A blue-spotted rock codfish and a school of smaller fish swim over the sunken hull of the ill-fated Spanish merchant galleon San Diego. The vessel was sunk by a Dutch ship in 1600 in the South China Sea near Fortune Island. Among the wreckage, which settled 170 feet (52 meters) below the sea, were priceless treasures, including Ming dynasty porcelain. A team from the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology discovered the ship in 1991 and recovered much of its cargo.

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, “San Diego: An Account of Adventure, Deceit, and Intrigue,” July 1994, National Geographic magazine)