Treasure hunter Fisher's heirs sell salvage rights

[Thagarr]

[imgleft]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cQOyQjTP3GY/SzdzZcJpthI/AAAAAAAAAIU/lTv6nE8qBxo/pa-logo.gif[/imgleft]The heirs of the great treasure hunter Mel Fisher have sold the rights to sold the salvage rights to the 1715 Treasure Fleet to Queen Jewels LLC. For those of you who don't know, Mel Fisher Fisher is best known for discovering the shipwrecks of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita, Spanish galleons that sank during a hurricane on September 6, 1622, near Key West, Florida. You can read more about those ships, and the treasure they were carrying HERE!

Treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s heirs have sold the salvage rights to the 1715 Treasure Fleet to Queen Jewels LLC, a Sebastian-based company led by former Cincinnati developer William Brisben.

The fleet of Spanish galleons was loaded in Cuba with gold bars, coins, diamonds, emeralds and pearls before all of the ships sank in a hurricane on July 31, 1715, about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach.

Six out of 11 sunken ships have been located, but 300 chests containing nearly $1 million in silver coins and the queen's jewels have yet to be recovered, according to a news release. The estimated value is $900 million.

The fleet included a dowry for Queen Elisabeth, the bride of King Philip V.

Fisher prevailed in U.S. Supreme Court in his battle for the rights to numerous wrecks, resulting in U.S. admiralty custodianship of the 1715 Treasure Fleet.

"What typically happens is the state retains a 20 percent right and the remainder goes to Queen Jewels, which they split with the subcontractor," said Anne Kazel-Wilcox of Gold Coast Communications, which issued the press release.

Many of the state's treasures were shared with museums.

The state assigns a point value, not just the value of the metal, but historical importance and uniqueness and condition, Kazel-Wilcox said.

A gold-rimmed portrait necklace was recovered last week, along with gold and silver coins and other artifacts, according to Queen Jewels.

“We are entering a new age of historical shipwreck salvaging,” said Brisben, Queen Jewels' operations manager, in the press release. “As if to confirm our confidence, our subcontractors immediately recovered valuable pieces of history, hidden for nearly 300 years. With new technology, we hope larger discoveries are not far behind.”

You can read the full story and a see a few pics HERE! You can find out more about the wrecks Mel Fisher discovered and salvaged HERE, and HERE!

 

[Thagarr]

Just a bit of a follow up on this one :

Treasure within treasure: Bronze cannon found off Sebastian contained $500K worth of hidden gold, silver coins

Dozens of gold and silver coins hidden nearly 300 years ago were found July 16 when a cannon recovered July 11 from a wrecked Spanish ship was being cleaned for preservation, salvagers reported this week.

Divers from the salvage boat “Gold Hound” brought up the ship’s bronze swivel cannon, a rare find in itself, in less than 20 feet of water between Wabasso and Vero Beach, said Anne Kazel-Wilcox, a spokeswoman for 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, a private salvage company based in Sebastian and Jupiter.

The heavily-encrusted cannon was taken to the Mel Fisher’s Treasures facility in Sebastian for preservation, Kazel-Wilcox said, “and as workers were conserving it, the cannon became unplugged and coins were found inside.”

In addition to 22 gold coins found near the cannon, 25 gold coins and 63 silver coins were found inside, worth an estimated $500,000 or more.

“This is an amazing historic find,” Greg Bounds of Fellsmere, captain of the Gold Hound, said in a prepared statement. “We found treasure within the treasure. This is right out of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ except this is the real thing. For centuries there has been talk of treasure possibly hidden inside of cannons, but up until today that was only pirate lore. Now it’s the real deal.”

Rest of the story here :
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/jul/24/treasure-within-treasure-bronze-cannon-found-off/