A 1533 treasure ship found in a drained diamond-field lagoon in 2008
This one stopped being a legend in 2008, which is exactly why it belongs here. Miners draining a lagoon in the Sperrgebiet diamond fields near Oranjemund hit timbers, then copper ingots, then a chest of gold coins: the Bom Jesus, a Portuguese trader that vanished in 1533, the oldest and richest wreck ever found off southern Africa. It went down with tonnes of copper and thousands of Spanish, Portuguese and Venetian coins, and the desert diamond ground kept it sealed for 475 years. The whole coast is a graveyard of wrecks, and the Sperrgebiet is a restricted diamond area, so this is a story to read rather than a beach to comb.
Oranjemund, the Sperrgebiet (Namibia)
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