KEY WEST (USA): Hundreds of millions of dollars in silver bars, emeralds and gold chains have already been recovered from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, sunk during a Florida Keys hurricane in 1622.
But the mother lode of treasure discovered by Mel Fisher two decades ago may not have finished yielding its fortunes, his heirs believe, and there may be more to come.
“It’s still a trail of gold,” said Fisher’s son Kim, 49, chief executive of Key West-based Mel Fisher’s Treasure, the umbrella firm of the family’s 30 related companies.
The 33.5-metre, 600-ton Atocha — one of a fleet of ships laden with priceless gold, silver, emeralds and Catholic artefacts — sank on Sept. 5, 1622, near the Marquesas Atoll, about 56km southwest of Key West, off the southern tip of the Florida peninsula. On board, 260 passengers died, while five survived by clinging to the mizzenmast.
Mel Fisher, known for saying ‘today’s the day’, and his family searched for the Atocha treasure for 16 years, weathering daunting debts and ridicule.
In a life-changing moment 20 years ago, they found treasure from the Atocha worth an estimated $200 million to $400 million at the time, and Kim Fisher believes loot worth a further $500 million still lies in the ocean.
In its long quest to find the Atocha, the family endured the tragic death of oldest son Dirk and his wife on July 20, 1975, when the salvage boat Northwind capsized during the night -– 10 years to the day before the treasure hoard was found.
Dirk had located some of the Atocha’s 3.4-metre, 1,633-kg bronze cannons just days before. Diver Rick Cage was also lost.
“It was devastating,” Kim told Reuters. “We almost threw in the towel. We decided Dirk would want us to continue. I think it actually made us try harder.”
On July 20, 1985, a magnetometer capable of tracking cannons and cannon balls revealed a seabed target at a 16.8-metre depth.
Divers Andy Matroci and a colleague discovered 1,041 silver bars and hundreds of boxes, each with 3,000 coins. Other treasure included 127,000 silver coins, 700 emeralds and likely contraband consisting of 2,500 lighter stones, heavy gold chains and jewellery, silver and crucifixes.
Ninety per cent of the original mother lode has been distributed to investors, crew and the Fisher family.
But Kim Fisher estimates there is another $500 million worth of undiscovered treasure.
Among the suspected riches would be 300 silver bars weighing 36kg each, 100,000 coins, eight to 10 bronze cannons and treasure from the stern castle, an area of the ship where the riches of nobility, clergy and first-class passengers were stored.
“There were 35 boxes that the Church had on board. They always had good stuff,” Kim said.
Much of the treasure was contraband.
St. Augustine, Florida-based historian Eugene Lyon, who researched the Atocha on a trip to Spain for Mel Fisher, believes that most of the treasure’s emeralds, for example, were smuggled.
“Smuggling was not just a cottage industry but a national industry. Some of these Spanish wrecks were carrying way above what they were supposed to be carrying,” said Jim Sinclair, 48, a marine archaeologist who worked as a Fisher treasure hunter during the mid-1980s.
Diver Matroci, 50, recently found a 9-inch, 22-carat gold chain and more than 30 coins. “We’re finding treasure all the time,” he said.—Reuters
