The 1612 Almirante of the Armada Del Mar Del Sur, Nuestra Senora de la Magdalena, has been discovered on the shoal opposite the Jama River in Ecuador. The ship was armed with 56 bronze cannon and both 17th century Spanish and English charts note that she was carrying "an abundance of plate and other treasure." Marx's research states 7 million pesos. The lease area is held by EXDELMAR S.A ( Exploracion Del Mar Del Sur S.A) and J A Ruth of Indialantic, Florida is the founder and General manager of the company.
Earlier magnetometer surveys of the area, which is located about 10 miles south of latitude 0 degrees, were followed up by a test excavation of one anomaly location of the site back in march of this year and the results were positive for early 17th century galleon material. In addition to dozens of intact arquebuses (dated between 1580-1620) which were found perfectly presevered in the anaerobic river mud, (which is what had been detected by the magnetometer),the single excavation produced broken olive jars, large timbers, bundles of black coral handled silver knives, bone gambling dice, bronze sewing pins, silver spools of pure gold metallic thread and the gilded remains of the vestments of an Arch Bishop. The location of the find is exactly where various 17 th charts note the wreck symbol to be. This is also the first instance of confirmation that any of the wrecks noted on any of the William Hacke Charts of 1684, which were copied and translated from captured Spanish originals brought back to England and gifted to Charles II by the Buccaneer Bartholomew Sharpe in 1682, are accurate.
The excavations of the site were stopped after the one hole excavated produced the galleon artifacts. A P-10 device was then flown to Ecuador and a survey was conducted with the towed device across the same magnetometer grid to search for non ferrous metals. Over 150 large non ferrous targets were discovered within a 600 ft swath surounding and leading out to sea away from the arquebus discovery. The magnetomer in turn registered nothing when deployed across the same search grid. Following the P-10 survey, the work was then terminated several days later due to inclement weather and illness amongst the team. The discovery team then returned to the US in early April to wait out the remainder of the equatorial rainy season while a skeleton crew remained behind to both secure the site and maintain the company's excavation vessel, R/V Nautilus.
The weather at the Jama site is now entering its seasonal dry and will remain so through November and the discovery team headed by J Ruth of Indialantic is now in the process of returning to Ecuador to resume the work. Formal media releases pertaining to the find are scheduled several weeks from now and work is expected to resume at the site within ten days.
The US Flagged vessel, R/V Nautilus, which was formerly owned and operated as a marine archaeology research vessel by the Marine Archaeology Department of The University of West Florida, has twin 871-V Detroits and was purchased by the company in March 2005 after Governor Bush formaly accepted the offer we had submitted to the University's Board of Regents and signed the vessel over. The Nautilus then underwent 8 months of renovations, was upgraded and enhanced for remote area operations and finally outfitted with twin 36 inch blowers. The Nautilus arrived in Ecuador in January 2006 after 31 days at sea after sailing from Florida to Ecuador and transiting the Panama Canal. After a further month of delays due to weather and the need for repairs to damaged blowers, the vessel finally arrived at the Jama site in March and made the discovery.\\
The work is in collaboration with the Ecuadors Cultural Patrimony Institute and the Ecuadorian Navy and representatives of both organizations were present during all phases of the exploration and discovery process.
EXDELMAR S.A also holds a second 60 squ mile lease which is located 150 miles south of the 37 squ mile Jama site. The second lease is the resting place of the 1641 galleon, N S Loreto, which was a Capitana documented to have been carrying 9.5 million pesos. The Loreto is noted on various charts to have been lost at a specific place which has been identified within that lease area. No formal survey work has taken place to look for her yet.
Ruth founded a second Ecuadorian company in November 2005, Los Caballeros Aventureros S.A (The Gentlemen Adeventurers S.A) and in May 2006 Ruth's new company was awarded two more leases totaling another 90 miles of coastline by the Government of Ecuador. The new areas are broken into two non contiguous ship wreck leases and each area was chosen because it is documented to contain another valuable South Seas Armada galleon wreck. The historical information in possession of the company narrows the search area for the wrecks down to less than two squ miles in each instance. The two historic wrecks are the N.S Remedios lost in 1590 and which carried a registered treasure of 225 tons of silver, 12 tons of gold along with 42 mechant pssengers who were carrying another 1 million gold ducats to the trade fair at Porto Bello. Using the old charts and modern overlays, the area of the wreck has been positively identified.
The second wreck is the N.S Clarines or Clarius which was lost in 1594 and was carrying a load of treasure only slightly less than that registered to have been on board the N S Remedios. The location of the Clarius was previously vague and information existing prior to 2005 could only bring a searcher to within a 20 mile area. However, a Spanish chart dated 1669 and another from 1730, which were both discovered in different archives in late 2005 and which both specifically identify the name place where the wreck of the Clarius is located, have now narrowed the prospective search area down to two squ miles or less. Following the verification of this new research information and a determination that the name places have not changed in 400 years, the area of the wreck was added to the new lease holdings of the new company.
Survey work in both new areas is scheduled to begin later this year.
JR
END--
Earlier magnetometer surveys of the area, which is located about 10 miles south of latitude 0 degrees, were followed up by a test excavation of one anomaly location of the site back in march of this year and the results were positive for early 17th century galleon material. In addition to dozens of intact arquebuses (dated between 1580-1620) which were found perfectly presevered in the anaerobic river mud, (which is what had been detected by the magnetometer),the single excavation produced broken olive jars, large timbers, bundles of black coral handled silver knives, bone gambling dice, bronze sewing pins, silver spools of pure gold metallic thread and the gilded remains of the vestments of an Arch Bishop. The location of the find is exactly where various 17 th charts note the wreck symbol to be. This is also the first instance of confirmation that any of the wrecks noted on any of the William Hacke Charts of 1684, which were copied and translated from captured Spanish originals brought back to England and gifted to Charles II by the Buccaneer Bartholomew Sharpe in 1682, are accurate.
The excavations of the site were stopped after the one hole excavated produced the galleon artifacts. A P-10 device was then flown to Ecuador and a survey was conducted with the towed device across the same magnetometer grid to search for non ferrous metals. Over 150 large non ferrous targets were discovered within a 600 ft swath surounding and leading out to sea away from the arquebus discovery. The magnetomer in turn registered nothing when deployed across the same search grid. Following the P-10 survey, the work was then terminated several days later due to inclement weather and illness amongst the team. The discovery team then returned to the US in early April to wait out the remainder of the equatorial rainy season while a skeleton crew remained behind to both secure the site and maintain the company's excavation vessel, R/V Nautilus.
The weather at the Jama site is now entering its seasonal dry and will remain so through November and the discovery team headed by J Ruth of Indialantic is now in the process of returning to Ecuador to resume the work. Formal media releases pertaining to the find are scheduled several weeks from now and work is expected to resume at the site within ten days.
The US Flagged vessel, R/V Nautilus, which was formerly owned and operated as a marine archaeology research vessel by the Marine Archaeology Department of The University of West Florida, has twin 871-V Detroits and was purchased by the company in March 2005 after Governor Bush formaly accepted the offer we had submitted to the University's Board of Regents and signed the vessel over. The Nautilus then underwent 8 months of renovations, was upgraded and enhanced for remote area operations and finally outfitted with twin 36 inch blowers. The Nautilus arrived in Ecuador in January 2006 after 31 days at sea after sailing from Florida to Ecuador and transiting the Panama Canal. After a further month of delays due to weather and the need for repairs to damaged blowers, the vessel finally arrived at the Jama site in March and made the discovery.\\
The work is in collaboration with the Ecuadors Cultural Patrimony Institute and the Ecuadorian Navy and representatives of both organizations were present during all phases of the exploration and discovery process.
EXDELMAR S.A also holds a second 60 squ mile lease which is located 150 miles south of the 37 squ mile Jama site. The second lease is the resting place of the 1641 galleon, N S Loreto, which was a Capitana documented to have been carrying 9.5 million pesos. The Loreto is noted on various charts to have been lost at a specific place which has been identified within that lease area. No formal survey work has taken place to look for her yet.
Ruth founded a second Ecuadorian company in November 2005, Los Caballeros Aventureros S.A (The Gentlemen Adeventurers S.A) and in May 2006 Ruth's new company was awarded two more leases totaling another 90 miles of coastline by the Government of Ecuador. The new areas are broken into two non contiguous ship wreck leases and each area was chosen because it is documented to contain another valuable South Seas Armada galleon wreck. The historical information in possession of the company narrows the search area for the wrecks down to less than two squ miles in each instance. The two historic wrecks are the N.S Remedios lost in 1590 and which carried a registered treasure of 225 tons of silver, 12 tons of gold along with 42 mechant pssengers who were carrying another 1 million gold ducats to the trade fair at Porto Bello. Using the old charts and modern overlays, the area of the wreck has been positively identified.
The second wreck is the N.S Clarines or Clarius which was lost in 1594 and was carrying a load of treasure only slightly less than that registered to have been on board the N S Remedios. The location of the Clarius was previously vague and information existing prior to 2005 could only bring a searcher to within a 20 mile area. However, a Spanish chart dated 1669 and another from 1730, which were both discovered in different archives in late 2005 and which both specifically identify the name place where the wreck of the Clarius is located, have now narrowed the prospective search area down to two squ miles or less. Following the verification of this new research information and a determination that the name places have not changed in 400 years, the area of the wreck was added to the new lease holdings of the new company.
Survey work in both new areas is scheduled to begin later this year.
JR
END--
