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News Flash ! Golden Hoard Found in Sunken Galleon
On Saturday 8th November it was announced that a team of amateur divers have
found a haul of Moroccan gold coins and jewellery aboard a ship which foundered nearly 400
years ago half a mile off Salcombe in South Devon, England.
The divers were apparently about to abandon their search when veteran diver, Ron
Howell, 64, saw a glint of gold in a crevice and extracted a finger-shaped ingot a couple
of inches long. He then went on to waft his hands around and came across gold coins.
The hoard contained 430 wafer thin coins, earrings, pendants, bangles and stoneware.
It has been described by the British Museum as 'exceptionally important'. Experts think
the ship was probably a British or Dutch merchantman engaged in the growing trade along
Morocco's Barbary Coast. English merchants were enticed to Morocco by tales of its ruler
Ahmad al-Mansur and the huge quantities of gold he had seized in West Africa.
The ship probably floundered on its return journey home in the 1630's or 1640's,
probably on the notorious reefs of Gammon Head.
The divers will get a share of the reward when the treasure is sold. The British
Museum hopes to purchase the treasure.
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