Secrets Unearthed: Legendary Pirate Treasure Shipwreck Discovered Off Madagascar’s Coast
Center for Historic Shipwreck PreservationGold coins and porcelain fragments recovered from the shipwreck.
The ship’s cargo was likely worth $138 million in today’s currency and included “gold and silver bars, coins, silks, religious artifacts, and an extraordinary array of precious stones.” The ship was also carrying the former Viceroy of Goa and the Archbishop of Goa, the former of whom was ransomed, as well as some 200 enslaved Africans. At least 60 of the enslaved people were killed when the ship was taken, but the fates of the others are unknown.
From that point on, researchers aren’t entirely sure what happened to the Nossa Senhora do Cabo. The ship was seemingly scuttled near Madagascar, though not before it was commandeered and renamed Victorieux by Levasseur, who used it for a time as a pirate ship.
As such, the discovery of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo seems to have solved a centuries-old mystery about the lost ship. After being damaged in a storm and taken by pirates, the Portuguese treasure ship was ultimately abandoned. It’s spent the last three hundred years hidden in the deep, its remaining treasures scattered across the ocean floor.
After reading about the discovery of the Nossa Senhora do Cabo shipwreck, discover the stories of other famous shipwrecks from around the world. Or, learn about the Wager mutiny, when the crew of the HMS Wager was stranded on a remote island — and forced to turn to cannibalism.
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