Underwater archeologist Alexandre Monteiro has mapped sunken ships in the waters of the Azores, Madeira and off the Portuguese mainland coast, and estimates there are around 250 of them that went down ‘loaded with treasure’. In total, he has identified 8,620 wrecks in territorial waters, lost over the centuries. He tells Lusa that he knows “that in front of Troia (in the Setúbal region) there’s a Spanish ship from 1589, called Nossa Senhora do Rosário. I’ve looked into it and I even know the name of the captain’s mother… There are officially 22 tonnes of gold and silver there”. Authorities are aware of this information, he said, but this far “nobody has done anything about it”.
