I've always found treasure hunting along the Florida's east coast to be a lot of fun. Over the years I have metal detected along beaches after hurricanes. A few times I went out diving with a buddy and we came across an old cannon, but there wasn't any treasure to be seen. We thought about trying to recover the cannon but our fishing boat was way too small. It's kind of hard to conceive that there are so many treasures just off the coast that have yet to be found, but there really are.
Continuing my treasure hunting series here is another amazing find. As I discussed in a treasure post not too far back many fleets of Spanish gold carrying ships were lost along the east coast of Florida in hurricanes. The lost 1715 treasure fleet was actually a combination of two fleets sailing together carrying ships full of treasures of silver and gold from Havana to Spain. After seven days at sea they came into a hurricane. Eleven of the ships were following the coast line of Florida up north to catch the trade winds eastward. One single ship whose captain wasn't familiar with the coastline decided to stay further out to sea. It was his lucky day because his was the only ship to make it back to Spain, the others were smashed into reefs along Florida's treasure coast. The Spanish sent salvage ships to recover what they could find and managed to recover some of the lost cargo. But pirates were likely the first to salvage the easy picking off the reefs in shallow water.
Some of the 1715 fleet wrecks were discovered and claimed by Mel Fisher who also found the Atocha wreck. After his death his children sold the rights to the 1715 fleet treasures to Queen's Jewels, LLC owned by Brent Brisben. They subcontract out to other treasure hunters who split the booty with Brisben. The Schmitt family were such subcontractors and spent their summers in the hunt of sunken treasure. In 2015 off the coast of Vero Beach they stuck gold! $4.5 million dollars US worth of gold! It was sitting on a reef in only 15 feet of water; they recovered gold coin after gold coin on a site called the Corrigan's wreck. They also discovered some forty feet of gold chains just sitting on the reefs below.
orlandosentinel.com
treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com
You can see the entire video here:
https://www.floridatoday.com/videos/news/local/2015/08/19/31979083/
www.floridatoday.com
To legally dive on this location one must have permission from Brisben, likely as a contractor. However there are many wrecks from the fleet that still have yet to be discovered. The likely reason for that is that they sunk elsewhere along the coast and are just waiting to be found. Metal detecting along beaches is also a great way to find the occasional coin as well, but I understand that some counties and beaches are restricting treasure hunting now so if you go make sure to check the local laws first. There's tons and tons of treasure yet to be found on the reefs, on land, and in the oceans. All you need to do is search and get very, very lucky!
I hoped you enjoyed my latest edition of my treasure hunting series. I still love to go out and look for lost treasure when I can. I still haven't hit the motherlode, but maybe someday soon! Please feel free to leave comments or questions below and thank you for stopping by!
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1715_Treasure_Fleet
Now for the winner of the re-blog lottery! The people who re-blogged were: @geneeverett @florakese @trautenberk @olaf.gui
Thanks everyone! It really helps my engagement which I'm working hard to improve!
And the Wheel of Names results:
Congratulations @trautenberk
I just sent over the funds for your 3 HBI units!
Now for day eight of the re-blog lottery! You just need to re-blog my post you will be placed on the Wheel of Names for a spin to possibly win 3 HBI units! Just one prize for the lucky winner. Bots aren't allowed to enter please. Contest ends when I publish my next post which should be tomorrow.
Good luck to everyone!
What are HBI units? They are units that you can purchase to sponsor someone and you in turn receive a unit as well. This way we both benefit! They give you occasional upvotes on your posts for a lifetime, and the more you accumulate the more often you receive upvotes and the bigger they can be. You can read some more here:
If you have more questions feel free to ask.