The San Jose was a marvel of seventeenth century know-how. The Spanish galleon weighed greater than a thousand tons, was product of wooden bolstered with iron, and featured three masts and 64 cannons. In its cargo had been gold, silver, silk and porcelain. However in 1708, it sank after a battle with an English ship close to what’s now Colombia.
For hundreds of years, the shipwreck was the stuff of legends, till 2015 when underwater investigators discovered what they believed to be the San Jose’s wreckage. The treasure on board this ship may very well be price billions of {dollars}. However who owns it? In the present day on the present, 4 teams stake their claims to the wreck of the San Jose. These claims reveal loads about who has a say over the underside of the ocean and the way we will start to untangle the difficult legacy of colonialism.
This episode of Planet Money was hosted by Erika Beras and Mary Childs. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with reporting assist from Willa Rubin and edited by Keith Romer. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Neil Rauch with assist from Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s govt producer.
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Music: Common Manufacturing Music – “Streets of Medellin,” “La Cumbia Yaya,” and “Cumbia Rica”
