May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

WINDHOEK: A hunt for diamonds along the coast of Namibia has led to the discovery of a shipwreck dating back around five centuries, with its booty of gold coins and bronze cannons still intact.

A spokesman for Namdeb, the company whose miners made the discovery last month, said the ship was believed to have been the oldest wreck to be discovered in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The site yielded a wealth of objects including six bronze cannons, several tons of copper, over 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s,” spokesman Hilifa Mbako said in a statement late on Wednesday.

“If this proves to be a contemporary of the ships sailed by the likes of Bartolomeus Diaz, Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus around the 1500s, some 500 years ago, it would be of immense national and international interest and Namibia’s most important archaeological find of the century.”

Geologists from Namdeb, a joint venture diamond mining company between industry giant De Beers and the Namibian government, made the discovery during a search for diamonds along the country’s southwest coast.—AFP