Mel Fisher Atocha Site

Mel Fisher - Atocha Shipwreck Story

Mel Fisher- treasure hunter Nuestra Senora de Atocha (August 21, 1922 – December 19, 1998) was an American treasure hunter best known for finding the wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha. He discovered the wreck July 20, 1985. The estimated $450 million cache recovered, known as "The Atocha Motherlode," included 40 tons of gold and silver and some 100,000 Spanish silver coins known as "Pieces of Eight", gold coins, Columbian emeralds, golden and silver artifacts and 1000 silver bars. Large as it was, this was only roughly half of the treasure that

went down with the Atocha. Still missing are 300 silver bars and 8 bronze cannons, among other things. Mel's company Salvors Inc. found remains of several shipwrecks in Florida waters, in addition to the Atocha, which include the sister galleon to the Atocha the Santa Margarita (both sunk in 1622). Mel's company also found the remains of a slave ship known as the Henrietta Marie. The site of the wreckage of the Atocha, now referred to as "the Bank of Spain" is still being worked and treasures are slowly 'floating' to the surface.

The Dream

The dream that had consumed Mel Fisher for more than 16 years now came true before the eyes of the world. He had found the rainbow's end, stacks of silver bars, chests of treasure coins, gold, jewels, and unique artifacts of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha Mel Fisher found what adventurous souls through centuries had only dreamed of finding!.

Mel Fisher's dreams of treasure began in childhood with the reading of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and about pirates of the "Spanish Main." He also read about exploits of deep sea divers in their bulky"hard hat" suits who were just beginning exploration of the sub-sea world. There were no oceans to conquer in Hobart and Glen Park, Indiana. But at age eleven, Mel Fisher made his own first "hard hat" diving outfit to use in a mud-bottomed lagoon. Mel Fisher Story ->