Read more about: Treasure Hunting The most expensive shipwrecks in history On 23 September, 1641, off the west coast of Cornwall, ‘ten leagues from Land’s End’, the merchant vessel sank.Įighteen lucky crewmembers were rescued by another ship, though presumably without saving any of the valuable treasure, for it was said that the captain afterwards was a broken man. With stormy seas and malfunctioning pumps, the ship began to take on more and more water.

These apparently failed to cure the problem, as the ship’s hull once again sprung a leak after leaving Cadiz. The ship had been troubled by leaks for some time, with repairs taking place in Cadiz. While in Cadiz, Captain Limbrey struck a lucrative deal with the Spanish authorities to transport silver and gold to the port city of Antwerp to pay the 30,000-strong Habsburg garrison there.

When the galleon got into difficulties off the Cornish coast in September 1641, she was on her way to Flanders, possibly with the aim of hugging the south coast of England on the way and calling in at her homeport of Dartmouth for vital repairs. Read more about: Tudor History The Mary Rose: Tudor battleship

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