The Pepper Wreck is the name of a shipwreck excavated at the mouth of the Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal, between 1996 and 2001. The ship had been seeking safer anchorage during strong winds in the Tagus, but she struck a submerged rock and went down close to shore with no loss of life. The wreck is so called because its major cargo at the time was peppercorns of black pepper, Piper nigrum, which carpeted the river and were harvested along with the fittings and other cargo by the population.

The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia identified the debris on the bottom in 1993 and designated the site as São Julião da Barra 2 (SJB2). The ship was of a type called the nau

Carrack

A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in 15th century Western Europe for use in the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese , and later by the Spanish, to explore and...

, a cargo vessel, used as an Indiaman. Constructed in 1605 in the Ribeira das Naus, the royal shipyard in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, it set sail under captain Manuel Barreto in that year as part of an armada

Armada

Armada is the Spanish and Portuguese word for naval fleet, or an adjective meaning 'armed'; Armáda is the Czech and Slovak for armed forces...

, or convoy, consisting of ten ships: four galleon

Galleon

A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.-Etymology:...

s and six naus, sent out by the Casa da Índia, a government trade organization, to Goa

Goa

Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

, then under Dutch blockade. After loading a cargo of pepper, classified by the government along with all spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s as drogas ("drugs", literally meaning "dry goods") it completed the return voyage and anchored off the mouth of the Tagus. A strong wind caused some other ships to pull anchor, inspiring their captains to move further into the river. Seeking to follow their example, the Nossa Senhora dos Mártires struck a rock and went down suddenly. The date was September 14, 1606. Although scanty, the hull remains have preserved carpenters marks that allowed a tentative reconstruction of the ship’s hull.

Until the 2008 discovery of the Oranjemund Shipwreck in Namibia, this shipwreck

Shipwreck

A shipwreck is what remains of a ship that has wrecked, either sunk or beached. Whatever the cause, a sunken ship or a wrecked ship is a physical example of the event: this explains why the two concepts are often overlapping in English....

was the only Portuguese Indiaman from the 16th and early 17th centuries that has not been destroyed by treasure hunters.