February 6, 2022 - Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum
Sebastian, FL
Mel Fisher was a fascinating man who followed his passions of scuba diving and treasure hunting and finally hit the mother lode. It was a fight every step of the way: against the sea, the weather, other treasure hunters, and most of all the government. He didn’t become rich, per se. As the girl at the museum gift shop said, he was “treasure rich” and “cash poor”.
Fisher invented the “mailbox” or blower, designed to swing down over the boat’s propeller, vectoring the propwash downward, pushing the clear water from the surface down to the bottom, uncovering the sand from whatever was there. It would become the primary tool of the treasure salvager.
His first big hit was the 1715 wreck sites off Treasure Coast -- the coast of Florida between Sebastian Inlet and Fort Pierce -- in May 1964, 700 feet offshore, just south of the inlet at Fort Pierce. “The bottom of the ocean looked like a carpet of gold!” Over 2.500 gold coins were recovered. The average gold shipwreck coin was worth at least $500. $1.25M dollars. National Geographic published the story in January 1965. The dilemma was … if a large number of coins hit the market at once, the value of each would drop considerably.
This is a model of the Spanish treasure ship Atocha. The Atocha was a ‘four star’ wreck site, and it had never been located. It contained 35 tons of silver, almost 200,000 silver coins, and at least 500 pounds of gold.
In April-May 1980, Fisher discovered the Santa Margarita. Ultimately the treasure consisted of 54 gold bars and disks weighting 106 pounds, 43 gold chains, 53 gold coins, 12,000 silver coins, and 18 silver bars.
In the summer of 1982 they started finding more Atocha treasure including a box containing a large gold cross with seven large emeralds.
In late summer of 1984 they focused on Hawk Channel. In May, 1985, in Hawk Channel, they found a gold bar, and which led to the discovery of 12 others. The next day they found jewelry studded with emeralds, a gold chain, and silver coins.
On the afternoon of July 13, 1985, they found hundreds of coins. They knew they were close to the ballast pile. They next morning they found the ballast pile and the mother lode.
‘It is hard to imagine the excitement in salvaging a treasure galleon wreck site. To be the first to see the Atocha mound of ballast tones 75 feet long, 30 feet wide, and rising four feet above the bottom. To swim alongside 1,041 silver bars, most of them 70-80 pounds each, stacked like cordwood four feet high and nearly 20 feet long. Here, also, are boxes of silver coins, 3,000 in each box.
As the treasure boat headed for Key West, Jimmy Buffet and Mel Fisher sat atop a pile of Atocha silver bars, while Jimmy played Margaritaville.
Mel Fisher died in 1998 at age 76. His wife Deo died in 2009.
Son Kim Fisher is the President/CEO of the various Mel Fisher Family Enterprises.
Daughter Taffi Fisher serves on the Board of Directors for the Fisher Family enterprises.
