Centuries-old shipwrecks off the coast of Costa Rica, long thought to have been the property of pirates, are actually Danish ships that took part in the 18th-century transatlantic slave trade, new research reveals.
The two shipwrecks sit in the shallow waters off the coast of Cahuita National Park in southern Costa Rica and have been known about for decades. But a chance find of unique yellow bricks near one of the wrecks, followed by a more in-depth investigation of the ships' contents and wood, enabled marine archaeologists from Denmark to confirm that the wrecks were actually 18th-century Danish slave ships.
