On December 14, 1600, the fully laden San Diego was engaged by the Dutch warship Mauritius under the command of Admiral Olivier van Noort a short distance away from Fortune Island, Nasugbu, Philippines.

Nearly 400 years later, in 1992, the wreck was discovered[2] by French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio;[3] and a total of 34,407 artifacts and ecofacts were recovered from the shipwreck, including Chinese porcelain, Japanese katanas, Portuguese cannons and Mexican coins.

The San Diego exhibition[4][failed verification] toured the globe before it started to be permanently displayed at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila.

It was docked at the port of Cavite to undergo reconditioning and repair; but at the end of October 1600, Don Antonio de Morga, Vice-Governor General of the Philippines, ordered it converted into a warship and renamed it San Diego.

The San Diego sprang a leak beneath the waterline either from the first cannonball fired by the Mauritius or from the impact of ramming the Dutch at full speed.

To rectify this, Patrick Lize, a historian, conducted extensive research in the archives of Seville, Madrid, and the Netherlands to look for new information that would shed light on the battle.

From the testimony of 22 survivors, memoirs of 2 priests from Manila, and the inventory of both the weapons and provisions on the San Diego, a more accurate reconstruction of the battle was made possible.

Franck Goddio and his team, in coordination with the National Museum and financially supported by Foundation Elf, conducted underwater explorations to find the San Diego.

The archaeological materials recovered include more than five hundred blue-and-white Chinese ceramics in the form of plates, dishes, bottles, kendis, and boxes which may be ascribed to the Wan Li period of the Ming dynasty; more than seven hundred and fifty Chinese, Thai, Burmese, and Spanish or Mexican stoneware jars; over seventy Philippine-made earthenware potteries influenced by European stylistic forms and types; parts of Japanese samurai swords; fourteen bronze cannons of different types and sizes; parts of European muskets; stone and lead cannonballs; metal navigational instruments and implements; silver coins; two iron anchors; animal bones and teeth (pig and chicken); and seed and shell remains (prunes, chestnuts, and coconut).

The active corrosion products on metal artifacts and the thick deposits of concretions on fragile ceramic vessels posed challenges as well as difficulties for the conservator.