Utah based Deep Blue Marine Inc. has discovered the oldest known shipwreck located of the coast of Dominican Republic. Their divers found gold coins, jade statues and ancient Mayan Jewellery. The company still believes there are greater treasures. Divers found gold coins that date back to 1535. One particular set of four coins is valued at a million dollars. Deep Blue Marine will get to keep 50% of the recovered items and The Dominican government gets the rest.
President of Deep Blue Marine, Wilf Blum says, "This is the history and the birthplace of America and here we are lucky enough to finding the shipwrecks from that time era."
Just a few years after Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, the ship sank into the dark waters off the Dominican coast.
Captain William Rawson was the first to find the treasure’s trail. "We found some old fella in town that was selling a coin. I bought the coin from him and we looked in a book and found it was one of the oldest coins ever minted in the new world," he said.
Rawson used technology such as side scan sonar to search the area where the old local liked to dive.Little by little he uncovered parts of the wreckage.
“This is pretty incredible when you think about it. This has been on the ocean floor for 450 years," Rawson said.
"We found these two mirrors made out of iron pyrite. And they've been lying on the ocean floor for 450 years, but you can still take and turn them and see your face in them," said Rawson.
"The only other fleet we know of that's older than this is the 1502 fleet and it's never been discovered," he continued.
Source: My Fox
