We are just now learning that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was instrumental in the discovery of the “San Jose”, called the Holy Grail of shipwrecks.
The three century old 62-gun, three masted Spanish galleon ship sank with a cargo believed to be worth billions of dollars. The ship went down in 1708 during a battle with British ships in the War of Spanish Succession.
The wreck was discovered off the coast of Colombia on November 27, 2015 and now we know that WHOI played a crucial role in both the search and discovery of the San Jose’. The institution provided and operated the REMUS 6000, an autonomous underwater vehicle.
The REMUS played an instrumental role in finding the wreckage of Air France 447 in 2011. That plane crashed in 2009 several hundred miles off the northeastern coast of Brazil. REMUS was also used to map and photograph the Titanic wreck site during a 2010 expedition.
The REMUS 6000 is owned by the Dalio Foundation and operated by WHOI under an operations and maintenance agreement.