Nuestra Senora de Atocha
Atocha 8 Reales in 14k yellow gold Mermaid Mount with Diamonds.
“Gold shines forever.”
Mel Fisher, World Famous Treasure Salvor
“Put away the charts, we’ve got the Mother Lode.” - Kane Fisher to his Father, Mel.
It began with Treasure Island. The famed book written by Robert Louis Stevenson would become the inspiration for the world’s greatest treasure hunter, Mel Fisher.
A chicken farmer from Indiana, Mel dreamed of searching the seas for the lost treasures of the Spanish Empire. His passions took him to Redondo Beach, California, where he opened Mel’s Aqua Shop, the first dive shop in it’s area.
Finding success in his business venture, he soon became a family man when he met and married Deo Horton, a tenacious woman who would go on to set world records for underwater submersion.
It was on their honeymoon in the Florida Keys where they were exposed to the world of Spanish galleons lost to these waters. Within years, they moved their entire family to the East Coast and began diving.
Mel and a team of divers would go on to salvage portions of the 1715 Fleet off the coast of Melbourne, Florida. He sold found treasures to search for the lost galleon Atocha- amidst the eyes and ears of skeptics worldwide.
Mel and his family, with a team of divers, searched for about a decade in the Upper Matecumbes for the ill-fated Atocha- a mere 100 miles in the wrong direction. Lost in translation, a minute reiteration of the Marquesas Keys based on Old Castilian directed the expedition to Key West. The family venture would grow into legend, gathering the adoration and support from all over the world. Divers flocked to the Florida Keys to work for Mel, sometimes without pay. Known for his colorful sales pitches, Mel famously crowd-funded on the streets of Duval in Key West, raising money whenever he could to further the expedition.
A tragic accident almost put a stop to the family endeavor, with a fatal accident aboard one of the salvage vessels. Claiming the life of Dirk and Angel Fisher and three other divers, the search for the Atocha was almost brought to a screeching halt.
Ten years to the day of the accident, on July 20, 1985, Kane, son of Mel, phoned headquarters famously saying “Put away the charts, we’ve found the Mother Lode.” After sixteen years of searching, they had found the main cultural deposit on the sea floor some 30 miles South West of Key West. Mel and his Golden Crew of historians, archaeologists, researchers, and divers would make history the world over.
Over $450,000,000.00 in Spanish treasure was raised from the sea, carefully conserved, studied, and certified on the upper conservation floor of today’s Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Royal dignitaries, talk show hosts, even Jimmy Buffet (pre-fame), famously visited the site, sharing in the jovial discovery of an historic treasure often compared to the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.
The Atocha’s cargo exemplifies the first hundred years of trade between the Old World and the New- with imagery and symbolism depicting the clash of the two Worlds. Together, South American Indigenous symbolism (primarily Incan) and Spanish Catholic religious symbolism appeared on the lost artifacts, gold, silver, ornamental jewelry, ceramics, and other wares being transported onboard Atocha.
Over 350,000 silver cob coins, such as this one, were tallied, along with numerous gold and priceless artifacts, thousands of rough emeralds and hundreds of 70 pound silver bars, used as ballast in her hull. The search continues for the other half of the ship.
