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An huge old anchor trawled in Cornwall may be from one of the most valuable shipwrecks in history.

The Merchant Royal, a 17th-century English merchant ship, was lost at sea off Land's End in September 1641.

It is believed that the ship sank carrying gold, silver and bullion worth hundreds of millions - if not billions - in today’s prices.

The giant anchor was trawled by the fishing vessel Spirited Lady earlier this week, and is estimated to date back to a period between 1600-1800.

The anchor's size and age have led some to speculate that it may have once belonged to the Merchant Royal.

The ship was rumoured to be the wreck found by the US company Odyssey Marine Exploration in 2007 and known only by the codename Black Swan.

(Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

But after lengthy legal wranglings, Odyssey was ordered to hand over coins recovered from the wreck to Spain, suggesting that the ship was really a Spanish frigate.

The case became notorious when it popped up in leaked US diplomatic cables released by the WikiLeaks website.

Still, as far as we know, the Merchant Royal – nicknamed “the El Dorado of the seas” – is yet to be discovered.

(Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

The Telegraph reported in 2007: "Salvage companies have spent years looking for the wreck of Merchant Royal, an English ship known as the "Eldorado of the seas", which sank in bad weather near the Isles of Scilly in 1641 as it was returning to Dartmouth laden with treasure from Mexico.

"Carrying a crew of 80 under the command of Capt John Limbrey, the ship - owned by a group of London merchants - reportedly had "£300,000 in silver, £100,000 in gold and as much again in jewel" lying in its hold.

"But it was taking on water as it reached the Western Approaches and ran into heavy weather. The loss to the Treasury and the nation was such that proceedings of the House of Commons were interrupted for the news to be broken."