This may be a little off topic, but it set me to thinking.
A number of years ago (Columbus Voyage Anniversary?) the King of Spain announced that the entire records of the Archives of the Indies would be posted on the Internet as a database resource.
I searched and sure enough foung this site:
http://en.www.mcu.es/archivos/MC/AGI/BaseDatos.html
Haven’t had time to check it out for treasure ships sunk & lost, but I was wondering if anyone had heard of the database being used to locate a wreck.
The Spanish archives helped in the identification of the Atocha — the gold bars had serial numbers, and each one was listed with weight on the manifest, which had survived and made it to the archives, even though the ship and the bars had gone down. In the 1970s there was a real worry among historians that the building (which was vintage) would burn, taking the archives with it. And of course now, the risk is, jihadists would set fire to it.