Atocha

[Welsh Wench]

September 4th marks the 387th anniversary of the day the 1622 Spanish fleet was lost in a Florida hurricane.

Twenty two merchant ships and three heavily armed galleons--you will know them as the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the Santa Margarita and the Rosario.

http://www.melfisher.org/1622.htm

Pirates Magazine #10*  has an excellent article on Mel Fisher and the loss of these ships. What it cost him--including the death of his son and daughter in law.
Their boat turned turtle and began to sink.

In 1975, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled against Florida's claim to extend her coastal boundaries. This placed the Atocha wreck outside State control. Yet the U. S. government moved to claim 100% ownership of the treasure.
To protect their 75% share, Treasure Salvors, Mel Fisher's company, filed an admiralty action in the U. S. District court.
And won.

On Saturday, July 20, 1985--ten years to the day he lost his son--Greg Waterman, a diver from Iowa, of all places, descended through the murky water and came face to face with hundreds of dark, oblong objects stacked in a 30' long mass.
Silver bars.
The Atocha had finally been found.

In his museum there is a box made of plexiglass with a round hole. You can put your hand in there and actually hold a gold bar.
I did.
It was....awesome.

Even more thrilling that touching Andrew Jackson's wallpaper. 

*article by Bernard Reller

[Captain Jack Wolfe]

This is a subject that is very dear to my heart.  Thanks to visits to some of the little shipwreck museums along the east coast of Florida when I was a kid, I was immediately hooked on piracy, the Age of Sail, and archaeology, and history.  Abiding loves that obviously persist today.

Now I HAVE to get to Key West again! 

Thanks so much for posting this, Wenchie!

[Capt Robertsgrave Thighbiter]

I think tht if any Floridian knew just how much Spanish gold was lost on the Keys, they'd all move there and start looking!

[Blackjack Roberts]

Indeed!

Unfortunately, the State and Federal governments would move to claim any recovered treasure all for themselves. Compared to them we are novice pirates.

What ever happened to the salvage laws?

[Capt Robertsgrave Thighbiter]

LOL, what the state of FLorida and the US Govt don;t know - they will never find out!  If'n I were a FLoridian, I'b be beach combing with a metal detector after every Spring tide, and siftin' sand.

[Blackjack Roberts]

LOL, what the state of FLorida and the US Govt don;t know - they will never find out!  If'n I were a FLoridian, I'b be beach combing with a metal detector after every Spring tide, and siftin' sand.

Aye, Mate.

I be a think'n th' same thing meself.