The discovery of the San José shipwreck
Witness History

The discovery of the San José shipwreck

B2Upper-intermediateSeptember 18, 202610 min
  • History

In November 2015, the 'holy grail' of shipwrecks, laden with treasure worth an estimated $18 billion, was found off the coast of Colombia. The San José, a Spanish galleon, sank in 1708, when a British warship intercepted it. Rachel Naylor speaks to former Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos about how it was located and the ongoing international dispute over who owns it. Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one m...

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Sentence 8 of 12 · 1:22

But enough about us, here's today's story.

of Colombia. Treasure on board is thought to be worth an estimated $18 billion, but

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A1 30%A2 41%B1 21%B2 7%C1 1%
  • 92% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 164 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 57 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. BBC World Service with me, Rachel Naylor. If you're a regular listener, you know why we're great, you can skip the next few seconds. But if you're new here, welcome! We're the podcast that brings history to life by hearing from those who are there. Episodes

1:12

are just nine minutes long and they come out every weekday. If that appeals to you, why not hit subscribe and turn your push notifications on? But enough about us, here's today's story. I'm taking you back to when the holy grail of shipwrecks was discovered off the coast

1:26

of Colombia. Treasure on board is thought to be worth an estimated $18 billion, but there's still an international dispute over who owns it. This is the story of the San Jose. It's September 2011 and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is at a reception at the

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