In a Graveyard of Shipwrecks Between Europe and Africa, Archaeologists Discovered Vessels Doomed Over Thousands of Years

The Strait of Gibraltar  Ymblanter via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0

The Strait of Gibraltar hosted numerous naval conflicts over millennia, spanning from ancient Rome to World War II. New research gives archaeologists their clearest picture yet of the passageway’s dangerous history. As Darren Orf put it for Popular Mechanics, a “shipwreck graveyard” of more than 100 vessels was discovered in the Bay of Gibraltar (also known as the Bay of Algeciras), at the eastern end of the strait.

Separating North Africa from Europe and connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar has served as a significant maritime route for generations. The bay itself was the site of several major battles, including the Battle of Gibraltar, in 1607, and the First Battle of Algeciras, in 1801.

As the “harbor of the strait,” the Bay of Algeciras is a natural place to look for evidence of the passageway’s rich nautical history. For an unpublished study called Project Herakles, archaeologists associated with universities in Spain, Argentina and Portugal narrowed their focus to a 29-square-mile section of the strait located between the southern port of Algeciras and the Rock of Gibraltar.

Felipe Cerezo Andreo, an archaeologist at the University of Cádiz who led the study, told CNN’s Amarachi Orie that “all vessels that want to go from [the] Mediterranean to [the] Atlantic have to pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, and probably most of them have to anchor and wait for better weather conditions in the Bay of Algeciras.”

While conducting a survey of the bay from 2020 to 2023, researchers identified 151 archaeological sites, including the remains of more than 100 doomed ships. The artifacts cover nearly 2,500 years, stretching as far back as the Punic era in the fifth century B.C.E.

“There are really few places in the Mediterranean that have this kind of concentration and such a significant variety of archaeological remains, especially in terms of different cultures or different nations,” Andreo tells Sam Jones of the Guardian. “We have Dutch, Venetian, Spanish and of course English ships—ships of practically every nationality—because they all passed through the strait, whether heading out to the Atlantic for trade, or entering the Mediterranean from northern Europe or other regions.”

Ancient Rome controlled both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar during the height of its power, and 25 of the wrecks from the study can be traced back to the empire. The researchers were more surprised to find several ships that perished during the medieval era. Closer examination could reveal previously unknown details about maritime travel during the late period of Islamic rule in Spain.

Among the more recent finds, researchers identified the wreckage of Puente Mayorga IV, an 18th-century Spanish gunboat designed for stealth attacks against the British. Reports exist of such ships disguising themselves as fishing boats to get closer to enemy ships before firing.

The team also discovered the wreck of a Maiale, or “pig,” submarine used by the Italian Navy during World War II. These torpedoes carried divers who delivered explosives to anchored enemy ships. The weapons were a cheap and simple method of attack at a point in the war when Italy found its ships outnumbered in the Mediterranean Sea.

Now that the bay’s rich archaeological treasures have been identified, the research team hopes that local governments will protect them. Development, dredging and climate change each pose a threat to artifacts that have been nestled in the sediment for centuries. In order to educate the public about the sites without disrupting them, the researchers plan to offer virtual models and 360-degree videos of the dive both online and at local institutions.

Source: smithsonianmag.com.       Michele Debczak