Shipwreck in the forbidden zone

A 

On 7 March 1533, a fleet of large Portuguese trading ships left Lisbon and sailed down the River Tagus towards the Atlantic Ocean. Their destination was India, and the return journey was expected to take approximately fifteen months. The ships hoped to bring back valuable spices, particularly pepper, from Portugal’s expanding network of overseas trading ports. Among the vessels was the Bom Jesus, or "Good Jesus", a recently built ship owned by King João III. It was commanded by Dom Francisco de Noronha and carried around 300 sailors, soldiers, merchants, priests, nobles and enslaved people.

B 

The Bom Jesus never reached India, and for almost five centuries its fate remained uncertain. Investigating the loss was especially difficult because most of Portugal’s official maritime records had been destroyed in 1755. In that year, a powerful earthquake struck Lisbon and was followed by a tsunami and fire. The Casa da India, where maps, sailing charts and records of voyages had been stored, collapsed into the river. Consequently, historians attempting to identify lost Portuguese vessels have had to depend on scattered documents and archaeological evidence.

C 

One important clue came from the gold coins discovered in the wreck. A large number were Portuguese coins produced during the reign of King João III between 1525 and 1538. As these coins were later withdrawn and melted down, their presence helped researchers establish a relatively narrow date for the voyage. The cargo also included an enormous quantity of copper. Such metal was normally carried from Europe to India, where it could be exchanged for spices. This showed that the ship was probably travelling towards Asia rather than returning to Portugal. Researchers then examined the surviving narratives of Portuguese fleets. These documents listed 21 ships that had disappeared while sailing to India between 1525 and 1600. Of these, only the Bom Jesus, which left Portugal in 1533, was reported missing anywhere near Namibia. A surviving illustration from the 16th-century Memória das Armadas provided further evidence. It showed a ship from the 1533 fleet sinking beneath the waves and identified it with the single word perdido -- lost.

D 

Although no complete account of the disaster survives, researchers have reconstructed a likely sequence of events. Approximately four months after leaving Portugal, the fleet encountered a violent storm near the Cape of Good Hope, and its ships became separated. The damaged Bom Jesus may then have been caught by the strong winds and currents running along the south-western African coast. These forces probably carried it hundreds of kilometres north before it struck rocks close to the Namib Desert. Part of the stern broke apart, and heavy copper ingots fell through the damaged hull as the ship sank.

E 

The wreck was finally discovered in April 2008, not by professional archaeologists but by workers at a diamond mine near the town of Oranjemund. Mining companies in this region construct enormous barriers to hold back the Atlantic Ocean and then remove the seawater so that diamonds can be extracted from the exposed seabed. During one such operation, a machine operator uncovered copper ingots and elephant tusks. Further investigation revealed timbers, cannons, swords, muskets, navigation equipment and thousands of coins. The mining company immediately stopped work around the site and invited specialists to conduct an emergency excavation. The location offered unusual protection from treasure hunters because it lay inside one of the world’s most closely guarded mining areas, formerly known as the Sperrgebiet, or "forbidden zone". Archaeologists described the discovery as exceptionally important, since very few Portuguese ships from this period had ever been scientifically excavated.

F 

Ironically, the copper that had contributed to the ship’s loss also helped preserve it. The ingots weighed down sections of the vessel and prevented them from being carried away by waves and storms. In addition, the presence of copper discouraged some marine organisms that would normally have consumed the wood. Archaeologists carefully measured and photographed the surviving structure and used three-dimensional scanning equipment to record the site. The remains rested below sea level, behind the temporary wall created by the mining operation. Maintaining a dry excavation area was both difficult and expensive, so the team had limited time to recover and document the objects before the ocean was allowed to return.

G 

The fate of the people aboard remains a mystery. A small number of human bones were found beneath the ship’s timbers, indicating that at least one person died during the wreck. However, these were the only human remains at the site, and relatively few personal possessions were discovered. Some archaeologists therefore believe that many of the passengers and crew may have reached land. Survival would nevertheless have been extremely difficult. The surrounding desert was cold in winter, almost uninhabited and far from normal shipping routes. No rescue party knew where to search for the missing vessel. However, the Orange River lay a short distance south of the wreck and could have provided fresh water. Shellfish, seabird eggs and desert snails were also available as food. Local hunter-gatherers sometimes travelled through the region during winter. Archaeologists have suggested that the Europeans might have survived if they met these groups and traded peacefully with them, although no historical record confirms that such an encounter occurred.

H 

There is a final irony in the story. The people aboard the Bom Jesus had left Europe in search of wealth, yet they were shipwrecked on one of the richest diamond-producing coastlines in the world. For millions of years, diamonds had travelled down the Orange River from deposits far inland. After reaching the Atlantic, the stones were carried north and deposited along the desert coast. The same cold current that transported this extraordinary wealth may also have helped drive the Bom Jesus towards its destruction.