Diving For Sunken Treasure…Yes Really

I never thought that I would be that weird dude on the beach with a metal detector while everyone else is enjoying the sand and waves. However, if there is literally any spot on the planet to be that guy then this is probably it.  

As I lift a black piece of flattened lead out of the sand that may have lined the bottom of a Spanish Galleon from the 1700’s, a spritely dude in his late teens walks by and asks me if I have found anything. It’s a quiet day and we are the only two on the beach. He just moved to the area and doesn’t believe me when I tell him that there is a 1700’s shipwreck 200 yards off shore from this exact spot. He kind of gets curious and still only half believes me when I explain that if he drives North just a couple of miles there are actually cannons from another wrecked galleon on the bottom less than 100 yards off of that beach. On a clear day you could see them from the surface with a mask and a snorkel. His surprise about this history seems to be pretty normal around here.

The Treasure Coast

I get it. We live in a world descended by the history of countless amazing stories but it is hard to convince people to care when the payoff is not immediate and obvious.  It gets easier when Indiana Jones finds treasure chests full of gold and gems instead of some old pottery shards and a story.  In this case it gets easier when there are billions of dollars worth of gold, silver, and gems still scattered through over 1,000 shipwrecks along the South Florida coast and keys. 

There are historical clues everywhere and this whole region is literally called “The Treasure Coast.” However, most of those that I speak to around here think that the treasure is just metaphorical as in sunshine and endless beaches. It is very real…

This is just a bit of actual sunken treasure recovered from the Atocha shipwreck and on display just up the road at the Mel Fisher museum in Sebastian, Florida.  I first heard about Spanish treasure in this area as a kid when Mel Fisher recovered this wreck worth around $400,000,000.  It includes Gold, jewels, and over 25 tons of silver bars and coins. 

Where do weird childhood dreams come from?  It could be that reading this story of the Atocha as a kid and seeing pallets of briny silver bars being hauled out of the water on TV planted a seed in my brain.

Treasures and Childhood Dreams

What do you want to be when you grow up?  My answer when I was a kid was either a chef, an inventor, or a scuba diver that finds sunken treasure.  I still love food and am a decent cook.  One could argue that after a dozen or so patents, I can call myself an “inventor”.  However, scuba diver is hardly even a job.  Just ask the dive boat workers living off of tips alone down here in South Florida where I sit writing this article while looking out over the Atlantic ocean.  And treasure hunter?  That’s almost like telling people that you are into UFOs or ghosts.  Not only is it not a job, it could get you laughed out of respectable company. 

None the less, here I am ready to live out a childhood dream of mine. I am only killing time for a couple of days by checking out these museums and walking along beaches. Soon I’ll be on the boat but heavy waves have me shore bound waiting for the next free day. I am here to dive on an active wreck salvage site where a Spanish Galleon sank almost 300 years ago carrying millions of dollars in gold and silver. In other words, I am “diving for sunken treasure.” How did I get to here?

The Value of Childhood Dreams

What would you do if you only had a year to live? Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon when he was told that he only had months left to live. If you’ve never seen it before, I emphatically recommend watching his last lecture from way back circa 2007. It is about achieving your childhood dreams. Spoiler alert, childhood dreams may really be about how to lead your life and create your story. As far as I know, I have many years ahead of me. However, there are no guarantees.

My lady thinks that I’m a bit crazy for pursuing these adventures.  A year before the pandemic hit I was digging in the dirt for dinosaurs in the unrelenting July sun in the middle of Wyoming.  Now I am about to get on a boat that uses a weird contraption to dig a small hole in the ocean floor.  Then I am going to dive to the bottom of that murky hole and poke around with a really expensive metal detector in low visibility for hours hoping to find encrusted objects and/or Spanish gold and silver.  

What Are All These Black Discs?

When black discs started washing up on the shores of South Florida in the 1950’s the story goes that there were so many that some people were skipping them on the water like stones.  A few of the curious polished some of the discs up and found that they were actually worn Spanish silver coins. However, none of them dated after 1715.  Doing some research, an old map was uncovered that read, “here lies the remains of the 1715 silver fleet.”  

The 1715 Fleet

From 1701–1714 there was a war between Spain and France on one side, and England along with the Dutch and the Holy Roman Empire on the other side. It had not been safe to send ships back and forth across the Atlantic. Both sides were attacking each other’s ships all over the Caribbean. When a treaty was signed in 1715, two interesting things happened.

#1 Pirates

Number one, all the English, French, and Spanish sailors were told to stop attacking each other. Many sailors were laid off via letter. They found themselves without any severance package and 4,000 miles from home. Hence, they decided to just keep attacking ships anyway. Instead of doing it under a national flag they would attack ships under a skull and crossbones. I mean come on no severance package and 4,000 miles from home? Screw you Spain, France, and England. This is how the golden age of pirates came to be with parrots and eye patches, and eventually Johnny Depp swashbuckling around like Keith Richards at an afterparty.

#2 The Mother Lode

The second thing that happened when the war was over is that the Spanish sent 12 ships to get all of the gold, silver, and jewels that had been piling up at their American colonial ports for five years during the war. These 12 ships had around 2500 people on board and 15 million piastres worth of Spanish treasure (it would be worth billions today).

However, as the ships came up from Havana they had to cross through an area of the Florida coast famous for shallow reefs and hurricanes. A hurricane with 100 mph winds approached. One ship disobeyed orders and broke with the other 11. It was the only one that survived. The 11 other ships went down and 1,000 people died. Many of them colonists and traders just looking to get back home after the war. 1500 survivors were marooned on what is today Vero Beach and Sebastian Florida. It was considered the worst maritime disaster in Spain’s history.

Disasters Old and New

Today, there is a museum on the very spot where those survivors from the 1715 Fleet wreck made an encampment.  Many more died awaiting rescue from infection, disease, etc.  There are accounts that the bugs were so bad that people would bury eachother up to the neck in sand at night just to avoid getting chomped by bugs while trying to sleep. 

A couple of days ago here in Florida, the Surfside condo collapsed.  18 people have been confirmed killed so far and 145 others are still missing (over time the death toll would rise to 98 people).  Just while buying gas or food, I have spoken with people who have extended family or friends that are still unaccounted for.  We feel united under grief of the tragedy.  There are search updates between each song that plays on the radio in my rental car.  Standing at the McLarty Museum today, I think back about the people that lost their lives at this very spot in 1715. This recent tragedy at Surfside brings the magnitude of the past loss to bear. Over 1,000 killed.

The Coast of a Thousand Shipwrecks

The 1715 fleet is what I will be working on while down here but there are many others.  The 1733 fleet went down further South in the keys with 17 ships sunk. I actually had the privilege of diving some of these wrecks as well in preparation for the active 1715 fleet salvage project.

It was a pretty amazing feeling to dip under the waves in the middle of a nondescript swath of ocean only to come upon the hull timbers of an actual Spanish galleon lost to the bottom for hundreds of years. There are over 1,000 shipwrecks along this coast of Florida. In fact there were so many shipwrecks along Atlantic Florida that in the mid 1800’s wreck salvaging was the main industry in Key West and Key West was the richest city per capita in the entire USA. Even today some of those houses in old town Key West are decked out in fancy chandeliers and a bohemian mix of furnishings salvaged from wrecks. I was there earlier this year:

How Much Treasure is Still Out There?

While much of the 1715 treasure was salvaged by Spain, seekers still find coins on beaches on a roughly monthly basis along the treasure coast. Multimillion dollar finds continue to happen at least once a decade. These wrecked ships often carried contraband or unregistered cargo. This means that the actual total could be far more than the already staggering amount listed on the manifests. In addition, Spain may have inflated estimates of the percentage of cargo recovered to dissuade looters. Hence it is difficult to estimate accurately.

The Legacy of Treasure Hunters 1950-today

When I think back to those early Florida treasure hunters in the 1950’s and 60’s that re-discovered the Spanish fleet it makes me smile. I think too of Hiram Bingham re-discovering Machu Picchu in 1911 or Henri Mouhot re-discovering Ankor Wat in the 1860’s.  All found something that had been lost to known history. They inspired the rest of the world to ask what other historical treasures lie out there lost over time.  What riches, what wisdom, and what knowledge?

Hunting for a Treasure Hunt

Someone told me that if you are interested in these old wrecks then you are going to meet a lot of really good people and also a lot of shady characters.  You might meet a guy who holds state or national permits and has spent time studying and translating papers from the Spanish archives in Seville. On the other hand you might meet a guy who wants to sell you a map to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine or the fountain of youth for $30 and a pack of cigarettes. 

I was looking for a way to dive one of these old shipwreck sites.  I found a website with a phone number and I was surprised when I called it and an actual human voice answered.  That friendly voice was Marc Littleton out walking his dog.  Marc is a VP of technology for a large company.  He is also a treasure hunter.  As we spoke, Marc was earnest, and generous with his time.  He seemed to know everything about the Florida wrecks.  I would later find out that Marc is an army vet, a father, a dive master, and he dove the Andrea Doria which is considered the Mount Everest of scuba diving. 

Marc introduced me to Carl Fismer aka Captain Fizz who is something of a treasure hunting legend. Captain Fizz has recovered millions of dollars of Spanish gold, silver, jewels and other artifacts. He has worked over 300 shipwrecks and has more than 30 years of salvaging experience. At some point Fizz even sent me 3 of his books which I read cover to cover in just a few days.

Actually Diving For Treasure

The waves are calmer and a few days later we are on the water.  Brad Williamson is captaining and he is quite a character.  I don’t know him as well as Marc or Fizz but hope to change that over time.

The boat we are on is the Pandion. Millions of dollars of treasure have been recovered over it’s bough. Perhaps more treasure than any boat it’s size.

Fizz points out various wreck sites as we head out to the area that we will be working.  It is pretty cool to be out diving with him.  He is in his 80’s and has survived cancer a few times. Around his neck Fizz wears a shipwreck coin and I ask him why that one?  Why of all of the things that he has found over decades of doing this does he wear that one?  He explains that it was one of Jack’s, his good friend who is no longer with us. This particular coin was from the Concepcion which Jack Haskins helped locate and Fizz had helped recover treasure from down in the Dominican Republic.

Diving In

Usually I dive with around 12 lbs of weight.  It helps to offset the buoyancy of the big tank, a wetsuit, and my own air filled lungs.  However, since the goal was to plant firmly on the bottom I hit the water with a hooka rig, no tank or wetsuit, and about 20 lbs of weight.  I sank like a disloyal mafioso wearing concrete boots.  It is a bit unnerving when you find yourself on the bottom of the ocean with weights strapped on, carrying heavy tools, and wearing no BCD.  How far could I even swim if I had to haul up a sizeable find to the boat fighting all that weight? 

I tried my metal detector but it wasn’t working.  I adjusted the settings and knobs.  Since it is harder to hear underwater, you wear a small disc tucked under your diving mask strap.  It acts like a cochlear implant vibrating to create sound in your skull when you get a hit on something.  Mine had slipped out while sinking down.  Relax I tell myself. Breathe slow.  You are obviously excited.  This self awareness is a critical skill while scuba diving.  Within a couple of minutes I am situated on the bottom dialed in and inching along with my detector in a slow grid to cover the area.  My nervous excitement immediately turns into recognition of the moment.  I am treasure hunting on the 1715 fleet.  

Treasure Hunter or Treasure Finder?

306 years ago young sailors were searching for adventure and fortune when they signed up to sail out into the unknown with only primitive navigation equipment on the ships of the 1715 fleet.  70 years ago, some looking for adventure and purpose beyond their daily grind, re-discovered history along with fortune and glory bringing up treasures from the sea bottom along the coast of Florida.  A few decades ago, a young me sat in class in elementary school drawing a diver next to a chest of gold.  Later as a teenager, I started out diving in granite quarries in the midwest. Now here I am diving on the bottom of the ocean in 2021 waving my metal detector around a sunken shipwreck site when a faint sound buzzes directly into my brain. 

In a way this whole thing is silly but in another it is the very essence of humanity. We live and we strive, searching for treasures of wealth or discovery or truth or beauty. We always find that the pursuit and the journey are the real prize. The search may be life itself. Whether it is the entrepreneur, the politician, the academic, the athlete, the businessman, the philosopher, or the romantic. The treasure hunter, the socialite, or the artist. It may be silly but I am here and I am having a blast.

As the sun starts to fall and the waves pick up I have found 7 “EOs” or encrusted objects.

Preserving The Past

Those EOs are logged and given a number. Each will go to the lab for restoration. All finds will be entered into a GPS and CAD system that maps these wrecks little by little each season and reveals a little more of the story. Those EOs could turn out to be gold and emerald jewelry…or they could be nails and musket balls. It almost doesn’t matter. Marc put in hundreds of hours in the month leading up to getting the boat ready for this season. In one of our discussions I asked him about how his hourly rate doing this compares to his hourly rate as a VP of tech. We both laugh. This is not an investment and none of the searchers get paid. Money has little to do with the search.

Maybe I’ll find out what is under that 300 years of crust when everything comes back from the lab in the coming weeks. But either way I know I found treasure.

What do you think is this crazy fun or just plain crazy? Let me know in the comments.

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If you are interested in learning more about treasure along the Florida coast feel free to click here. Or even learn more about diving on the 1733 fleet!