Nossa Senhora dos Mártires

The Nossa Senhora dos Mártires was a cargo ship that wrecked in 1606 at the mouth of the River Tagus, near Lisbon, Portugal, and subsequently excavated between 1996 and 2001.

The ship had been seeking safer anchorage in the Tagus during strong winds, but she struck a submerged rock and went down close to shore with no loss of life.

The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia identified the debris on the bottom in 1993 and designated the site as São Julião da Barra 2 (SJB2).

[2] Constructed in 1605 in the Ribeira das Naus, the royal shipyard in Lisbon, it set sail under captain Manuel Barreto in that year as part of an armada, or convoy, consisting of ten ships: four galleons and six naus, sent out by the Casa da Índia, a government trade organization,[3] to Goa, then under Dutch blockade.

After loading a cargo of pepper, classified by the government along with all spices as drogas ("drugs", literally meaning "dry goods") it completed the return voyage and anchored off the mouth of the Tagus.

Peppercorns of Piper nigrum , the major cargo of the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires at its demise.