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The Treasure Galleons by Dave Horner
During the 1980's Mel Fisher's discovery of the Atocha location and his resulting recovery of sunken treasure from this site will go down in history as the world's greatestfind of lost loot. The complete story of this fabulous Florida treasure recovery is told in Eugene Lyon's new book, MOTHERLODE, available from Florida Classics Library
Clues to Millions in sunken Gold & Silver
The Nuestra Senora de Atocha
Don Bernadino de Luro, captain of the Santa Margarita, told of the disaster several months later. His vessel, crammed with silver and private cargo, had lost all masts, rigging, sails, and rudder, and was driven furiously toward the waiting Florida Keys. "At a point determined by the sounding lead to be approximately ten fathoms, the ship stranded against a sandbank that lies just east of the easterly Matacumbe Keys near the Cabeza de los Martires."
Don Bernadino recalled in a letter written from Havana on January 10, 1623, that he would have drowned had not a wave carried him to a piece of wreckage where he was able to seize a plank of wood on which he remained all day, until he had the good fortune of being sighted about five in the afternoon and picked up by a shallop from Jamaica. Before leaving, though, he took note of some landmarks on the shore in order to remember the location of the sunken Santa Margarita.
Of equal significance was his description of the almiranta, the Neustra Senora de A tocha, which be spotted about seven the next morning just before abandoning his own ship. It was one mile to the eastward of his own galleon, be recalled, without any masts except the mesana (mizzenmast) and in a sinking state. "Shortly there was nothing more to see of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha except that portion of the mizzenmast protruding above the surface," he wrote to the king of Spain describing the disaster.
According to the wreck descriptions related by Bernadino de Luro, Captain Gaspar de Vargas sailed from Havana on Septem
ber 16 with three boats and two shallops to try to locate the missing galleons. Discovering the mesana of the almiranta Nuestra Senora de A tocha in about fifty feet of water he set about the task of salvage with the limited equipment he had available. But the divers could not enter the treasure storeroom because the windows and doors were closed and locked. "They were unable to do anything until time and water would break them open, or tools and salvage equipment could be brought in," he reported. Since they were only able to save two pieces of artillery from the sunken almiranta they then proceeded to seek out the resting place of the galleon Santa Margarita.
After searching the area for two days without locating the marker beacon that had been placed near the wreck site at the time of sinking, Captain Vargas called off his search because of an approaching storm.
He then sailed to the Pasaje de Tortuga (Dry Tortugas) where he discovered the wreck of the galleon Nuestra Senora de Rosario, with most of her passengers and crew waving frantically on the nearby land. Vargas rescued the survivors and retrieved "as much silver as could be reached together with twenty artillery pieces and four more from another nearby wreck." 1
Archivo General de Indias records also indicate that the following June Captain Gaspar de Vargas returned to the wreck of the A tocha under orders from the Marquis de Cadereita. In charge of the salvage operation was Captain Nicholas de Cardona with Don Pedro de Ursua and thirteen divers and engineers. They stayed on the wreck four months. "During this time they salvaged from the wreck site where the almiranta was sunk two ingots of silver and a box of pieces-of-eight reales with a total value of 170,000 pesos (which also includes that which was found in the two boxes that were saved from the Indians of the Florida coast)." The Spaniards still had not located the wreck of the Santa Margarita.
Following the salvage efforts of Gaspar de Vargas, the Florida reefs were visited by a number of British, Dutch, and vagabond pirates, all of whom were intent upon getting a piece of the action. However, a Spaniard in Havana who was well connected
by Frandsco Nufiez Melian
350 large and small ingots of silver
64,750 pieces-of-eight reales
10 pieces of worked silver, including a
plate and a small vase
4 silver lamps
3 silver vases
1 silver cup
1 silver salt-cellar
1 silver bowl
13 pieces of artillery
109 copper plates
12 guns, arquebuses and muskets
4 swords
5 pieces of artillery Many spoons, plates and bowls
Featured Item:
by Kip Wagner, as told by L. B. Taylor, Jr. Back in print after 32 years.
This soft bound edition tells the history and tragedy of the Spanish Treasure
Fleet sunk on the Florida coast in the summer of 1715. Kip Wagner's account
provides first-hand details of this significant recovery and beginning of modern
treasure recovery on the Florida coast. Highly recommended for every treasure
library and adventure seeker.