The mid-15th and 17th centuries are known as the Age of Exploration. European countries such as England, Portugal, and Spain contained a huge desire for exploration and trade. At that time, spices were in high demand, especially those originating from India and Asia. Such demands have fueled the need to drop anchor in the spice markets of the Indian subcontinent. Spice markets in the 15th century period were controlled by the Muslim rulers of Egypt located on the Red Sea. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In 1502, the king of Portugal, Dom Manuel I, re-elected Vasco da Gama as major captain of Portugal's fourth voyage to India. Dom Manuel I gave Vasco Da Gama a fleet of 20 heavily armed ships. Since this is Gama's second time in India, he is well aware of the hostility of the Muslim merchants. At this point, this voyage is the longest sea route in the world. Along for the ride was Gama's maternal uncle, Vincente Sodré. Soldré was the commander of the Esmeralda in Gama's fleet, and later led a squadron of five ships to protect Portuguese factories along the southwestern coast of India. In 1503, Vasco da Gama returned from India with spices and other treasures to Portugal as expected. . But on the other hand Gama's uncle had other intentions. Sodré, his brother Brås and the rest of the squadron left the southwestern coast of India and sailed towards the Gulf of Aden, located between the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. There the brothers captured and plundered Arab ships. Later that year, Sodré and his crew took off today for Al Hallaniyah in southern Oman, where he ignored warnings from locals of an approaching storm. Sodré and his crew of the Esmeralda were taken to deeper water off the coast and disappeared. Recently, a shipwreck was discovered off the coast of Oman and is believed to be the oldest shipwreck from the golden age of European exploration to be discovered and unearthed. In fact, it is believed that the wreck is Vasco Da Gama's uncle's ship, the Esmeralda. The wreck was first discovered in 1998, but excavations only began in 2013. Oman's Ministry of Heritage and Culture and shipwreck recovery firm Bluewater Recoveries Ltd., headed by David Mearns, are responsible for this extraordinary excavation. The two teams snorkeled around the discovery and soon realized that the sea at this location has high-energy waves, which gave this location the nickname “washing machine”. Due to the high-energy waves, most of the artifacts were pushed deep into the sand. Overall, archaeologists were able to save and restore 2,800 artifacts. An artifact that indicated that this find was part of Gama's fleet were 12 Portuguese cruzado gold coins from the reign of Joao II and Dom Manuel I. A silver coin called ìndio was discovered. This silver coin is particularly special because Dom Manuel I produced them in 1499 specifically for trade in India, and only one other than this one has ever been found through excavations before. Stone cannonballs with the letters "VS" carved into them, assumed to stand for Vincente Sodré, have been found in the Esmeralda along with hundreds of lead rounds matching mines in Portugal, Spain and England. At the excavation site, under a huge rock, a ship's bell made of copper alloy was found. This extraordinary discovery is the oldest ship's bell ever discovered so far.?