 In March 1622, a fleet of
ships including the São José hastily
departed Lisbon with an urgent mission.
Bound for Goa, the capital of Portugal’s
enormous overseas empire, the fleet carried
Francisco da Gama, whose great grandfather,
the legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da
Gama, was the first European to set foot in
India via sea route. When the elder da Gama
discovered Goa in 1498 it was the largest
trading center on India’s western coast and
would become Portugal's most important
possession in its quest to control the spice
trade. Now over a century later, da Gama’s
great grandson was returning to Goa to reign
as the Viceroy of India under the unified
Spanish and Portuguese crown.
The small Portuguese fleet, including its
Almiranta, the São José, left the country in
a hurry following reports that the British
planned to take Hormuz, a
Portuguese-occupied island ideally situated
in the narrow strait between the Persian
Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This strategic
waterway served as the gateway of the spice
trade to Arabia and the Levant and was the
only sea route through the Persian Gulf to
India. En route to Goa, the Portuguese fleet
had plans to block the British aggression
and deter the loss of this critical outpost.
The São José was a “carrack,” an immense
sailing vessel distinguished by her huge
stern castle towering high above the sea.
Armed with brass cannon, she was typical of
Portuguese ships sailing to the Far East,
transporting ballast, passengers and the
annual consignment of money to support trade
with the East and Portuguese outposts along
the trade routes. The São José was indeed
carrying an impressive cargo, the legendary
silver treasure of Philip III, King of
Portugal, handed over to Francisco da Gama
on his way to India. The shipment included
nine chests filled with thousands of silver
reales coins produced in both the Old and
New World mints.
The passengers aboard the São José ranged
from nobility to “orphans of the king.” The
large vessel demanded a big crew which was
comprised mostly of ex-convicts and the “low
class.” In need of able-bodied man, Portugal
was scraping the bottom of the human barrel
to operate its many ships and offices of the
empire.
After the São José and her fleet rounded
the Cape of Good Hope, she proceeded up the
well-traveled route along the East African
coast into the Strait of Madagascar. The
evening of 22 July, 1622, as the vessel
sailed up the Mozambique Channel, a combined
fleet of Dutch and British ships of the East
India Company attacked the Portuguese
flotilla. Trailing behind the others, the
São José was cut off from the rest of the
fleet and surrounded by the enemy which
allegedly fired more shots into the
embattled vessel than ever before recorded
in a single-ship attack in the Indian Ocean.
As fighting took place, the ship’s captain,
senior officers and others had fallen ill
and the commanding officer and pilot were
killed.
Despite damage to her sails and spars, the
São José remained afloat and navigable by
late 23 July. The carrack attempted to
escape the opposing fleet by sailing away
from battle—a rare act in Portuguese naval
warfare at the time. Fleeing toward the
African coast, the great ship ran into a
shoal that tore off her rudder. Now drifting
at the mercy of wind and wave, failed
attempts were made to control the enormous
vessel. Anchors were dropped in vain and
cannon thrown overboard to lighten the ship.
Despite these heroic efforts, the São José
met her demise grounded on a reef off the
Mozambique coast, victim to final assault by
the Anglo-Dutch fleet. A reported 66,000
Spanish reales were salvaged by the enemy, a
small share of the total treasure aboard the
ship, lost with some 300-400 passengers and
crew as the vessel broke up and sank to the
bottom of the Mozambique Channel.
For nearly 400 years, the wreck of the São
José remained hidden off the isolated coast
of East Africa until her discovery in May
2005 by Portuguese marine archaeology
company Arqueonautas.
The most extraordinary find are the over
24,000 silver reales coins recovered so far,
representing a rare collection of Old and
New World mints with a wide variety of dates
and denominations—the stunning remains of
King Philip III’s royal treasure once bound
for India when Spain and Portugal together
claimed a vast overseas empire.
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