In the sixteenth century, Portugal was at the height of its power. The Age of Discovery saw trade routes opened across the globe including voyages to India and Brazil.
Inevitably not all ships made these dangerous journeys intact and the galleon 'Flor do Mar' sank in 1511 on a journey from the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia.
The good news for marine archaeologists and historians is, according to a Malaysian newspaper, that the vessel has been located.
Underwater drones have come across the galleon and a follow up inspection by a two companies has confirmed the find.
Aboard the ship was one Afonso de Albuquerque who had conquered Malacca and was returning home with a significant amount of valuable booty. The ship floundered and sunk off the Java coast but Alberquerque made it ashore to contine his lifelong hobby of plundering in the name of the crown.
The Chief Minister of Malacca has not yet confirmed the discovery of the 'Flor do Mar’ but the companies are certain it is the ship, missing for 503 years.
Robert Marx, an American treasure hunter, is said to have spent 20 million dollars attempting to recover the riches of the wreck. According to his statement, "it's the richest vessel ever lost at sea, with its hold loaded with 200 coffers of precious stones, diamonds from the small half-inch size to the size of a man's fist."
Today a replica of the Flor do Mar is housed in Malacca's Sea Maritime Museum.
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For more information see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flor_de_la_Mar
Comments
The problem being that when this period is revisited in the school classroom the children ask their history teacher the obvious question .... so, where is our importance now ? Why don't we matter.
A balanced answer might be to say that a number of nations have briefly had some importance in and around the world. They come and go. Greeks. Romans. Vikings once terrorised deep into the Med. French under Napolean. America nowadays. China next?
A skewed answer is to say .... 'Listen kids, we were numero uno once. The first global sea power (!!) - but those %%%%% at the Berlin Conference of 1884–8 took most of it off us. Then the Brits really rubbed our noses in it ....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Conference
Not seeing the New Europe - just the old one.