ‘498,’ likely referring to the date 1498.
That would have been consistent with a vessel that had departed from Lisbon in 1502, Mearns told Nat Geo. They also found cannonballs carved with the initials ‘VS,’ likely Vincente Sodré, and led shot that has been matched to ore originally mined in Portugal, Spain and England. Also at the site were 12 gold Portuguese cruzado coins and a silver coin known as an índio which had been specially minted by Dom Manuel for trade with India in 1499.
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Image credit: David Mearns, National Geographic
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