Shipwreck off Kenyan Coast May Have Been Vasco da Gama’s São Jorge

A new study links a shipwreck off the Kenyan coast of Ngomeni to be Vasco de Gama’s famed ship, the Sāo Jorge, from one of his many voyages through the Indian Ocean. The remains of the vessel were found near the Kenyan town of Malindi in 2013 – dated contemporaneously with 7 other Portuguese shipwrecks from this era and area. The Sāo Jorge sank in 1524. Once the identity is confirmed, this is going to be the earliest known European shipwreck in the Indian Ocean.

Corroborating the Correct Ship

“… we don’t know for sure,” mused Filipe Castro, maritime archaeologist at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and lead author of the new study published in the Journal of Maritime Archaeology. Their next step is to conduct an archaeological survey of the coral reefs stretching north from Malindi to Ras Ngomeni – 15 miles (25 kilometers) long. The ship is nestled amid the corals on the seabed, with timbers from the ship’s hull and frame unearthed in two archaeological trenches at the site.

“I think this is a unique shipwreck. It is a treasure,” Castro told Live Science.