Flor do Mar, sunk in 1511 off Sumatra, Indonesia

          

In 1511 the Portuguese Viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque was sent to the strategic town of Malacca (in modern-day Malaysia) to claim it for Portugal, which he did; but on the return voyage to India, his ship Flor do Mar was wrecked in a storm, sending spoils from the victory (including a reported 60 tons of gold) to the seabed. Modern searches for the wreck (which sank to a depth of over 100 feet) have been unsuccessful, although Robert Marx claimed to have found some jade artifacts from it, including the lot in this sale.