Mysterious 17th-century ‘cauldron’ may be primitive submarine used to salvage treasure from a sunken galleon

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A copper dome recovered from the underside of the ocean will be the stays of a Seventeenth-century primitive submarine often known as a diving bell — one of many world’s first, and the earliest ever discovered.

The dome was present in 1980 close to the 160-foot-deep (50 meters) shipwreck of the Santa Margarita, a Spanish treasure galleon that sank in 1622 within the Florida Straits, about 40 miles (65 km) west of Key West.

The discoverers assumed the round object was an outsized cooking cauldron, and it has been housed ever since on the Mel Fisher Museum in Sebastian, Florida.

Maritime archaeologists now assume the item was the apex of a Seventeenth century diving bell utilized in an early try and salvage treasure from the wreck. (Picture credit score: Mel Fisher Museum, Sebastian)

However new analysis suggests the item may very well be the highest of an early diving bell misplaced throughout a salvage of the treasure ship a number of years after it sank. These primitive submarines had been generally utilized by divers in shallow waters; they’re typically open on the backside and crammed with air.