Elephant tusks act as black box for the shipwrecked Bom Jesus

The ship was one of only two intact 16th century sub-Saharan wrecks to be excavated

The Portugese ship, the Bom Jesus, which went missing in 1533, was rediscovered in 2008.

On Friday March 7, 1533, the Bom Jesus set sail from Lisbon bound for India. Sailing towards the Cape of Good Hope, she came to grief on the coast of Namibia. None of the 300 souls on board survived. 

The final resting place of the Portuguese ‘nau’ remained unknown until April 2008, when a geologist found an engraved copper ingot of the type used in the 16th century spice trade. Archaeologists were alerted and a dig commenced; the grave of the missing vessel had finally been discovered.