dive in
BY MANDY MILES
Long before Johnny Depp twisted his beard in Hollywood and before any X ever marked the spot, a real-life Spanish galleon left Havana Harbor with real-life treasure stowed heavily in its hull. The Nuestra Senora de Atocha sailed for Spain in 1622, carrying gold, silver and emeralds from the New World home to the king. The ship didn’t make it. A hurricane overwhelmed the Atocha on Sept. 6, 1622, killing more than 200 people and tossing its priceless cargo into the vast ocean surrounding an island known as Cayo Hueso.
GOING FOR THE GOLD Nearly three decades after the wreck of the Spanish galleon Atocha was discovered off Key West, the sunken ship continues to relinquish its treasures, piece by piece. For $3,000, amateur treasure hunters can dive alongside the professional salvagers. The legendary account of the ill-fated galleon became a modern-day fairy tale when treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s “golden crew” of divers discovered the Atocha’s $400 million “mother lode” of treasure in waters about 35 miles from Key West. Assuring his team every day that “Today’s the day,” Fisher endured 16 years of searching, skepticism and the loss of a son. The day came on July 20, 1985, when divers Greg Wareham and Andy Matroci became the first people in more than 300 years to look upon the lost galleon’s disintegrated timbers and perfectly intact “reef of silver bars.” The main treasure pile consisted of silver bars “stacked like cordwood,” as Fisher always had predicted: clusters of silver coins, gold bars, gold chains, jewels and thousands of South American emeralds. The discovery made global headlines, involved a Supreme Court decision about ownership and became a Hollywood movie, with Cliff Robertson playing Fisher, and Loretta Swit cast as his wife, Deo. Mel Fisher died in 1998, leaving the family business and his unending optimism to son Kim and grandson Sean. The
At top, a diver comes up from the Atocha with a bar of gold, among the treasures Mel Fisher long predicted the ship would yield. Above, gold chains, coins and gems were among the haul. The ongoing treasure hunt is financed by investors who buy in with a minimum $12,500 annual investment. Photographs courtesy of Mel Fisher’s Treasures
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APRIL 2014