KeysDiveGuideVol.25(GalleonHunter7)Mel Fisher - King of the Treasure Salvors

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hi this is Dawne Ferguson for the keys dive guide channel in volume 21 of keys dive guide joined legendary treasure salvors captain Karl Frederick's for a salvage dive on San Jose of the 1733 Spanish Armada sea a mailbox in action as it directs the powerful propwash down to the ocean floor blowing away nearly four feet of sand overburden that covers San Jose's massive wooden Timbers learn a few interesting facts about the frame of this once-proud ship and enjoy the beauty of her final resting place now stay tuned for keys dive guide vol 25 welcome to keys dive guide vol 25 today we're going to step back in time to Christmas week 1995 for a visit with Mel Fisher king of the Treasure salvors no video series about diving in the Florida Keys would be complete without a visit to the Mel Fisher maritime heritage society museum and gift shop in Key West when you think of the most famous treasure salvors of the 20th century without question the name Mel Fisher comes to mind in 1985 Melanie's divers relocated the treasure galleon wastes rescind your ADEA Toja of the 1622 Spanish Armada culminating a 16 year surge filled with tragedy hard times and constant uncertainty Mel Fisher's diving career began nearly 45 years before his a toucher recovery while serving in the Army during World War two he became fascinated with a new technology used by the Navy the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus scuba for short scuba gave divers an entirely new freedom of movement and a much less complicated system than hardhat diving after the war Mel bought a chicken ranch in California where he could pursue his passion for ocean diving in a tiny shed on his farm he repaired and service scuba gear for a small but enthusiastic group of underwater explorers by the early 1950s Mel realized his future was in sport and Salvage diving not raising chickens while looking for a site suitable for a dive shop he met his future wife and business partner do Horton friendship turned into love and they were married in 1953 together they opened the first dive shop in the United States in Redondo Beach California for the rest of the decade and into the 1960s Mel and do taught over 65,000 people to dive in 1959 do set an underwater endurance record of just over 55 hours and 37 minutes imagine underwater for two days and seven and a half hours all to promote the sport of scuba diving as true pioneers of sport diving the Fisher's build air compressors to fill dive tanks they design dive gear spear guns and underwater housings for video and still photography Mel designed and built underwater Salvage equipment the likes of which the world had never seen in 1963 their interest in Salvage diving brought the Fisher's from California to Fort Pierce Florida where they joined forces with Kip Wagner's rial a group making many impressive recoveries on the scattered remains of the 1715 Spanish Armada it was during this time that Mel and Fay field invented the mailbox a device that directs propwash down to the bottom of the sea thus uncovering shipwrecks buried under several feet of overburden buoyed by their success on the 1715 fleet shipwrecks the Fisher's moved to the Florida Keys where they dived worked and explored nearly all of the 1733 fleet wreck sites I worked off and down the coast eros like you I wanted to find all of them the whole fleet and different ones were going in different directions they weren't all going exactly the same way due to their shallow depth most of these vessels were thoroughly salvaged by the Spanish and then the modern salvers of the 1950s and 60s by 1970 Mel had withdrawn his search contracts in the middle keys and moved his company to Key West he turned his attention to the 1622 fleet specifically the long-lost ghost galleon new way stress and your ADEA touch' the Atocha sailed as law all moranto the rearguard vice flagship of the convoy she was built in 1620 by mastership right Alonzo Ferrara for the king in Havana Cuba the Atocha displaced five hundred and fifty tons with a length of a hundred and twelve feet a beam of 34 feet and a draught of fourteen feet after departing Havana Cuba for the return voyage to Cadiz Spain the 28 vessels of the 1622 fleet were pounded by a savage hurricane on September 5th the lead manifest vessels of the fleet passed to the west of the Dry Tortugas riding out the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico the last eight ships were not so lucky they all found bottom taking a fortune of gold and silver with them now for five years he couldn't ship that go over from 16 17 to 16 22 they were at war with England and he couldn't risk shipping the treasure so when a war ended they loaded it all on this 1622 fleet and they had it out with 28 shiploads of gold silver and emeralds and had all that taxes from five years and the stern of the Autopia yeah five year collection of church gold and they were delivering that to the Pope with a Vatican Museum and went down stuff and with 28 other wealthy passengers on board - who were in the stern helpless in the tempest the Atocha and her sister ship the Santa Margarita were pounded along a northerly track toward the outer reef of the Florida Keys as the Atocha plowed into the shallows in the area of present-day Marquesas rocks the margarita and her complement of 194 people escape the for reef to the west of the Atocha and deployed three anchors the anchors did not hold and the margarita exploded into the shallows of the quicksands to the west of the Marquesas keys only 68 of the 194 Souls aboard who survived the disaster after grinding over the shallow four reef the Atocha moved back into people water her broken main mast trailing in the frothing search mortally wounded with a gaping hole in her bow without a rudder to steer her the Atocha began a slow death spire running completely at cross-purposes to the wheel she slipped beneath the waves in 53 feet of water her bow facing the outer reef indicating she was moving Stern forward or backwards when her hull found bottom out of the 265 people aboard when she sank beneath the waves only five survived they lashed themselves to the top of the mizzenmast the only part of the atutor the throat the surface one month later a second hurricane churned through the area detaching the gun deck the mizzenmast and the stern castle were the officers and wealthy passengers were quartered this second storm lasted wind and waves to the northwest from the Atocha wreck site depositing artifacts from mouths into the shallow waters of the quicksands the modular construction methods used to build the Atocha and other galleons of this era made them prone to breaking into several parts during as well as after sinking the stern broke off and with tumbled and rolled every time a big 20-foot wave we here to pick it up and smash it and pick it up and smash it so if you're looking for treasure you can have to do a lot of work that me as it is a whole trail of scattered for I bet you three miles eventually the Spanish relocated the margarita making substantial treasure recoveries from her remains in 1626 by this time the crafty Spanish had developed amazingly effective Salvage techniques pictured here a salvage boat rolls several grappling hooks astern when either grapnel snagged an object native divers were sent down to investigate sometimes using heavy rocks to speed their descent obviously these Native American free divers did not have a very long life expectancy the ruthless Spanish would write off the cost of a dead native diver much like a business expense deduction used today since the Atocha was situated in 53 feet of water she was much more difficult to relocate than the margarita once the mizzenmast that marked her remains was swept away in the second hurricane the Spanish never relocated the Atocha even after years of intense salvage efforts the artifacts that Mel and his divers recovered from the Atocha gives us an interesting glimpse of daily life aboard a Kings galleon in 1622 this grinding wheel called a metate was used to turn corn into cornmeal for the preparation of tortillas this mortar and pestle was used to grind medicines and mint spices food aboard these vessels was horrible spices were necessary to mask the foul flavor of old meat and other provisions many varieties of all of jurors called bow heaters by the Spanish were recovered on both the Atocha and margarita wreck sites though heaters were used for shipping and storing all liquids aboard Spanish ships in the 15 and 1600s awkward to manage and easily breakable these clay fired vessels were used because a lack of hardwoods in Spain made the use of barrels or casks impractical by the mid 1500s the course tin enameled mahalo cook was widely used as food where on land and sea throughout the Spanish Empire this unusual enamel vessel is called a porringer the handles on the sides allowed the user to consume soups or stews without a spoon a handy convenience in rough seas salvage divers recovered a trove of navigation instruments on both the Atocha and margarita wreck sites the astrolabe was used by Mariners to measure the angle of the Sun or stars to determine a ship's position relative to her latitude in 1973 Nelson Dirk Fisher recovered this astrolabe from the Atocha Bank of Spain scattered to the northwest of the main ballast man this amazing relic is fully operational and was probably the property of the pilot of the Atocha Martin Yemenis the pilot was the third ranking officer aboard a galley below only the captain and the master M&S would have been responsible for all navigational calculations since the pilot was expected to be familiar with the reef lines and coastlines his charts were extremely valuable these dividers would calculate distance on charts of varying scales this pocket-sized handheld compass and sundial allowed the user to calculate direction and time the compass needle pointed to magnetic north and the sundial cast a shadow allowing the user to calculate the approximate latitude as law Murata of the fleet responsible for the trailing ships of the convoy the Atocha bristled with powerful armaments she carried 20 bronze cannon the Spanish cast bronze cannon from copper ingots like this a toucher recovery the rough texture indicates a typical sand cast ingot from the kara dead mines in Cuba the green patina as a result of a chemical reaction caused when copper is submerged in saltwater bronze cannon were able to withstand tremendous internal pressure weighing in at up to two and a half tons they could be loaded with more gunpowder allowing them to hurl their 16 pound cannonballs faster and further than an iron cannon of equal size this cannon was loaded down the bore at the muzzle the trunnions were held in place by the wooden carriage the Dolphins on a cannon allowed these heavy armaments to be more easily lifted and positioned on a ship gunpowder was funneled into the blowhole and ignited to explode a projectile forward the wheels on the carriage allowed the cannon to roll backward after firing absorbing some of the kickback produced by the explosion this wedge called a coin adjusts the angle of the cannon in its carriage which determines the trajectory of the cannonball if angled high in the carriage loaded with the maximum amount of gunpowder and fired on the up roll this cannon could blast its 16 pound payload over a mile with deadly accuracy the Atocha sported six vs. or railing guns this one is breech loaded similar to the shotgun of our era this deadly weapon fired multiple projectiles of iron rocks or glass instead of a single ball mounted on a ship's railing in a swivel the verso could fire up down or sideways this was especially useful when repelling enemies that were attempting to board the ship the Atocha had Gunners had a host of projectiles in their arsenal iron cannonballs of various weights and sizes were fabricated in northern Spain near her extensive iron ore deposits since there were no known iron ore deposits in the New World rounded stone cannonballs were often used as a less expensive alternative to iron cannonballs this grapeshot cluster would explode upon firing sending a cascade of projectiles at the enemy spike shot was wrapped in terror lit and then fired at enemy vessels leaving them ablaze armed split shot and Barshop were both used to destroy sails and rigging components of enemy vessels leading them dead in the water in their spare time crewmen used this lead shot mold to produce balls used in a precursor to the modern rifle by 1622 spanish iron Smith's were not only capable of fabricating nails boat hooks cannon and other nautical hardware they were able to cast the delicate components necessary to fashion a padlock as well the attaches payload of treasure was staggering she was overburdened with 24 tonnes of silver bullion in 1038 ingots a hundred and eighty thousand pieces of silver cob coins a hundred and twenty-five gold bars and disks 582 copper ingots a fortune in contraband emeralds from the mousou mines in Colombia and a vast assortment of organic cargo including tobacco indigo spices silks and cocoa leaves by the early 1600s cocoa leaves and their powdered derivative cocaine were widely used aboard ocean-going vessels this powerful stimulant helped curb hunger made time pass quickly and broke the monotony of a long ocean voyage the cocoa leaf thrived in the high altitudes of the Andes Mountains in Colombia Ecuador Peru and Bolivia precisely where the Spanish were enslaving native populations to mine silver and gold they chewed it all day while working me because syrup I am the mountain there wasn't much oxygen if we didn't have a cocoa leaf in their mouth it couldn't do a day's work cuz there should I we figured work all day so they kept giving him some every day I can imagine the human loss of life aboard the Atocha is palpable when looking at the artifacts throughout Mel's Museum one of the unfortunate passengers who did not survive was Dona Isabel Purina a beautiful young lady of nobility bound for Spain aboard the Atocha after the Dark Ages the Renaissance began an artistic reawakening throughout Europe the personal artifacts of the wealthy passengers quartered in the stern castles of the Atocha and margarita showcased the amazing talent of 17th century Goldsmith's and silversmiths a gold triple band ring is joined by a star-shaped ornament holding an emerald dress ornaments were pinned or soon on the satin and velvet attire favored by the nobility of the early 1600s Dona Isabel was bringing over 35 pounds of work silverware back to Spain from the new world this silver plate is an outstanding example of Inca craftsmanship displaying two sacred condors holding an Inca chieftains headdress since the Spanish melted down most of the gold and silver artifacts created by Inca artisans this plate is one of the few examples of Inca silverware to survive the Spanish conquest this gold silver plate of intricate Moorish design is eight inches in diameter and three-quarters of an inch thick the craftsmanship is amazing this gold goblet is called a poison cup the large setting in the middle of the cup held a base or stone usually the gall stone of a goat it was believed that the stone would change color indicating the presence of poison in the beverage within the exterior was painstakingly etched with tropical fruits and flowers dolphins were crafted as handles of the cup the lower portion of the cup is divided into 22 longitudinal sections each filled with an incised floral design the interior rim is studded with 20 settings which once held emeralds the importance of religion was paramount in 17th century Spain rigid catholicism dominated every facet of daily life national saturday represents beginning of church Marilu 12 apostles around this this spectacular silver and emerald crucifix along with a gold emerald ring were recovered within a seaborne silver jewelry box set with seven opulent emeralds from Colombia's Musa mines the reverse of this cross is adorned with the engraved images of seen Anthony and the christ child along with the Virgin Mary and the Christ child both framed with various tropical fruits and flowers such crosses as this were born by nobility or high-ranking officials of the Catholic Church from the beginning the greatest motivation for Spain's conquest of the new world was the search for gold and silver we're searching yet for the main pile on the right rear we found several million bucks worth of goodies er but there's still 40 tons of gold and silver sitting there waiting for us and we're hunting for it and here's one piece we found on it be lad Wow very hidden and this is from the margarita yeah and there's 40 tons more of it out there that should agree the tax stamps on there they call it a kento in means a que guys 20% tax the margarita was nicknamed the gold chain wreck by Mel's divers 43 gold money chains were recovered here totaling a hundred and eighty feet in length one of the chains was 12 feet long and weighed in at six and a half pounds gold money chains for both an ostentatious display of wealth and position as well as a way to avoid paying the key to since the Quito was not levied against person jewelry gold chains were a favorite way of the wealthy to avoid taxes there's still a lot more gold chains out there to hold your hand underneath this here just hold it down underneath I'm gonna dribble it in and give you gold fever she may turn your hand so he can see it okay that's he just shines wherever is deadly blinding beautiful old rust will turn green now you got gold fevers each link was exquisitely handcrafted the gold bands were not welded so the owner could take off a link to pay for goods and services all right I got pictures you guys bringing these things up and you got ain't like that there were only a hundred and twenty eight gold coins recovered on the Atocha scatter in the quicksands in an area dubbed the Bank of Spain by males divers since gold coins weren't regularly minted in the new world until 1679 in Mexico City all those gold coins are thought to be the property of wealthy passengers quartered in the stern Castle that went down with the ship special on this point today it's a hundred thousand and if you buy these today they're free t-shirt I'm not kidding picnic only future this one is even early date there were only sixty five of these see the day one six two two sixteen twenty two and his spaniel here's the mint mark and ask for your Co it's been a beautiful point probably the rarest coin we've ever found this is one of four that was a approved set the Roman numerals on this gold Baro indicate a purity of 23 and 1/2 carats this is like five it weighs about a house and then this is 40 escudos this is eight escudos and this is 40 Espino so this is five of these golden bloods made this gold bar so it's like a thousand dollar bill back then this $50,000 now about 49,000 this is a timestamp texting who's the ohem the Mexican mint mark and here's initials of the king and a crown and T for Pedro they're not master and V that name is five of these points in 1659 is a date on and this came from one of the 17 33 feet right away that's right and the San Fernando where's the tax going and the tax stamp again this is a gold to blame for 17 this is a gold doubloon from the same shipwreck this is a Mexican mint FSA or beautiful shield would be difference in that Oh beautiful right now they also have a magnificent branding iron we found on that wreck you like you get a shot of that yes sir I'm not sure what they're think about it the chasey are it's hard this way and I turn this way backwards see that word ml you told me the other day you heated up in brandy and we find that boy yeah yeah after around friends over yeah Brad yes he was instead of sniffing it's not a lot of preparation in my life and that thing is neat I never I never met her like that I made a lot of that because when I started digging heavy sleepers I had to make my own is somebody hand me that thing you couldn't mess with that ha ha he got spirited one all directions Emerald City was the nickname Mel's divers gave an area of the Atocha ballast that was blanketed with the deep green jewels here's some of the animals we're finding group emeralds everyday I talked to my son Kane on a radio a few minutes ago and he said he had 18 of them from yesterday and today and they're the deep dark green stones at all the pretty girls like and they can't find them in the mines anymore they can't find the darker green ones that's be a can only find the lighter shades and most girls want these dark greens and so they keep going up and up in value every year a good investment yeah this 77.7 six ounce contraband chunk of green fire from the mousou mines of Colombia was being smuggled back to Spain to avoid paying the key to whenever here it's 40% off and it makes it any two hundred and forty six thousand three hundred and sixty three dollars and the one in the little octopus Ervil is fifteen thousand five hundred but they do make wonderful Christmas presents same colors the tree unit emeralds were a popular item with smugglers a small sack of choice emeralds would bring as much money as a whole chest of silver coins these coins from the margarita are fused together in the shape of the treasure chest that once contained them the wooden chests disintegrated in salt water over time this is a silver coin that we call a piece of egg it was a silver dollar back in the 1600s this shield that you see on the front is the Habsburg shield each one of these symbols is that is a place where you could spend dis dollar in those days the Low Countries in Austria and Castile in the own and Naples and Sicily and so on on the corner of the point is a cube that's the initial of the guy who made this coin back then and he worked from 16 16 to 16 17 his name was LaVonda de Quadra on the other side is a cross and in those days this dollar would last you for about a month you're the average person anyway everything you wanted to buy you would take this coin and take it to a merchant and if you wanted to buy a horse or something say that was a hoarder they would chop off a reporter and that's where the expression two bits four bits six bits a dollar comes from and that's what we're these old pieces of eight come from each one is different they're all made by hand by some little guys out there they're torture I don't want full sides like that I know if you knew that no I didn't and we sailed it across the Atlantic Ocean and just like the Spaniards did you brought up to Florida and I had down here in Key West a few years finally it went the way of all Spanish galleons got dry rot and reiterated one we ended up burying it the same way the Spaniards didn't burn to the waterline she went did you take her back to staying up way the fleet's went we brought it over here that was quite a trip how long this - long time we didn't have any wedding but with the current man who's about six lots that takes a long time in six months across the ocean and that woman so I like to use some of these guys down there to help me by encouraging with I know they've got solar and grab belt in gravity gravity meters you know and I'm sure they could go find gold silver nuri quickly they probably know where it all is - yeah yeah well good luck in the mail thanks a lot I only found will see 18 of those wrecks and I couldn't find the last one was the name of it the Ignacio Ignacio I hope you find a lousy other souther a narc Shadle somewhere I think thanks a lot all right the greatest honour of my diving career came on December 23rd 1995 when king mel fisher dubbed me sir Don Ferguson knight of the conch republic Mel Fisher was not only the king of the Treasure salvors he was the first king of the conch republic as well are you ready for this yes okay by the power bestowed upon me as king of the concrete puppy I hereby a deadly night everybody got it call you sir now you've just been lady captain Titian the conch republic encompasses the Florida Keys and actually seceded from the United States in 1982 in the upcoming volume 26 of keys dive guide we'll be diving loss on goose Tia's in Long Key channel always a difficult potentially dangerous dive due to strong currents miserable visibility and monster size channel sharks then we'll skip over to else Waco to Arizona also of the 1733 fleet located about a mile east of hawks cay Resort on duck key and eight feet of water else Waco is a great first-time wreck dive for beginners remember the dive Odyssey continues tomorrow for the keys dive guide channel exclusively on YouTube this is Sir Don Ferguson Knight of the conch republic you Oh laughs Oh Oh and I know you
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Channel: KeysDiveGuide - Don Ferguson Productions
Views: 46,753
Rating: 4.8372092 out of 5
Keywords: Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum (Maritime Museum), Deo Fisher, Treasure Salvors, Treasure Salvage, Shipwreck Treasure, Treasure Galleons, 1622 Spanish Treasure Fleet, Spanish Galleons, Atocha Shipwreck, Nuestra Senora de Atocha, 1622 Spanish Armada, Mel Fisher, Marine Salvage (Ship), Galleon (Weapon)
Id: pWTVmqB-ezQ
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 39min 22sec (2362 seconds)
Published: Tue Nov 05 2013
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