Posted on 03/19/2017 5:23:24 PM PDT by nickcarraway
I saw a show once about that guy Mel Fisher. If the show was an accurate portrayal of events surrounding that treasure ship he discovered in the Florida Keys, he really got screwed.
Kryptonite!!
Well, him giving $10 million dollars of stones away for appraisal fees didn’t help his bottom line any. There must be more to that story. I seem to recall you are right though, I think he spent a lot of money fighting the government over the find.
My favorite stone
Online Auctions are fun!
Never underestimate the governments ability to fornicate you over about anything.
That seems to always be a problem for treasure hunters with Govts. and archeologists and others who want a piece of the pie.
Fisher won a "finders keepers " ruling in court after an 8 year battle. -Tom
Don’t let my wife see this article or I’m doomed.
I’m guessing that Mel’s thoughts at the time (an perhaps still) was “Meh - I’ve got tons of treasure - what’s a handful of emeralds?”
Okay - a quick search said Fisher had a net worth of $100 million. Although he died in 1998! (That long ago!!!???)
You may not be able to take it with you, but what a fun adventure along the way! (Well, except for the legal stuff.)
And according to wikipedia, adventure still awaits:
The wealthiest part of the ship, the stern castle, is yet to be found.[4] Still missing are 300 silver bars and 8 bronze cannons, among other things.
The site of the wreckage of the Atocha, called “The Bank of Spain”, (a sandy area 22 feet deep and within 200 yards of the anchor location),[5] is still being worked on and treasures are slowly being recovered.
IIRC he went bankrupt a couple of times and the locals were pretty hard on him for years. He persevered, but it was a tough line for Mel.
those are beautiful
Diving on these shipwrecks can go on for a long time if the area is what the archeologists call an "exploded site".
That is if the remains are spread over a large area.
The wreck of the pirate treasure ship Whydah Gally has been discovered close in on Cape Cod and one of the archaeologists who has been diving on it for 20 years , recovering gold and silver and cannons etc says it will probably go on for another 30 years.
Unlike the Florida shipwrecks the Whydah is under 10 -30 feet of sand and is slow work. - Tom
Kryptonite!!
Just looks that way because they were irradiated.
why wasn’t there a show series on this find? Would have been a heck of a lot more interestingness that the lousy oak island series so far-
Mr. GG2 had an 11 carat emerald from the Atocha. He finally sold it about 6 years ago.
I know one of the divers that worked for Mel. He said many emeralds were scattered during the sand removal operations where they used the ships props and a large curved “pipe” to blast the bottom clear of the sand prior to air lift vacuuming the site. It seems emeralds and sand have near the same specific gravity and all flew away together. They found many emeralds but just as many are still scattered all around there.
FRegards,SS1
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but emeralds will never hurt me.
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