Unpath’d Waters Connects International Wrecks: San José’s Treasure – Valued for Financial or Cultural Riches?
Unpath’d Waters project proposal asked: ‘How can we establish what engages different people with historic wrecks either onshore in museums or offshore still submerged, and what does that mean for the way we as nations protect and provide access to them?’
Dr Ann Coats, Co-Investigator of the People and the Sea workpackage, through the University of Portsmouth, contacted journalists in March about the shipwrecked San José treasure galleon. The Colombian government had announced that artefacts from San José, sunk off Cartagena by the Royal Navy in 1708, would be recovered in April. Press articles, such as ‘First treasure from $17.5bn ‘Holy Grail of shipwrecks’ to surface next month’ focused on who owned its wealth (21 March 2024). Spain, Colombia, Bolivia, and the US finders all claim ownership.
But Dr Coats argued for a focus on cultural riches by connecting international collections, Bolivians who produced the silver enslaved Africans who mined gold in New Granada, Colombia, San José’s Spanish shipbuilders, 600 drowned crew and passengers, and today’s communities. She declared that their voices should be heard.
She also contended that San José is linked internationally to the Unpath’d Waters project through her research into HMS Looe, shipwrecked in 1705 off the Needles. In 1708 Looe’s former Captain Bridges commanded HMS Kingston in Commodore Wager’s 1708 Action/Battle of Barú against the Spanish treasure fleet. San José was sunk, Santa Cruz captured, and San Joaquin escaped, for which Bridges was dismissed from the navy.
HMS Looe’s convoys to the Atlantic hub of Newfoundland were vital to Britain during the 1701–14 War of Spanish Succession. Willam III, then Queen Anne campaigned against France’s Louis XIV to protect the 1688 Protestant settlement and maintain overseas trade. Countering Louis’ influence over the Spanish throne and its rich colonies prompted attacks on the Spanish treasure fleet. The successful capture of San José by Wager’s squadron would have supported this very expensive war.
Luke Taylor of the Guardian interviewed Dr Coats and Dr Hildred of the Mary Rose: ‘“Holy grail of shipwrecks”: recovery of 18th-century Spanish ship could begin in April.’
It would be nice if for once money wasn’t driving things and a huge cultural collaboration could take place to study it properly.
By enhancing the significance of submerged and displayed wrecks, Unpath aims to increase audience engagement. What can shipwrecks mean to us and how can we kindle the curiosity and excitement of searching for shipwrecks? Unpath advocates connecting the voices of historical people and today’s communities to create new stories for new audiences.
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