![Esmeralda (nau)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Esmeralda_%28nau%29.jpg)
''Esmeralda'' was a Portuguese
carrack
A carrack (; ; ; ) is a three- or four- masted ocean-going sailing ship that was developed in the 14th to 15th centuries in Europe, most notably in Portugal. Evolved from the single-masted cog, the carrack was first used for European trade fr ...
() that sank in May 1503 off the coast of
Oman
Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...
as part of
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.
His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link E ...
's 1502 Armada to India while commanded by da Gama's maternal uncle
Vicente Sodré
Vicente Sodré (c. 1465 – 30 April 1503) was a 16th-century Portuguese knight of Order of Christ and the captain of the first Portuguese naval patrol in the Indian Ocean. He was an uncle of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.
Background
...
. First relocated in 1998 and excavated by
David Mearns
David Louis Mearns, OAM, M.Sc. (born 10 August 1958), is an American-born United Kingdom based marine scientist and oceanographer, who specializes in deep water search and recovery operations, and the discovery of the location of historic shipwrec ...
in 2013–15, is the earliest ship found, , from Europe’s
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...
.
![Sodre Astrolabe 1503](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Sodre_Astrolabe_1503.jpg)
Items recovered from the wreck site include the earliest known
mariner's astrolabe
The mariner's astrolabe, also called sea astrolabe, was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination. Not an astrolabe ...
believed to have been made between 1496 and 1501 and a ship's bell dated 1498.
References
{{Authority control
Shipwrecks in the Arabian Sea
1503 in the Portuguese Empire
Ships of Portugal
Carracks