CBS News, by EMILY MAE CZACHOR, December 4, 2023 at 2:50 PM

After years of careful exploration, divers have helped map out a trail of scattered artifacts and treasure stretching for more than two miles through waters off the Bahamas, which for centuries have drawn archeologists and adventurers alike to search for remnants of a legendary shipwreck.

The Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas, a Spanish treasure ship, sank near the Bahamas in January 1656 after colliding with another ship. Treasure hunters have explored the area since then in search of the ship's lost cargo, and some historians estimate that around 5 million pesos' worth of silver bars, coins and worked silver was recovered from the site between 1656 and 1683. Major exploration and recovery projects continued over the ensuing centuries, with the wealth of relics found in 1972 by adventurer Robert Marx being particularly notable among the modern treasure-hunting expeditions in that area.

"Some people claim it's one of the richest Spanish galleons to go down in the New World," said Michael Pateman, curator of the Bahamas Maritime Museum in Freeport, while speaking about the Maravillas in an interview with "CBS Mornings" in April. Marine archeologist Jim Sinclair insisted in the same interview that the lost ship's main pile of treasure had not yet been found, saying, "We're probably looking at well over $100 million still sitting in the sand out here."