SAN MARCOS, Texas -- A team of researchers led by a Texas State University faculty member has identified a sunken shipwreck buried in the sand off the coast of Panama near the mouth of the Chagres River.
Frederick "Fritz" Hanselmann, chief underwater archaeologist with The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State, heads up the team that identified the Nuestra Señora de Encarnación, one of several ships that sunk in 1681 when a storm engulfed the Tierra Firme fleet en route to Portobelo, Panama from Cartagena, Colombia.
The Encarnación is a colonial Spanish nao, or merchant ship, and is one of very few ever found.
The shipwreck is special because it is so well preserved, archaeologists said. Hanselmann said the remains include the lower portion of the ship's hull as well as cargo, including wooden barrels, wooden boxes, sword blades, scissors, mule shoes, nails, ceramics and more.
"In addition to what we can learn from the artifacts, the hull remains will inform us about Old World ship construction techniques using New World materials," project archaeologist Melanie Damour said in a statement.
According to Texas State, researchers in Spain discovered the ship was originally built in Veracruz, Mexico.
The remains were found during the search for five ships that Captain Henry Morgan lost en route to sacking Panama City in 1671.
That search still continues, researchers say, though several guns lost overboard when Morgan's ships ran aground were recovered in 2010.
The artifacts are currently undergoing conservation treatment and analysis in a Panama lab owned by a nonprofit organization.
Hanselmann maps a section of the Encarnación Photo, Meadows Center for Water and the Environment
