One of the universal experiences of recreational boaters is the sense of romance and adventure -- to one extent or another -- that we've all had about our time on the water.  Most of us still harbor fantasies of one kind or another; perhaps becoming a captain, buying a passagemaker and circumnavigating.  And many of us have fantasized about exploring the undersea environment; with SCUBA gear or just with our swim fins and mask and snorkel.  Who knows?  There could be pirate treasure or something precious in that old sunken wreck we pass by.  Mel Fisher had some of those same notions, but went the next step.  He decided to find that treasure.  And he did.

The Southern Atlantic and Caribbean waters and their associated hurricanes were known for decimating the Spanish fleets that sailed back and forth between the New World and Spain.  Treasure hunters and salvors have long known about the large fleet that sankin a hurricane in these waters barely two days after setting sail from Cuba, bound for Spain with tons of gold and other treasure plundered from their conquered territories.  Mel Fisher decided in the 1970s to find that fleet and its treasure, but he wasn't going to just drop anchor and randomly comb the sandy bottom of those waters.  He took a more scientific approach.

Fisher hired an academic expert in Spanish history, Gene Lyon from the University of Florida, and sent him to Seville to track down lost documentation about the ships and their manifests.  Lyon found quite a bit of it, including enough clues to let Fisher begin his search very close to the ultimate resting place of two of the ships of that fleet - the Atocha and the Santa Margarita.

Although the upper houses and decks of the ships were blown off the hulls by subsequent hurricanes into an estimated ten-mile long debris field.  The company found a huge cache of gold and jewels and eventually had to fight for its ownership rights against the state of Florida -- a battle they won after some 111 court cases and a legal trail that lead all the way to the Supreme Court of the U.S.  

Mel Fisher's is exhibiting at the Miami Boat Show, and Bill Lorraine filled me in on this way cool story when I stopped by their booth in the C concourse of the Convention Center.  Check out these photos and see some amazing gold chains -- which were used as currency.

TOM TRIPPGold Salvaged by Mel Fisher's Treasures from a Sunken Spanish Fleet

TOM TRIPPA Gold Bar from Mel Fisher's Treasures

TOM TRIPPSunken Spanish Treasure from Mel Fisher's Treasures