While waiting for developing news from Odyssey Marine concerning their recent treasure find a little online research shows that there is, well, very little information about the Merchant Royal.
What is known about the Merchant Royal:
• The 700-ton Merchant Royal was built in Deptford, London, in 1627.
• Owned by English merchants, she set sail from the Spanish colonies of SanDomingo, in the West Indies, captained by John Limbrey.
• In January 1637, armed with 32 bronze canons, she arrived successfully in Cadiz, southern Spain, where she rested until 1640.
• But during that time she began to leak badly and underwent extensive repairs. The following summer, a ship employed to transport Spain's colonial loot – silver coins, ingots and gold - caught fire.
• The bullion had been put aside to pay for Spain's 30,000 strong army, which were stationed at the time in Flanders.
• Captain Limbrey volunteered to take the gold to Antwerp, on his way back to London. The Merchant Royal set sail in late August 1641, trailed by her sister ship, the Dover Merchant. But during the journey she began to leak and rescuers were unable reach her in time.
• Eighteen men drowned and 40 crew, including Capt Limbrey, had to be rescued by the Dover Merchant.
• The loss of the treasure made headlines. Back in 1641, the ship’s hold was equivalent to one-third of the national exchequer. Samuel Pepys refers to the event in his diary and proceedings in the House of Commons were interrupted for the news to be announced.
Even this slim knowledge is questionable. For example the statement "Samuel Pepys refers to the event in his diary". There are online copies of his diary and I have yet to come across a reference to the Merchant Royal, not to mention that Samuel Pepys was only eight years old when the Royal went down in 1641.
Odyssey Marine has recovered 17 tons of gold and silver treasure so far but it’s becoming clear that the real treasure to archaeologists and history buffs is the knowledge that will be gained from a study of the shipwreck site. Odyssey has done a good job of documenting their shipwreck sites. These are usually deepwater sites and have been inaccessible up until now.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0409/feature7/zoomify/main.html
Odyssey has stated that many of these sites continue to deteriorate at a rapid rate, not only from the natural attack from the sea environment but also from such modern events such as trawler nets.