Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
There are around 250 sunken ships with treasures in the waters of the Azores archipelago, Madeira and the Portuguese continental coast, underwater archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro, who mapped 8,620 shipwrecks in these areas, told the local portal Observador.
"I have a database of about 7,500 ships on the continental coast, about a thousand in the Azores and 120 ships on the coast of Madeira. They were lost there," said Monteiro, who is a researcher at the Institute of History, Territories and Communities of the Nova University of Lisbon.
Among other findings, the archaeologist assured that one of the sunken ships off the coast of the Portuguese peninsula of Troia is the Spanish ship called Nuestra Señora del Rosario, which was lost in 1589 carrying 22 tons of gold and silver.
When asked if the Portuguese government knew this information, the researcher said that it was published, but that nothing was done.
"There is no contingency plan to protect a find like this," the archaeologist commented.
However, the danger of these valuable pieces being left at the mercy of treasure hunters is not serious, Monteiro said. "It will be difficult, because everything is under the sand," he said. (Text and photo: RT)
