The Claim
There’s over 1 billion dollars worth of treasure just off the coast of England
During the 17th century most European countries made huge developments in their Naval forces, as it not only helped defend their home county but opened up a whole new world of trade and possibilities.
Britain was one of the countries to invest the most in their navy and had one of the largest merchant fleets in Europe, sending ships all over the world to trade for great riches and bring them back home to Britain. One of the ships who’s life was to be dedicated to this task was called the “Merchant Royal.”
Manned with a crew of 58 and carrying 32 brass cannons, the Merchant Royal was one of the countries most successful trading ships in its day. After a 3 year mission of trading with Spain over in the West Indies, the merchant royal was on its was back home when the leaks it had sprung over the last few months of sailing became to risky to leave any longer, and so the ship called into the Spanish port of Cadiz.
While she was receiving repairs, another ship in the port caught fire and Captain Limbrey of the Merchant Royal saw his chance to make a little extra cash. The ship that was in flames just so happened to be carrying treasure that was to be used as pay for the 30,000 Spanish troops in Flanders, and so Captain Limbrey offered to have it loaded on his ship which he would take to Antwerp to drop it off.
After leaving the port of Cadiz the Merchant Royal and its sister ship, the Dover Merchant began to sail round the coast of Spain towards Antwerp. The maintenance done in Spain didn’t seem to help the leaking problem, and with all the extra weight on board seawater began to rush into the hull at a dangerous rate.
Knowing they’d never make it, the Merchant Royal changed course towards a port in Cornwall, but at this stage the entire crew were busy pumping water out the ship and doing everything they could to stay afloat.
When the ship was off the coast of Lands end, bad weather combined with both pumps giving out gave the crew no choice but to abandon ship. Fortunately the Dover Merchant was still close by and saved most of the crew, though 18 of them died in the sinking.
On the 23rd September 1641, the Merchant Royal sank off the west coast of Lands end in Cornwall, but due to the size and weight of the treasure combined with how fast the ship went down, its extremely unlikely they managed to load any significant amount of it on board the Dover Merchant.
The treasure is supposed to include 100,000 pounds of gold, 400 bars of silver from Mexico and 500,000 Spanish pesos and various other coins. If this is true then the gold alone would be worth over 1.5 billion Dollars, with all the other coins probably reaching a few hundred million.
So is it even real?
Normally treasure claims of this size almost always turn out to be just a story, but in this case there’s some significant documentation which suggests at least most of the story is true.
The following is a quote from King Charles I referring to the matter:
I suppose you have understood of the loss of the Royal Merchant coming into our road, which is the greatest that was ever sustained in one ship, being worth 400,000l. at least. The merchants of Antwerp will be the greatest losers, for she had in her belonging to them 300,000l. in bullion; if so be the Infante Cardinal lose not upon it Flanders for want of money to pay the soldiers. – ‘Charles I – volume 484: September 1641’, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles I, 1641–3 (1887)
There are also various papers within both Spanish and British documents that refer to the treasure, and both seem to support the story that it was indeed loaded upon the Merchant Royal, but also that it never made it to not only Antwerp, but anywhere.
The chances that the entire crews of both ships stole the money and everyone kept their mouths shut, along with getting away with spending hundreds of thousands of Spanish coins that were supposed to be lost seems highly unlikely.
As of today no one has found any trace that has been confirmed to be from the wreck, with the most recent claim coming from a big search operation in 2007 when the press claimed that some gold and silver found was from the ship, but it turned out to be from some other Spanish vessel.
Its location is said to be between 5 and 20 miles west off the furthest southern point of Cornwall, a steep cliff area known as lands end.
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