Posted on 06/07/2016 3:47:41 PM PDT by Kaslin
Diamond miners recently discovered a ship that went down 500 years ago after draining a man-made lagoon on Namibia’s coast. While shipwrecks are often found along Africa’s Skeleton Coast, this one just so happened to be loaded with $13,000,000 worth of gold coins.
It also answers a centuries–old mystery and is what some archaeologists are calling one of the most significant shipwrecks ever found.
The wreck was first discovered along the coast near Oranjemund by geologists from the mining company De Beers in April 2008. One reason it took centuries to find is because it was underneath the ocean floor.
“The mining site concerned was actually located in the surf zone, where the violent action of the waves theoretically made mining impossible,” archaeologist Dr. Dieter Noli told FoxNews.com. “So what the chaps do is push up a huge sea-wall with bulldozers parallel to the beach, with the ends running back to the beach. The result is a large man-made lagoon, with the surf pounding on the outside. Then they pump the sea-water out of the lagoon.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
So who gets the gold?
“The Namibian government – every single coin,” he said. “That is the normal procedure when a ship is found on a beach. The only exception is when it is a ship of state – then the country under whose flag the ship was sailing gets it and all its contents. And in this case the ship belonged to the King of Portugal, making it a ship of state – with the ship and its entire contents belonging to Portugal. The Portuguese government, however, very generously waived that right, allowing Namibia to keep the lot.”
See, Matthew McConaughey was right!
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