For a select group of lucky folks, summer vacation is still in full swing. For the luckiest of the lucky, those vacations overlook vast ocean expanses of cool waters and rolling waves. There has always been something that has drawn us to shorelines with a view of refreshing seascapes.
Aside from the chance to relax and dream, the more adventurous are drawn to the enchantment of what might lie beneath. For centuries, books and tales have recounted that vast treasures actually do wait below the waves. Especially off the Florida coast and throughout the Caribbean islands, the riches are almost unimaginable....
Though the British might have wished to “rule the waves” in the late 1500s, the Spanish Armada was markedly dominant. Spain was considered one of the world’s first “superpowers.” The Spanish naval fleet created an allegorical bridge between its coast and South America.
Early on, Spain realized the riches in gold and silver to be mined and retrieved in the New World countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru. During his voyages in the late 1400s, Columbus mentions gold 65 times in his sailing logs. Later, Cortez found gold so abundant in Mexico it was being used to decorate children’s toys.
That New World gold went into the coveted Spanish Escudo coins now recovered from the wrecks. The word “doubloon” is a derivation given to the storied two-escudo, or double escudo coins – the most storied of the treasure coins.
Gold from the New World first arrived in Spain in the very early 1500s. The first shipment contained 15 tons of the precious metal. It went to Segovia to be minted into escudos. Far more was minted into coins in South America. The coins from those New World mints were the ones loaded onto doomed ships lost along the Florida coast and throughout the Caribbean islands.
The wreck of the Atocha off Florida garnered major headlines and press in the 1980s. In 1985, diver Mel Fisher found the Nuestra Senora De Atocha (Our Lady of Atocha) wreck from 1622. The vast gold and silver Atocha treasure is estimated to be worth north of $400 million. As with so many hurricane-related wrecks, the treasure was widely scattered. Consequently, coins from that wreck are still washing up on Florida beaches to this day (and will be for years).
The most valuable and compelling wreck is that of the “Black Swan.” Her actual name was “Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes” or “Our Lady of Mercy,” a Spanish warship sailing en route from South America to Spain. Sunk by a British ship, the Black Swan went down with a fortune aboard. When found in 2008, by Odyssey Marine Exploration, it’s estimated over 17 tons of gold, silver and jewels were recovered. That included 500,000 silver coins.
Naturally, lawyers from Spain quickly descended. Even though the ship laid undiscovered for over two centuries and Spain hadn’t lifted a finger to recover it, a judge ruled that Spain had rights to the treasure. Clearly, “finders-keepers” sometimes does not apply to long-lost treasure.
The most recent find is that of the Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas or “Our Lady of Wonders” found in the vacation haven of the Bahamas. In 1656, it collided with another ship and broke up on a Bahamian coral reef. 600 people died in the wreck that also sent massive amounts of silver, gold, gems and jewelry to the ocean floor. Winds and waves have strewn the treasure over eight miles.
Because the Maravillas was smashed on a reef, the location is comparatively shallow. Treasure seekers have been diving on it for years. Of course, eight miles is a very long way, especially along the ocean floor. More and more of it continues to be found. That recently has included gold chains and a glass wine bottle that somehow survived two centuries of hurricanes.
While these finds may be dismissed by skeptical armchair treasure hunters who believe all the good treasure is probably gone, consider this. The Spanish culture ministry’s accounting of wrecks identifies 681 vessels sinking in the Americas between 1492 and 1898. Of those, salvors have located fewer than 25 percent. That means over 500 ships filled with treasure await.
Now, that’s the thing of which summer dreams are made.
For more collecting advice, visit www.PRexford.com