Scientists discover 16th-century shipwrecks with treasures worth millions off Florida coast

Scientists have discovered three 16th-century Spanish shipwrecks off the coast of the US, containing looted French artefacts that may now be worth millions of dollars.

The finds include three ornate bronze cannons - two that are three metres long and one that is two metres long - and a marble monument, engraved with the coat of arms of the king of France, which has been identified from the manifest of a 1562 expedition to Florida by the French navigator Jean Ribault.

Records showed that the bronze cannons and monument from the expedition were installed at Fort Caroline, an early French Huguenot colony on the St Johns River, in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. In 1565, the cannons and monument were seized in a Spanish raid, said Robert Pritchett, chief executive of the US-based Global Marine Exploration, the company which explored the wrecks.

These items were being carried away from Florida as booty on Spanish ships, bound for Havana, Cuba, when they were struck by a storm that banished them to the seafloor, Pritchett was quoted as saying by the Live Science. The cannons are now worth over a million dollars apiece, and marble monument may be worth many times that amount, as "the only one of its kind," he said.

In addition to the three bronze cannons and the marble monument, the divers found 19 iron cannons, 12 anchors, a stone grinding wheel, and scattered ballast and ammunition from the ships, Pritchett said. The markings on one of the bronze cannons indicate that it was cast in the 1540s, during the reign of King Henry II of France, he added. The marble monument is probably the most significant piece of maritime history that has ever been found on the entire East Coast of the US, Pritchett said.