Nevertheless, the commander of the treasure fleet, José Fernández de Santillán, decided to sail from Portobelo to Cartagena on 28 May.

The Spanish fleet was composed of fourteen merchant ships, a lightly armed hulk, and three escorting galleons:[1] The gold and silver were concentrated on the 3 largest vessels.

The rest of the Spanish fleet also reached Cartagena safely, except the hulk Concepción which, cornered by the British, beached itself on Baru Island where the crew set the ship alight.

The estimated $1bn (£662m) treasure of the San José, which is still on the bottom of the ocean but located in 2015, is estimated to be worth about 4 billion US dollars based on the speculation that it likely had 7 million Spanish pesos in registered gold on board at the time of its sinking, similar to its surviving sister ship, the San Joaquín.

"[4] A group of investors from the United States called Glocca Mora Co. operating under the name "Sea Search Armada" (SSA) claim to have found the ship off the coast of Colombia in 1981, but Colombia refused to sign a 65%/35% share offer and refused SSA permission to conduct full salvage operations at the shipwreck site.

[5] The Colombian parliament then passed a law giving the state the right to all of the treasure, leaving SSA with a 5% finder's fee, which was to be taxed at 45%.

[5] On 27 November 2015, the galleon San José was found by the Colombian Navy, although the discovery was not announced by the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, until 5 December.

From the dive photographs, Colombian marine archaeologists[12] have identified San José by her unique bronze cannons engraved with dolphins.