A team of maritime archaeologists has confirmed the identity of a shipwreck off the Oregon coast as a 17th-century Manila Galleon. The vessel, believed to be the Santo Cristo de Burgos, was part of the legendary trade route that linked Manila in the Philippines with Acapulco in Mexico. The discovery of large quantities of beeswax blocks and shards of Chinese porcelain has finally solved a centuries-old maritime mystery known locally as the 'Beeswax Wreck.'
The find provides unprecedented data on the risks taken by Spanish traders to navigate the North Pacific. The presence of the ship so far north of its intended destination suggests a massive navigational error or an encounter with a catastrophic storm. Researchers are currently using non-invasive sub-bottom profiling to map the hull's location beneath the seabed, hoping to recover more artifacts that detail the early global economy of the Pacific Rim.