Flor de la Mar

shipwreck cargo OPEN fame 4/5

Portuguese carrack that sank in a storm off Sumatra in 1511 while carrying the plunder of the conquest of Malacca — reputedly one of the richest cargoes ever lost at sea. The wreck has never been conclusively located despite modern search claims and a contested legal and diplomatic backdrop.

Scorecard

Exists

CONTESTED

band 3/5 · raw +1.86

+1.00 · class_prior
+0.68 · Contemporary Portuguese chronicles record that the Flor de la Mar, homeward…
+0.19 · Albuquerque himself survived the wreck on a raft; his account and later…

Findable now

HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE

band 3/5 · raw +0.66

+3.00 · technique_term
-2.00 · location_term
-0.26 · The strait's heavy sedimentation and shifting sandbanks off Sumatra, where the…

Findable (frontier)

HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE

band 3/5 · raw +0.66

+3.00 · technique_term
-2.00 · location_term
-0.26 · The strait's heavy sedimentation and shifting sandbanks off Sumatra, where the…

Location hypotheses

The interactive map (Leaflet + OpenStreetMap tiles) is the one part of this page that needs a network connection; the hypothesis list below is the offline-readable source of truth.

Hypothesis	Coords	Radius	Prior	Posterior	Note
Off the coast of northern Sumatra, Strait of Malacca	5.300, 97.500	80 km	0.40	—	The chronicled loss region; a broad, silt-covered search polygon.
Wider Strait of Malacca, exact position disputed	4.200, 99.500	150 km	0.20	—	A far broader alternative spanning the long, contested strait where historians disagree on the exact sinking point.

What would it take?

No emerging or speculative technique changes the picture yet — the frontier findability band (HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE) equals the current band. A breakthrough here would need a genuinely new capability, not just a maturing one.

Evidence ledger (4 verified facts)

Contemporary Portuguese chronicles record that the Flor de la Mar, homeward bound with the spoils of Afonso de Albuquerque's 1511 capture of Malacca, broke up in a storm in the Strait of Malacca off northern Sumatra.

known by 1563-01-01 · diagnosticity high · confidence 0.90

↳ Wikipedia: Flor de la Mar journalistic
Albuquerque himself survived the wreck on a raft; his account and later Portuguese histories describe an enormous cargo of gold, gems, and Malaccan court treasure lost with the ship.

known by 1600-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.75

↳ Wikipedia: Flor de la Mar journalistic
The strait's heavy sedimentation and shifting sandbanks off Sumatra, where the ship is thought to lie, would bury a wooden hull under silt — a diffuse search area with no confirmed site to date.

known by 2000-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.70

↳ Wikipedia: Flor de la Mar journalistic
Overlapping Indonesian, Malaysian, and Portuguese heritage and ownership claims over any recovered cargo add a legal barrier on top of the physical one, chilling commercial salvage of the presumed site.

known by 2000-01-01 · diagnosticity low · confidence 0.60

↳ Wikipedia: Flor de la Mar journalistic

Technique matrix

Technique	Family	Maturity	Applicability	Rationale
Marine magnetometer	marine	available	3/3	Cannon and iron fittings give a ferrous signature across a wide tow survey.
Sub-bottom profiler	marine	available	3/3	The hull is expected under silt; sediment penetration is the decisive sensor here.
Admiralty & prize-court record research	archival	available	2/3	Portuguese chronicle and archival work narrows the loss position.
Side-scan sonar	marine	available	2/3	Useful for any exposed structure but blind to a fully-buried wreck.
Underwater excavation & recovery	ground truthing	available	1/3	Recovery/confirmation step once a site is localized.

Search history (negative evidence)

Years	Technique	Coverage	Detection	Result	Notes
1989–1992	marine-magnetometer	20%	40%	null_result	Publicized late-1980s searches produced claims but no verified wreck.