Hunt launched for ship dubbed 'the El Dorado of the seas' that sank in 1641 carrying '£1 BILLION in gold and silver' off the Cornish coast four years after its rusty anchor was found

A new hunt has been launched to find a ship that sunk in 1641 carrying £1billion worth of gold, silver and jewels. 

The shipwreck of the Merchant Royal, which lies just out of reach and undiscovered off the Cornish coast, has mystified experts and confused salvage companies who have been trying to find its exact location for years.

It is understood the treasure included 500 bars of gold bullion, 400 ingots, half a million coins, jewellery and countless gems and pearls.

All attempts to locate the shipwreck have failed but the most recent clue emerged in 2019 when a giant, rusty 17th century anchor was found, narrowing down the search area. 

Now diver Nigel Hodge, who heads a team of 11 at Multibeam Services, a company specialising in locating lost wrecks, is setting out on a new search next month.

He plans to spend all of 2024 looking for the wreck, covering a 200 square mile area of the English Channel.

Groups have regularly trawled the sea floor looking in vain for the remnants of the 17th century ship the Merchant Royal which sank after it spring a leak

Around £1billion worth of treasure is said to be lost including gold bars, coins and jewels dating back to the 1640s (Pictured: Divers search the waters near the Isles of Scilly for 17th-century English treasure ship previously) 

The latest discovery was an anchor just off the coast of Cornwall which has helped to narrow down the search area

He told Metro: 'There’s thousands of shipwrecks down there and the Merchant Royal is just one of them.

'So we’ve got to literally pick through a lot of wrecks as we’re doing them and then identify them.

'It’s not straightforward. If it was straightforward, it would have been done.'

The Merchant Royal was built in 1627 in London and owned by English merchants.

Captained by John Limbrey, she sailed around the West Indies and Spain. 

It is said that the ship had started to leak heavily by 1640 but after undergoing repairs, it was decided that she would transport Spain's colonial loot to Antwerp, in Belgium, before going back to London.

The Merchant Royal left for the expedition in August 1641, trailed by the Dover Merchant. But on the way she started leaking again and nothing could be done to save her.

Eighteen men perished, while 40 others including the captain, were rescued by the Dover Merchant. 

The rusty anchor is estimated to date back to a period between 1600 and 1800 and could have belonged to the Merchant Royal

Teams of divers have searched for the ship and an American company even went on TV show Treasure Quest but were unable to find the treasure trove worth millions (Pictured: Divers search the waters near the Isles of Scilly for 17th-century English treasure ship previously)

The treasure, which is believed to have been worth one-third of England's public funds at the time, was lost to the sea.

The glittering jewels and bars of gold are thought to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds in today's prices. 

After years of searches, in 2007, 600,000 silver coins, hundreds of gold coins and other artefacts were found on the sea floor in the Atlantic Ocean.

American company Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered the horde, which was worth over £300million. 

The treasure was rumoured to be part of the Merchant Royal and it was taken to the United States, but after lengthy legal wrangling's, Odyssey was ordered to hand over coins recovered from the wreck to Spain, suggesting that the ship was really a Spanish frigate and not the mysterious Merchant Royal.

Two years later, the company continued its search on the TV show Treasure Quest but all attempts to find the ship were unsuccessful.