Cinque Chagas - Warship or merchant?

[Alexandre]

The ship was not sunk on Fayal channel, it was sunk some 15 to 20 miles south, where depths are deeper than 2000 meters.

That wreck is doable with a ROV.Im surprised no one has gone after it yet.https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#boating@10&key=y_hjF|momD

 

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[xaos]

There have been attempts to search for this wreck.

As with all of these $Billion dollar wrecks, I feel that some common sense needs to prevail.

In the day, spice was far more valuable that anything else, worth many times that of gold or silver. Pepper was the most valuable. Today, a wreck full of pepper corns is worthless.

Chests full of rubies, diamonds and such. Here we go, while perhaps valuable once sorted, but in reality, as we have seen from many wrecks, these gemstones were not of the value and clarity we seek today, some are, but well, who knows...

The ship was either partially recovered or blasted to pieces, depending on which accounts you believe..
Lets say not recoverered, and blasted. Where would loose stones be? Scattered and sunk to a soft bottom. On a good day, this would be tough enough to locate.

There were at least 2 major earthquakes and undersea landslides in this area since the sinking.

Searches have not even been able to located major pieces like cannon...good luck with stones.

Keep it as a legend and keep your money...as always, likely sovereign, so there are far easier wrecks to located/recover if you are in the mood.

 

[Zach_B]

also, the volcano on faial errupted in 1957, which likely covered the site with a generous amount soot/ash

 

[Alexandre]

Some 20 kms away, on the coast of Fayal Island, on depths of less than 15 meters, lies the wreckage of the "Nossa Senhora da Luz", the India fleet nau-capitania, sunk there november the 7th, 1615, which I located after a 4 year search.

She was carrying a real treasure, amassed by the Portuguese adventurer and mercenary, Filipe Brito de Nicote, who would later kill his burmese employer and become king of Birmany (then Kingdom of Pegu) in his place, to be even later impaled by another local ruler.

Nicote sent part of the fabulous Pegu treasure to Lisbon on board that ship. The greater part of it was never recovered.

My report, with the archaeological, historical and archival research, and some of the Ming porcelain recovered on the recon dive that located the wreck, attached.

There have been attempts to search for this wreck.

As with all of these $Billion dollar wrecks, I feel that some common sense needs to prevail.

In the day, spice was far more valuable that anything else, worth many times that of gold or silver. Pepper was the most valuable. Today, a wreck full of pepper corns is worthless.

Chests full of rubies, diamonds and such. Here we go, while perhaps valuable once sorted, but in reality, as we have seen from many wrecks, these gemstones were not of the value and clarity we seek today, some are, but well, who knows...

The ship was either partially recovered or blasted to pieces, depending on which accounts you believe..
Lets say not recoverered, and blasted. Where would loose stones be? Scattered and sunk to a soft bottom. On a good day, this would be tough enough to locate.

There were at least 2 major earthquakes and undersea landslides in this area since the sinking.

Searches have not even been able to located major pieces like cannon...good luck with stones.

Keep it as a legend and keep your money...as always, likely sovereign, so there are far easier wrecks to located/recover if you are in the mood.

 

[Alexandre]

As for the kind of cargo these ships would have, here's a Our Lady of the Conception, with Baby Jesus, carved in ivory, in the midst of a concretion of India pepper corns and Ming porcelain, recovered September 2018 by the two finders of the site, on the entrance of the Tagus river, from 12 meters deep, from the wreck I believe to be the "São Francisco Xavier", sunk 23 October 1625.

 

[xaos]

Zach, on your question. There is sometimes confusion between State owned and Sovereign. Back in the day, there was really little difference.
A King, or other titles, such as Viceroy, were considered as addressing a Sovereign. Kingdoms combined to make Countries.
One has to remember that many of what we call present day Countries did not exist even 100 or 200 years ago.

As an example, Italy did not unify the Kingdoms until 1861, and present day Italy was not a Country until 1946!