Underwater archaeologist Alexandre Monteiro from NOVA University in Lisbon said there are about 250 sunken ships with treasures in the waters of the Azores, Madeira archipelagos and mainland Portugal, Observador reports, citing the Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Expert Alexandre Monteiro has compiled a database of sunken ships since 1500, with 8,620 vessels mentioned.

‘Near the Troia Peninsula is a Spanish ship, Nossa Senhora do Rosário, from 1589. There are 22 tons of gold and silver there,’ Monteiro claims.

The archaeologist also said that he once found a mention of the ship Nossa Senhora da Luz, which disappeared in 1615 near the island of Faial. The scientist spent four years searching the archives, and he found the shipwreck during his first underwater dive.

Earlier it was reported that the scientific research project 1XPEDITION team found a sunken ship in the waters of Lake Ladoga at a depth of 34 m, which could have belonged to pirates.

The experts were prompted to this hypothesis by an unexpected find – the Leviathan sign was located on both sides of the vessel. ‘Why would passenger or merchant ships have an image of a monster associated with death on their sides?

It was believed that no weapon could cope with this creature, and it was simply impossible to catch or subdue Leviathan,’ explains Sergey Kulikov, coordinator of the 1XPEDITION scientific research center.

The ship that was found was built in Finland at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its deck still contains a binnacle, telegraph and steering wheel. Inside some of the rooms, divers noticed ceramic cups, one of which supposedly contained pearls. PLEASE SHARE OUR HUMAN STORIES

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