A sunken treasure ship carrying 27 cannons and 18 silver bars has been found at the bottom of the Bay of Cádiz off Spain’s southern coast. The 17th-century French vessel, provisionally named Delta I, held silver cargo weighing roughly half a ton.
The find came during dredging work for a new container terminal at the port of Cádiz. Underwater archaeologists say it ranks among the most significant submarine discoveries in Andalusia in recent years.
Researchers Ernesto Toboso Suárez and Josefa Martí Solano, from the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage’s Center for Underwater Archaeology and the firm Gerión Arqueología, presented their findings at the First Ibero-American Congress of Nautical and Underwater Archaeology.
The ship was built in the Ibero-Atlantic tradition and operated on behalf of France. It carried Swedish-made artillery purchased through Dutch intermediaries, a common arrangement in Europe’s 17th-century arms trade.
Cannons and silver bars found aboard sunken treasure ship
Archaeologists identified five different cannon calibers, all dating to the third quarter of the 1600s. Three of the cannons are missing critical parts, including muzzles and the pins used to mount them on their gun carriages.
Researchers suggest those weapons may have already been out of service before the ship sank and were carried as ballast. Damage from combat or a pre-sinking incident is also being considered.
One of the silver bars bears an engraved date of 1667, giving researchers a reference point for when the ship likely went down. The team believes the silver was being smuggled.
Spain’s Crown held tight control over precious metals arriving from the Americas, and Seville officially held the monopoly on overseas trade at the time.
Cádiz, however, had grown into a busy maritime hub. Its natural harbor and heavy sea traffic made it attractive for merchants looking to avoid Spanish tax authorities. The discovery supports the idea that foreign ships regularly moved through networks that bypassed official oversight.
Dredging disturbed the site before archaeologists could map it
The archaeologists note that dredging had already disturbed the site before the study began. The original position of the wreck and its contents on the seabed could not be fully reconstructed.
The treasure ship was raised in July 2024 after four months of underwater technical and archaeological work by the Port Authority of the Bay of Cádiz. Divers worked at about six meters depth in low visibility to clean the hull and prepare it for extraction.
Engineers designed a metal support frame to stabilize the vessel during the lift. Floats raised it from the seabed, and crane teams transferred it to Dock 5.
There, researchers photographed, 3D-scanned, and catalogued every recovered piece. Wooden remains were stored under controlled humidity before being returned to a protected area of the bay floor.
The ship’s exact identity has not been confirmed. Researchers say future expeditions may provide final answers about the vessel’s origin and the circumstances of its sinking.
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