A shipwreck which is believed to contain 200 tons of gold, silver and emeralds is going to be taken out as Colombia has declared a national mission to recover the treasure. The treasure ship will be exhumed before Colombia’s current President Gustavo Petro ends his term of office in 2026. The Spanish ship had sank off the Colombian port of Cartagena in 1708. The sinking happened during a battle with the British during which the powder magazines on the ship had been detonated. Reportedly, the treasure in the ship is worth 20 billion Dollars in today’s money. It has been dubbed as the Holy Grail of shipwrecks.
A team of navy divers under the Colombian government had discovered the ship in 2015, lying in about 3100 feet of water. In 2022, a team clicked images of the treasure in the ship. Talking about the national mission, Colombia’s Culture minister Juan David Correa said that the recovery of the treasure will be done soon. This is one of the priorities for the Petro administration.