Italian Border Patrol Diver Discovers Ancient Spanish Wreck

An off-duty Italian border patrol diver has uncovered the well preserved wreck of an 18th-century Spanish galleon in waters off the coast of Sicily where a famous battle took place in 1718.

The diver first spotted a cannon protruding from the sand near Capo Passero, after which he called in his colleagues who found more cannons and the wooden remains of the ship, the border patrol said in a statement on Thursday.

"This is exceptional because the ship is whole," Lieutenant Colonel Costanzo Ciaprini, commander of the border patrol service in Sicily, told Agence France Presse.

Ciaprini said the sand had preserved the cannons but also wooden parts of the ship and the discovery was "a photograph from three centuries ago".

The border patrol service is normally involved in rescuing migrants from North Africa and its divers are deployed for modern-day shipwrecks.

But Ciaprini said there was also a formal agreement with local archaeologists to help in underwater excavations in an area rich in history and they have already recovered a Spanish cannon and two Roman anchors.

"The head of the local archaeological authorities said the wreck could be from the battle of Capo Passero in 1718," Ciaprini said, referring to a clash between the British and Spanish fleets that ended in defeat for Spain.

Ciaprini said the area could be turned into an underwater archaeological site for divers or parts of the ship could be taken ashore to set up a museum.