Marine archaeologists have confirmed that two shipwrecks off Costa Rica&rsquos Caribbean coast are the remains of 18th-century Danish slave ships, resolving a centuries-old mystery. Long believed to be pirate ships, the wrecks were identified as the Fridericus Quartus and the Christianus Quintus, which sank in 1710. Clues like yellow bricks traced to Danish colonies and clay pipes dated to just before 1710 supported the discovery. Tree-ring dating of timber and the presence of fire damage aligned with historical records that one ship had burned. The National Museum of Denmark led the excavation with support from local communities.

The ships were originally part of the transatlantic slave trade, carrying over 800 enslaved people from Ghana to the Caribbean. A rebellion aboard the Fridericus Quartus, combined with a navigational error and worsening conditions, led to the ships arriving in Cahuita, Costa Rica, on March 2, 1710. After internal conflict and a mutiny, about 650 enslaved Africans were left on the shores. The discovery sheds light on this lesser-known event and documents one of Denmark&rsquos most dramatic maritime tragedies, with long-term implications for understanding its colonial past.Seen here is an excavated hole with visible bricks and wood from the shipwreck.

This revelation has profound meaning for the Afro-Costa Rican community. More than 600 Africans were left behind in Cahuita, and their descendants form part of the modern population. The discovery, driven by a decade-long initiative involving local youth and divers of African and Indigenous descent, is reshaping local history. It confirms that Africans settled in the Limon province a century before official records, bringing identity, pride, and ancestral knowledge to families like that of Celia Ortíz, whose 103-year-old mother descended from one of the enslaved survivors.