Emily Chan
On January 4, 1656, the Spanish galleon known as the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) sank in what are now the waters of the northern Bahamas.
The vessel was built in northern Spain. It weighed 891 tons, had two decks, and was armed with 36 brass cannons.
The Maravillas was on its way to Cádiz in southwestern Spain with around 650 people on board when a storm hit in the Florida Strait. During the storm, the galleon collided with a reef and went down late in the night.
All the treasure it had been carrying was lost to the sea, including the objects and contraband salvaged from the Jesus Maria de la Limpia Concepión, which was lost off the coast of Ecuador. At the time, the Maravillas was one of the richest treasure ships ever lost.
Between 1656 and 1679, Spanish salvors from Havana salvaged the wreck. They were followed by English and colonial wreckers in the later 17th century.
In 1972, Bob Marx rediscovered the remains, and exploration of the wreck continued into the early 1990s. Finally, the Bahamian government put a stop to wreck hunting in 1992.
In 2019, a new license was issued to Allen Exploration (AllenX) so they could conduct scientific studies of the wreck.
This past summer, the company tracked a trail of wreckage south of where the Maravillas sank. They uncovered a link to the rise of the pirates of the Caribbean, who were once based in the port of Nassau in what is known as the Bahamas today.
During AllenX’s investigations, the team made several fresh finds, such as Chinese and Spanish pottery, grinding stones from the galleon’s kitchen, iron spikes that nailed the hull together, silver bars, and silver coins from Mexico.
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