Lost for 300 Years, Pirate-Plundered Treasure Ship Discovered off Madagascar Coast
The discovery comes from two researchers from the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation in Massachusetts, who have conducted several studies on the wreckage over the last 16 years. They say new clues have revealed the ship's identity as the Nossa Senhora do Cabo, a 700-ton warship. Their findings were published in Wreckwatch Magazine, but have not been peer-reviewed.
The wreck lies near the shores of Nosy Boraha, an island off Madagascar's northern coast historically known as Île Sainte-Marie, a notorious pirate stronghold during the 'Golden Age of Piracy.' The capture of Nossa Senhora do Cabo was 'among the most dramatic episodes' of this era, the authors wrote in the study.
In the study, the researchers conducted underwater excavations using sonar imaging and remote sensing technology. They identified the ship based on its structure and artifacts recovered from the ship's remains, along with archaeological records. They discovered religious figurines and objects made of wood and ivory, including one depicting the Virgin Mary, part of a crucifix, and an ivory plaque bearing a religious inscription. According to the researchers, these items were likely produced in Goa—which, at the time, was colonized by Portugal—and were being transported to Lisbon.
Archeological records indicate the Nossa Senhora do Cabo carried gold and silver bars, coins, silks, and an 'extraordinary' array of precious stones, including 110 diamonds, 250 emeralds, 20 rubies, and 20 sapphires, the authors wrote in the study. Study authors Brandon Clifford, co-founder and director of the Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation, and Mark Agostini, an archaeologist at Brown University, described the entire haul as 'an eyewatering treasure, even by pirate standards,' estimating the cargo's value at over $138 million in today's money, Live Science reported.
Records also show that the Nossa Senhora do Cabo departed Goa in 1721, bound for Lisbon with a Portuguese viceroy, the Archbishop of Goa, and more than 200 enslaved people from Mozambique aboard. The vessel was attacked and captured by pirate ships on April 8, 1721, near the French island of Réunion, and later taken to Île Sainte-Marie, where it was ultimately scuttled. Among the pirates that seized the ship was the infamous Olivier 'The Buzzard' Levasseur.
The Portuguese ship had already been badly damaged in a storm and offered almost no resistance, the authors wrote. While the viceroy was eventually ransomed, the fate of the archbishop and the enslaved individuals remains unknown.
Clifford told Live Science that many shipwrecks from this era were deliberately sunk or otherwise lost nearby, with estimates suggesting that between seven and ten wrecks lie around Île Sainte-Marie alone. Agostini added that the site has historically been overlooked by researchers, and so there's ample room for more discoveries that give us a glimpse into the past.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
8 minutes ago
- Medscape
Little-Known Gut Nutrient Is Emerging Player in Cancer Fight
An under-the-radar micronutrient is having a moment. Queuosine — just call it 'Q' — is a molecule that humans can only get from foods and gut bacteria. It's has been known to microbiologists for decades, who know it plays a role in protein synthesis — as well as cancer growth, brain health, and inflammation. Yet, it hasn't been clear how Q moves from the gut into cells throughout the body. Now the curtain has been pulled back. The authors of a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ) have pinpointed a gene ( SLC35F2 ) that helps transport Q to cells. The researchers say the new finding could help scientists figure out how to use the micronutrient to fight disease. 'It's 70 years ago now that Q was discovered,' said study author Vincent P. Kelly, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology, Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 'What's exciting about this study is the fact that we never understood how we actually took that molecule from bacteria in our body and transported it into our cells, and this explains how we do it.' Q: A Brief Primer The PNAS study looked at both queuine (q), a modified nucleobase, and its nucleoside Q. A quick refresher: A nucleobase is a nitrogen-containing molecule that is one of the building blocks of DNA and RNA. And a nucleoside is a molecule made of sugar (either ribose or deoxyribose) plus a nitrogenous base (purine or pyrimidine) — also a building block of DNA. All of the cells in the human body are eukaryotes — they have a nucleus — and they rely on the micronutrients Q and q, which lurk in the human gut. They come from gut bacteria or a person's diet (most commonly meat, eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables, and fermented foods), said Kelly. Prior studies had given hints that cellular uptake of Q and q is mediated by a selective transporter, but Kelly said that this transporter's identity 'remained elusive' until now. 'Almost all eukaryotes take the Q molecule and incorporate it into the transfer RNA (tRNA) in the body,' said Kelly. 'tRNA is critical for making protein. It's essential — essential for everything,' he said, pointing out that the average adult human is composed of about 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of protein. How does Q get into gut bacteria and the food we eat? The Q molecule is more or less everywhere, Kelly said. 'It's in the oceans, it's in the soil. Plants, which are eukaryotic, take it from the soil. And yet, very little is known about it. I'm surprised more people aren't knowledgeable about it,' he said, especially considering public interest over the years in health-oriented micronutrients like vitamins and 'macros' like carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. What They Found, What It Means Collaborating with researchers from Germany, Northern Ireland, the United States, and his own colleagues in Ireland, Kelly said they used a cross-species bioinformatic search and genetic validation — research techniques that enable scientists to analyze vast amounts of genomic data from across different species — to determine that Q and q are 'salvaged' from the gut by SLC35F2 and ferried to different tissues throughout the body. 'There's a whole biology built around this micronutrient,' said Kelly. Cracking the identity of the transporter of Q and q opens up opportunities for important research, Kelly said. It will lead to a deeper understanding of how intracellular levels of both micronutrients are regulated and how their deficiency is associated with diseases. The study findings 'represent an important leap in our understanding of queuosine biology. Queuosine is a unique tRNA modification to its precursor, queuine, which is not synthesized de novo in mammalian cells,' said Sherif Rashad, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering and the Graduate School of Medicine at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Rashad said scientists' understanding of how q is imported into cells was 'virtually nonexistent' until now and that the authors of the PNAS study used 'an elegant but grounded approach' to identify the first q importer. The finding 'paves the way for new discoveries in the many fields at the crossroads of queuosine biology,' he said. Zdeněk Paris, PhD, Head of Laboratory, in the Laboratory of RNA Biology of Protists, at the Institute of Parasitology in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, agreed. 'This study advances the field of queuosine research by identifying the primary transporter and establishing a direct link between the function of SLC35F2, intracellular queuosine levels, and vital cellular processes, which can explain how a deficiency of Q and/or its free base, queuine (q), contributes to various conditions, including neurological disorders and cancer.' Paris said, 'Prior to this study, no specific transporters for the intracellular uptake of Q or q had been identified in any eukaryote.' He said the research is 'high-quality.' He pointed out that the researchers also demonstrated that SLC35F2 is the sole high-affinity plasma membrane transporter for the Q nucleoside and the primary high-affinity transporter for the nucleobase q in human cells. 'Its high expression in the human alimentary canal strongly suggests a critical role in Q/q uptake from the gut during digestion,' he said. 'This reveals how these micronutrients, which are synthesized exclusively by bacteria, are salvaged from the gut microbiome and/or diet and delivered to various body tissues. Based on the obtained data, the authors propose a model in which Q is transported from the gut to the liver by SLC35F2 . There, QNG1 cleaves Q to release the q base, which enters the serum for wider distribution.' The Cancer Connection Paris said that SLC35F2 was characterized as an oncogene in previous research and is known to contribute to the progression of various cancers through its overexpression, including non-small cell lung cancer, papillary thyroid cancer, and bladder cancer. Paris added that SLC35F2 's role in Q and q transport provides a significant mechanistic explanation for its oncogenic activity. 'High SLC35F2 expression is an unfavorable prognostic factor for patient survival in multiple cancers. SLC35F2 overexpression increases cellular Q/q levels, promoting higher Q34 modification of tRNAs. Consequently, Q modification may offer malignant cells a selective advantage through codon-biased translation,' he said. Additionally, the study identified SLC35F2 (or its homologs) as the unique Q/q transporter in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe and the human parasite Trypanosoma brucei , Paris said. 'While the physiological importance of Q-tRNA varies by species — for example, loss of Qtp1 does not affect growth in S pombe or T brucei — this comparative analysis strengthens the evidence for SLC35F2 's role in humans and reveals its conserved function in eukaryotes that salvage Q and q.' He said, 'In essence, the study provides the missing link in the queuine salvage pathway, significantly advancing our understanding of how this essential micronutrient is acquired, distributed, and regulated, and its profound impact on health and disease, particularly in the context of cancer.'
Medscape
8 minutes ago
- Medscape
Novel Tool May Predict NSAID Hypersensitivity
TOPLINE: A new risk stratification tool known as CA4TCH — which relies solely on clinical history — could help predict which patients with a suspected hypersensitivity to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) will have a hypersensitivity confirmed during a drug provocation test. METHODOLOGY: To develop and validate CA4TCH, researchers conducted a retrospective study of 1035 patients who presented with suspected NSAID hypersensitivity at the allergy unit of the University Hospital of Montpellier in Montpellier, France, between February 2001 and December 2020 and underwent drug provocation testing. Using elements of the clinical history — including sex; age at the last reaction; reaction onset ≤ 24 hours; whether the last reaction occurred in the past 5 years; history of anaphylaxis or respiratory symptoms; reactions to two or more drug classes; reaction to aspirin; and comorbid atopy, asthma, sinus disease, or chronic spontaneous urticaria — the team constructed a risk score to predict the presence of a drug hypersensitivity reaction. They then validated the risk score in an independent cohort of 69 participants from the University Hospital of Tours, Tours, France. TAKEAWAY: Overall, 232 (22.4%) participants had at least one positive result during drug provocation testing, whereas 803 (77.6%) did not react to the suspected culprit NSAIDs. The CA4TCH tool had a sensitivity of 78.4%, specificity of 70.4%, and positive and negative predictive values of 43.3% and 91.9%, respectively. Among participants with a negative result, the model successfully delabeled 565 of 803 cases (70.4%). In these cases, past symptoms commonly included angioedema, urticaria, or pruritus. External validation showed comparable predictive performance. IN PRACTICE: 'Given existing variation in testing protocols across clinical centers, the fact that the CA4TCH score is based on clinical history elements alone means it can be used to generate a prediction for any individual upon presentation and could thus constitute a practical tool to be used alongside or as part of existing phenotype classifications,' the authors of the study wrote. SOURCE: Ileana-Maria Ghiordanescu, MD, PhD, with the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on July 16 in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. LIMITATIONS: Fixed drug eruptions were underrepresented in the study, and the researchers did not consider food allergy phenotypes because they lacked information about food sensitization. DISCLOSURES: Some authors reported receiving financial support, including grants, consulting fees, honoraria, or support for attending meetings, from institutions and pharmaceutical companies. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
California has more cattle feedlots than any state, new map shows
In a first, researchers have identified the nation's roughly 8,700 cattle feeding operations, and the map shows California has more of them than any other state. California also has the most feedlot acreage: over 85,000 acres, or 130 square miles, the majority of it for dairy cows. Tulare County has more than any county in the country — 304 operations. Were it a state, it would would rank No. 8, researchers at the University of Michigan and UC Santa Barbara found. Until now, there has been no national database of animal feeding operations. The federal government doesn't keep one, and states tend to keep what information they have confidential. The researchers say their data will allow local governments and non-governmental organizations to set targeted environmental, health and economic policies for their regions. "It's really awesome research," said Andrew deCoriolis, the director of FarmFoward, an anti-industrial agriculture group. "This is by far the most comprehensive research I've seen, both in the map ... and the quantification of the number of operations." They also mapped the geography of hog raising. The U.S. is the world's second-largest livestock producer (behind China) — and most of the animals are raised in confined feeding operations: 70% of cattle and 98% of hogs. The facilities pack many animals into relatively small areas where they are fed energy-dense diets and raised for milk or meat before they are eventually slaughtered. In California the average dairy operation is 1,300 animals, but they range from a few hundred cows in the north coast, to more than 10,000 in the San Joaquin Valley. For decades, such operations have been associated with degraded air and water quality. There is often little vegetation and animals kick up dirt and dried manure with their hooves when they move. Other research has found the industry workforce is often underinsured and economically disadvantaged. More than 50% of the nation's dairy workers may be undocumented. The lack of precise location data has meant that local governments, academics and nonprofit organizations have struggled to document the effects of these facilities on the environment and community health. So the researchers decided to build a database and map combining existing data sets — national, regional, business and crowd-sourced — that they cross-referenced with Google Earth. Then they scoured satellite imagery for more than two years, eventually pinpointing 15,726 cattle and hog feeding lots and their extent. The collective footprint exceeded 658,500 acres, or 1,000 sq. miles, slightly larger than Rhode Island. The study was published Tuesday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Seeing the amount of land dedicated to this use is important "when you're thinking about how this affects communities living nearby, when you start to ask questions about water pollution, the size of the facility, questions about other health impacts," said Joshua Newell, a geographer at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. Once the researchers located the feed lots, they looked at local air quality and economic data, and found the operations are associated with degraded air quality, and the more land devoted to cattle and hog farms in a given census tract, the lower the social and economic well-being of people living nearby. A look at health-insurance coverage rates, for instance, shows they significantly drop in areas near cattle feeding operations. Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies — the state's largest dairy trade group — took issue with the study, and said the environmental and economic data were incorrect. "The researchers either don't know, or failed to inquire, with the EPA or the local regulating air quality authorities about existing guardrails" on air pollution, she said. She pointed out there are several other causes of or contributors to air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley, including Interstate 5 and Highway 99, as well as "our significant and growing human population and geography that traps pollution in the valley." Newell responded that the analysis compared similar nearby tracts that are not right next to feeding operations — so other pollution sources were accounted for. Last week, a federal court ruled animal feeding operations are exempt from reporting air emissions and dangerous "pollutants" to local and state officials. Raudabaugh also took issue with authors' claims about environmental justice, which she said were widely disputed in other research and analyses. "We've discussed the real struggle of rural healthcare during recent viral outbreaks and how difficult it can be to service our communities," she said, noting research about H5N1 bird flu and the vulnerability of a dairy workers to infection. "But arriving at a single outcome, a production style of agriculture, is like saying L.A. has lots of cars and therefore a high homicide rate." Instead, she said, "it would be nice to focus on increasing rural access to more healthcare where communities need it" instead of villainizing an industry that provides jobs and a "major local tax base." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
