The marine archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro has made an announcement that shook the world. As he explained on the coast of Portugal, between the Azores and Madeira, there are shipwrecks full of gold treasures. It is said that in this region there are about 8,620 ships, and of them, 250 harbor unimaginable tons of gold.
Monteiro is a researcher working with the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and has created a database in which he keeps records of shipwrecks dating back to the 16th century. Recall that at that time historical records became more easily accessible.
In an interview with the local media Lusa, Monteiro claims to have documented more than 7,500 shipwrecks on the mainland coast of Portugal. One thousand of them were found near the Azores and 120 on Madeira Island. The most surprising thing about this? Several contain gold treasures inside.
The most important shipwrecks found off the coast of Portugal and the gold treasures.
During the talk with this local media, Monteiro highlighted some of the most significant shipwrecks he was able to identify in the area of Portugal. For example, he stated that near Troia there is a Spanish ship called Nossa Senhora do Rosário, which according to Monteiro is carrying 22 tons of gold and silver.
Unfortunately, the exact location remains undiscovered. This ship, by sinking, keeps the treasure safe from possible looting, given its depth in the ocean. The same is true of many of the 250 alleged shipwrecks in the area.
“We know there are 250 ships that hold treasure and that, sooner or later, a construction project or something similar will uncover it. Anyway, there is no contingency plan to protect these finds,” explained the archaeologist who works with the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Lack of action by the Portuguese government
Monteiro’s research is available to the whole world. All the data he collected has been handed over to the Portuguese authorities. Despite this, the government has not taken any measures to protect the sites where the shipwrecks with gold treasures inside were found.
Cultural sites such as those described in Monteiro’s research represent a very valuable heritage for the country, both economically and culturally. If measures are not taken to protect them, these unique sites and the treasures they hold could be endangered.
According to the marine archaeologist, the greatest tragedy of these shipwrecks is that no one knows exactly how many ships there are or where they are located. However, Monteiro says that this is only the first step, because it is much more important to actively protect the shipwrecks.
The local scientific community is currently trying to pressure the government to take more proactive measures to preserve the wrecks. And while the researcher claims that the gold treasures of these shipwrecks are safe from treasure hunters because they are buried under the sand, he stresses that they still need to be protected. The threat comes from development projects that could expose these sites without preventive measures for their conservation.
One of the archaeologist’s greatest achievements
Towards the end of the interview, the archaeologist had his moment to recall one of his greatest achievements in shipwreck research: the discovery of the flagship Nossa Senhora da Luz. Recall that this ship was lost in 1615 near Faial, in the Azores. “I wanted to find that ship. It took me four years to research in several archives, and on the first dive I made, I found the wreck site” he recounted.
