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Analyses of the Delta I shipwreck. Credit: Government Delegation of the Andalusian Regional Government in Cadiz<\/a><\/p>\n A sunken treasure ship<\/a> carrying 27 cannons and 18 silver bars has been found at the bottom of the Bay of C\u00e1diz off Spain\u2019s southern coast. The 17th-century French vessel, provisionally named Delta I, held silver cargo weighing roughly half a ton.<\/p>\n The find came during dredging work for a new container terminal at the port of C\u00e1diz. Underwater archaeologists say it ranks among the most significant submarine discoveries in Andalusia in recent years.<\/p>\n Researchers Ernesto Toboso Su\u00e1rez and Josefa Mart\u00ed Solano, from the Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage\u2019s Center for Underwater Archaeology and the firm Geri\u00f3n Arqueolog\u00eda, presented their findings<\/a> at the First Ibero-American Congress of Nautical and Underwater Archaeology.<\/p>\n The ship was built in the Ibero-Atlantic tradition and operated on behalf of France. It carried Swedish-made artillery purchased through Dutch intermediaries, a common arrangement in Europe\u2019s 17th-century arms trade.<\/p>\n Cannons and silver bars found aboard sunken treasure ship<\/p>\n Archaeologists identified five different cannon calibers, all dating to the third quarter of the 1600s. Three of the cannons are missing critical parts, including muzzles and the pins used to mount them on their gun carriages.<\/p>\n Researchers suggest those weapons may have already been out of service before the ship sank and were carried as ballast. Damage from combat or a pre-sinking incident is also being considered.<\/p>\n