The Ghost of Mel Fisher Looms: Treasure Hunting Season Hits High Gear

June 15, 2008

I love these stories of hunting the high seas for lost loot of centuries gone by…:-) There seems to be a few easy jokes to be made about a ship of fools or two, until you factor in the Mel Fisher find back a decade ago off of Key West - something to the tune of 400 million or so in gold bars and other interesting luscious loot.

Now - truth to be told - that's lunch money to me….or maybe I'd take a chance and get wet too, rather than updating this site with the adventurous spirit of others. You can read the full story at the link below:

"This is thought to be an untouched shipwreck. It could have $100 million on it. This spot, right here," Pope said. "The majority of the treasure from this fleet is still out there … Today's the day. We wake up every morning and repeat that."Florida's waters hold promise for people like Pope.In 1985, Fisher found what was said to be the richest booty ever at the time — more than $400 million worth of gold and silver bars the size of bread loaves, coins and emeralds from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha that sunk in 1622 off the Marquesas, about 30 miles west of Key West.

But discovering treasure is no easy task. It takes days of monotonous searching and often a bit of luck.Using historical records, satellites, metal detectors and magnetometers, Pope and others follow virtual bread crumb trails made up of ballast stones, pottery shards, cannon balls and anchors. The treasures could be anywhere.Last year, W. Keith Webb's Blue Water Ventures found more than 16,000 pearls in a lead box, gold bars and other artifacts from one of the 1622 Spanish ships in the Keys. The find was worth about $12 million.Recently, Webb's crew found a tiny gold toothpick and earwax spoon — worth about $100,000 — near the same wreck site."Finding this nice piece of jewelry on the most northern part of our search lets us know we're heading in the right direction," Webb said, adding that he's looking for up to $200 million worth of treasure.Captain Greg Bounds of Gold Hound LLC was aboard the boat when the pearls and other artifacts were discovered."I'll never forget it," Bounds said. "I understand now exactly what gold fever means."Bounds is currently searching a wreck site from the 1715 fleet near Vero Beach.

He says records indicate there's up to $900 million worth of coins from the fleet still out there, somewhere. "Maybe tomorrow we'll find a thousand gold coins. That's just the way it goes," Bounds said.While Spanish manifests detail cargo, there's no way to tell exactly how much treasure each vessel carried since many valuables were left off records to avoid taxes, said Ryan Wheeler, Florida's state archaeologist.

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The Ghost of Mel Fisher Looms: Treasure Hunting Season Hits High Gear

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