In March 1622, a fleet of ships including the São José hastily departed Lisbon with an urgent mission. Bound for Goa, the capital of Portugal’s enormous overseas empire, the fleet carried Francisco da Gama, whose great grandfather, the legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, was the first European to set foot in India via sea route. When the elder da Gama discovered Goa in 1498 it was the largest trading center on India’s western coast and would become Portugal's most important possession in its quest to control the spice trade. Now over a century later, da Gama’s great grandson was returning to Goa to reign as the Viceroy of India under the unified Spanish and Portuguese crown.

The small Portuguese fleet, including its Almiranta, the São José, left the country in a hurry following reports that the British planned to take Hormuz, a Portuguese-occupied island ideally situated in the narrow strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This strategic waterway served as the gateway of the spice trade to Arabia and the Levant and was the only sea route through the Persian Gulf to India. En route to Goa, the Portuguese fleet had plans to block the British aggression and deter the loss of this critical outpost.
The São José was a “carrack,” an immense sailing vessel distinguished by her huge stern castle towering high above the sea. Armed with brass cannon, she was typical of Portuguese ships sailing to the Far East, transporting ballast, passengers and the annual consignment of money to support trade with the East and Portuguese outposts along the trade routes. The São José was indeed carrying an impressive cargo, the legendary silver treasure of Philip III, King of Portugal, handed over to Francisco da Gama on his way to India. The shipment included nine chests filled with thousands of silver reales coins produced in both the Old and New World mints.

The passengers aboard the São José ranged from nobility to “orphans of the king.” The large vessel demanded a big crew which was comprised mostly of ex-convicts and the “low class.” In need of able-bodied men, Portugal was scraping the bottom of the human barrel to operate its many ships and offices of the empire.
After the São José and her fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope, she proceeded up the well-traveled route along the East African coast into the Strait of Madagascar. In the evening of July 22, 1622, as the vessel sailed up the Mozambique Channel, a combined fleet of Dutch and British ships of the East India Company attacked the Portuguese flotilla. Trailing behind the others, the São José was cut off from the rest of the fleet and surrounded by the enemy, which allegedly fired more shots into the embattled vessel than ever before recorded in a single-ship attack in the Indian Ocean. As fighting took place, the ship’s captain, senior officers and others had fallen ill and the commanding officer and pilot were killed.
Despite damage to her sails and spars, the São José remained afloat and navigable throughout the next day. The carrack then attempted to escape the opposing fleet by sailing away from battle—a rare act in Portuguese naval warfare at the time. Fleeing toward the African coast, the great ship ran into a shoal that tore off her rudder. Now drifting at the mercy of wind and wave, failed attempts were made to control the enormous vessel. Anchors were dropped in vain and cannon thrown overboard to lighten the ship.

Despite these heroic efforts, the São José met her demise grounded on a reef off the Mozambique coast, victim to final assault by the Anglo-Dutch fleet. A reported 66,000 Spanish reales were salvaged by the enemy, a small share of the total treasure aboard the ship, lost with some 300-400 passengers and crew as the vessel broke up and sank to the bottom of the Mozambique Channel.

For nearly 400 years, the wreck of the São José remained hidden off the isolated coast of East Africa until her discovery in May 2005 by the Portuguese marine archaeology company Arqueonautas.

The extraordinary find yielded over 24,000 silver reales coins, representing a rare collection of Old and New World mints with a wide variety of dates and denominations—the stunning remains of King Philip III’s royal treasure once bound for India when Spain and Portugal together claimed a vast overseas empire.