2023 Author: Bryan Walter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 22:24
The wreckage of the Portuguese ship "Esmeralda" was found off the coast of Oman, the captain of which was the uncle of the navigator Vasco da Gama. Archaeologists reported their discovery in The International Journal of Nautical Archeology.
The discovery was made by specialists from the British company Blue Water Recoveries in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture of Oman. The company began researching the wreckage in a bay of one of the Omani islands back in 2013. In the end, she confirmed that the wreckage found under the water was fragments of one of two ships that disappeared during Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India.
Discovered by archaeologists, the ship Esmeralda, whose captain was Portuguese Vice Admiral Vicente Sodre, the uncle of the navigator Vasco da Gama, sank during a violent storm near the island of Al-Hallaniyah in the Indian Ocean. Presumably, this happened in May 1503.
Coin "indio"
On the ship, scientists discovered cannonballs, a bell, ceramics and a unique silver coin called "indio", which until now was only a single copy. These coins began to be minted in 1499, after Vasco da Gama returned from his first trip to India.
Vicente Sodre took part in the campaign of the 4th Indian Armada of Portugal - one of a series of naval expeditions (1497-1511) organized by the Kingdom of Portugal to India through the Cape of Good Hope along the route discovered by Vasco da Gama. In February 1503, Vasco da Gama sailed from India back to Portugal with most of the ships of the flotilla, while Sodre remained with a detachment of 5 or 6 ships to patrol the Indian Ocean.
