History - The Merchant Royal

Posted on March 26th 2025

Location unknown

The wreck that has never been found.

The Merchant Royal was a 17th-century English merchant ship that sank in rough weather off the coast of Land’s End on the 23rd of September, 1641. On board were at least 100,000 pounds of gold, making it one of the most valuable wrecks of all time.

Besides the gold (which some estimates say would be worth over £1 billion in today’s money) the ship was also carrying 400 bars of Mexican silver and nearly 500,000 pieces of eight and other assorted coins and jewels.

Greed and charity.

Before her final voyage, the ship had been trading with Spanish colonies in the West Indies for two years, between 1637 and 1640. The Merchant Royal and her sister-ship, the Dover Merchant, called into Cadiz on their way home to London for hull repairs. By all accounts she was leaking badly after her long voyage.

While there, a Spanish ship, about to set sail from Cadiz with a large amount of treasure, caught fire. The Merchant Royal’s Captain, Limbrey, saw his chance to make a little more profit for his owners and volunteered to carry the treasure to Antwerp on his way home.

Final Voyage.

But, despite hull repairs, the Merchant Royal kept leaking after she and her sister-ship left Cadiz. When the pumps finally broke down, she sank off the coast of Land’s End in rough weather on the 23rd of September, 1641.

Eighteen men drowned in the sinking, though Captain Limbrey and forty of his crew were rescued by the Dover Merchant. It is unlikely that any of the treasure made it off the ship.

Many expert teams have tried for years to locate the wreck but, to this day, the final resting place of the Merchant Royal remains a mystery.

From the author

“From the very beginning I aimed to fill the London Repository with incredible artefacts. But I wanted to do so without relying on the usual cliches we’ve all seen before (that meant no Holy Grail, no Excalibur, and no Ark of the Covenant).

Ideally at least one of them would be visually impressive. Grand and imposing. Something memorable you wouldn’t expect to find under the streets of London.

I decided a shipwreck would be perfect.

I immediately thought of the ‘Vassa’ and the ‘Mary Rose’, two actual shipwrecks that were successfully found and salvaged from the sea floor. Both are on display in museums while undergoing conservation efforts to preserve them for future generations.

That meant I was searching for another shipwreck. One that was still lost. Preferably one that hadn’t sunk halfway around the world, and preferably one with an interesting story. When I came across the Merchant Royal and its incredible cargo, I realised it was perfect.

Though, admittedly… a sunken treasure is about as cliched as it gets.”