''Merchant Royal,'' also known as ''Royal Merchant'', was a 17th-century English

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...

that was lost at sea off

Land's End Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

in rough weather on 23 September 1641. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold (over US$1.5 billion in today's money), 400 bars of Mexican silver (another 1 million) and nearly 500,000

pieces of eight The Spanish dollar, also known as the piece of eight ( es, Real de a ocho, , , or ), is a silver coin of approximately diameter worth eight Spanish reales. It was minted in the Spanish Empire following a monetary reform in 1497 with content ...

and other coins, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all time. The ''Merchant Royal'' spent two years trading with Spanish colonies in the West Indies from 1637 to 1640. England was at peace with Spain at this time. The ''Merchant Royal'' and her sister-ship, the ''Dover Merchant'', called into Cadiz on their way home to London. By all accounts she was leaking badly after her long voyage. When a Spanish ship in Cadiz at the same time caught fire just before she was due to carry treasure to convert into pay for Spain's 30,000 soldiers in Flanders, the ''Merchant Royals Captain Limbrey saw his chance to make a little more cash for his owners. He volunteered to carry the treasure to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

on his way home. The ''Merchant Royal'' kept leaking after she and her sister-ship left Cadiz and, when the pumps broke down, she sank off Land's End in rough weather on 23 September 1641. Eighteen men drowned in the sinking. Captain Limbrey and 40 of his crew got away in boats and were picked up by ''Dover Merchant''. It is not likely that the treasure was taken aboard the ''Dover Merchant''.

Search for the wreck

The Odyssey Marine Exploration company has tried for several years to locate the wreck but has been unsuccessful this far. In 2007 the team announced the

Black Swan Project The Black Swan Project is the project name given by Odyssey Marine Exploration for its discovery and recovery of an estimated US$500 million ( £314 million) worth of silver and gold coins from the ocean floor. Initially Odyssey kept the origin o ...

, the name given by Odyssey Marine Exploration for its discovery and recovery of an estimated US$500 million (£363 million) worth of silver and gold coins, from a shipwreck, was originally rumored in the press to be from the ''Merchant Royal''. The Odyssey team is still uncertain as to the identity of the wreck, but now believe it may be the '' Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes'', a Spanish vessel sunk in 1804. The team continued to search for the ship on the 2009

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

television show, '' Treasure Quest'', but were unsuccessful once again.

References

External links

Information from Divernet

UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
{{coord missing, Atlantic Ocean 1620s ships Ships built in Deptford Shipwrecks of the Isles of Scilly Cornish shipwrecks Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Maritime incidents in 1641 Treasure from shipwrecks