© 2007 Atocha Treasure Company LLC All Rights Reserved
© 2007 Atocha Treasure Company LLC All Rights Reserved
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Dreams Of Spanish Treasure KEY WEST, Fla.
(AP) -Mel
Fisher reached into his pants pocket as if fumbling for small, change.
instead, he produced a 6-1/2-inch long bar of 21-karat gold stamped with
the seals of imperial Spain. A tall, impassive
man, Fisher managed a thin smile as he set the bar on the table and
reached into another pocket. Out came an intricate chain of solid gold,
a delicate sea shell clinging to One of its links, The gold of the
Spanish Armada. Sunken treasure, Mel Fisher is by
profession a treasure hunter. His eldest son drowned in such an effort,
but Fisher continues. He deals in millions but often doesn’t have the
money to pay his staff. The staff works anyway. The goal is gold, but it
is a pursuit of passion. The gold in Mel
Fisher’s pockets came from the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra
Senora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane on Sept. 6, 1622. Its
discovery occupied six years of Fisher’s life, the lives of his family
and his employees. Four people died in its pursuit. It was the subject of
state and federal lawsuits. The wreck of the
Nuestra Senora de Atocha has to date produced some $17 million in gold and
silver’ bars and coins, bronze cannons and other, artifacts. Fisher estimates
it has taken $4 million to finance the operation. Fisher believes the
bulk of the treasure from the Atocha is still to be discovered, possibly
million or more stil1 on the ocean bottom off the Florida Keys. So his
search continues. |
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Fisher’s sagas will be? the subject of an hour-long National
Geographic Society television special tonight Fisher today appears more
concerned with the riches of investors than the riches beneath the sea. He
says he needs the former to find the latter. To finance his opera lion,
which employs up 10 50 people, he sells ‘‘Pieces of Eight” for $250 and’ shares in future discoveries from the wreck
site, dubbed ‘the Bank of Spain.”. His efforts to finance his work led at one point to a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. The SEC lawsuit was settled when Fisher agreed to halt sales of unregistered securities. The coins Fisher sells are part ‘of a $2 million cache of Atocha treasure released to Fisher by the government earlier this year alter lawsuits “over ownership of the treasure. in February of this year, U.S. District Judge William Mehrtens dismissed a government claim, saying the wreck is “neither within the jurisdiction of the United States nor is owned or controlled by our government.’’ |
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That decision helped
finance the ongoing search for ‘the pile,’ as Fisher calls the still
missing treasure. The search became a
deadly one last year. On the night of July 19, 1975, one of Fisher’s
boats, the Northwind, anchored near the Marguesas while on a trip to the
wreck site. Early in the morning, it began taking on water and capsized.
Dirk Fisher, his wife, Angel, and crewman Rick Gage were trapped inside
and drowned. On another ‘occasion, -
an 11-year-old visitor was caught in a search ship’s propellers
and fatally injured. Death, lack of money
and legal entanglements have slowed the search for the supposed treasure
of the Atocha, but not stopped it. “This week we’re going ‘to find
the Big A” Fisher says. Frequently. |
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The big pile is the
missing section of the Atocha. “When the Atocha broke apart, the bow was
buoyant and |
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From The Archives Of
The Search For The Atocha |
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