Hunt launched for ship dubbed ‘the El Dorado of the seas’ that sank in 1641 carrying ‘£1 BILLION in gold and silver’ off the Cornish coast four years after its rusty anchor was found

A new hunt has been launched to find a ship sunk in 1641 carrying £1 billion worth of gold, silver and jewels.

The sinking of the Merchant Royal, which lies just out of reach and unknown off the Cornish coast, has mystified experts. and confused salvage companies who have been trying to find its exact location for years.

It is understood that the hoard included 500 gold bars, 400 ingots, half a million coins, jewelry and countless precious stones and pearls.

All attempts to locate the wreck have failed, but the most recent clue emerged in 2019 when a giant, rusty 17th-century anchor was found, narrowing the search area.

Diver Nigel Hodge, who leads a team of 11 at Multibeam Services, a company specializing in locating lost wrecks, is now embarking on further research next month.

He plans to spend all of 2024 searching for the wreck, covering a 200 square mile area of ​​the English Channel.

He told Metro: “There are thousands of wrecks out there and the Merchant Royal is just one of them.

“So we literally have to go through a lot of wrecks as we go through them and then identify them.

” It’s not simple. If it were simple, it would have been done.

The Merchant Royal was built in 1627 in London and owned by English merchants.

Commanded by John Limbrey, she sailed around the West Indies and Spain.

It is said that the ship had begun to leak massively around 1640, but after being repaired it was decided that it would carry Spanish colonial spoils to Antwerp, Belgium, before returning to London.

The Merchant Royal left for the expedition in August 1641, followed by the Dover Merchant. But along the way, she started leaking again and nothing could be done to save her.

Eighteen men perished, while 40 others, including the captain, were rescued by the Dover Merchant.

The treasure, which at the time represented a third of England’s public funds, was lost at sea.

The glittering jewels and gold bars are estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds at current prices.

After years of searching, in 2007, 600,000 silver coins, hundreds of gold coins and other items were discovered on the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean.

American company Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the horde, which was worth more than £300 million.

Rumor has it that the treasure was part of the Merchant Royal and it was taken to the United States, but after lengthy legal wrangling, the Odyssey was ordered to hand over the pieces recovered from the wreck to Spain, suggesting that the ship was actually a Spanish frigate and not the mysterious Merchant Royal.

Two years later, the company continued its search on the TV show Treasure Quest, but all attempts to find the ship were unsuccessful.