The Bom Jesus was a 1533 off the coast of present-day Namibia on the sea route to India sunken Portuguese carrack of John III. It is the oldest shipwreck found south of the Sahara and the second ship of this type that has been archaeologically examined.
Robert Burrell, chief geologist at the diamond company NAMDEB , noticed a round stone on April 1, 2008 in the closed offshore area of NAMDEB (MA1), 18 km north of Oranjemund , which turned out to be a so-called semi-cast sphere made of copper. It was marked with the Fugger's trident signet . He also found tubes made of copper or bronze and contacted the NAMDEB mine archaeologist . This identified the tubes as Bercos called breech-loading cannon dating from around 1535.
In the following archaeological excavations that were Wreck of Bom Jesus and thousands of artifacts excavated. They were cannons and swords, ivory , lead, pieces of wood, scraps of rope, astrolabes , muskets or kitchen pans, 20 tons of copper and 2,159 coins. Most of the coins were Spanish Excelentes depicting Isabella I of Castile and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragón , but also Portuguese Portuguez coins with the coat of arms of John III. from Portugal . There were also coins from Venetian , Moorish and French mints . In total, more than 7,000 artifacts were found, including at least 2,500 gold and silver coins.
The ship was considered completely secured in 2011 after archaeologists had worked on it for more than two years.
In discussion (as of April 2017) is an exhibition of the wreck in the Maritime Museum Lüderitz in Lüderitz (opening planned for 2019 [out of date] ) or in a museum to be created in Oranjemund. Currently (as of 2017) the finds are in a warehouse near Oranjemund.
Wolfgang Knabe, Dieter Noli: The sunken treasures of the Bom Jesus: Sensational find by an Indian sailor from the early days of world trade , Nicolai, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-89479-732-4 .
Ekkehard Westermann: The sunken treasures of the Bom Jesus from 1533. The significance of the cargo of the Portuguese Indian sailor for international trade history - appreciation and criticism. in: Quarterly journal for social and economic history, Volume 100, Issue 4, Stuttgart 2013, pp. 459–478.
Wreck 
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