The remains consist of a cargo of bricks for construction and some complete ceramic vessels, which can be dated to the 19th century. The discovery has been reported to the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage of the Valencian Community. Pending further exploration, it is not yet possible to ascertain whether the site corresponds to the remains of a ship with its entire cargo or to part of the cargo that fell to the bottom during loading or unloading onto a support vessel.
Until the 19th century, most ports, such as Villajoyosa, did not have docks. A good beach, a source of drinking water, a good seabed of posidonia or sand, and a coastal population were enough to make a good port. Ships anchored a few hundred metres from the beach, and support boats transported people and goods to them. This is how the port of Villajoyosa operated from the 7th century BC until 1940. With 27 centuries of uninterrupted history, it is one of the longest-running ports in the Valencian Community, the first and last port on the Iberian Peninsula on the main maritime route between East and West.
Villajoyosa achieved the second largest naval registration in Spain in the 19th century, the golden age of navigation in the city, when its navy sailed all the seas. In the 15th century, the largest ship of the time, the Nau Grossa ‘Santa Anna’, was built on its beach. It took part in the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples by Alfonso V the Magnanimous, and in the 19th century, large schooners and pailebotes for transoceanic navigation continued to be built on the same beach. The site belongs to this period, and its location and depth are kept secret for security reasons. Its study could provide data of great interest on coastal trade at a crucial moment in the history of Vilera and Spain.
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001), signed by Spain, establishes that submerged cultural remains that are over 100 years old form part of that heritage. This new site predates the six merchant ships sunk by the German submarine U-64, which operated off the coast of Villajoyosa in 1917 during the Great War, and all of them are now part of Villajoyosa's extraordinary underwater cultural heritage due to their age.
The name ‘La Vila Joiosa I’ has been proposed for the new site, starting a series for new sites that are discovered, so that their names do not give clues as to their location.