Nuestra Señora de Atocha
Mel Fisher spent 16 years and his son's life searching for this. There's still more down there.
- Category
- shipwreck
- Status
- partially recovered
- Year lost
- 1622
- Region
- Florida Keys
- Country
- United States
- Body of water
- Straits of Florida
The dossier
September 1622. A hurricane ambushed the Spanish treasure fleet in the Straits of Florida, scattering ships across miles of shallow reef. The Atocha—carrying registered cargo worth about $400 million in today's terms—sank in the violence, with all but five of her 265 crew lost. Salvors tried immediately. Spanish divers worked the site for years using hollow reeds as snorkels and wooden bells to trap air. They found little. The wreck then disappeared from history. Three and a half centuries later, in 1969, treasure hunter Mel Fisher started looking. What followed was one of the most famous hunts in modern history. Fisher sank his life savings. His son Dirk, daughter-in-law Angel, and another diver drowned when their salvage boat capsized in 1975. He was sued by the US government, fought the state of Florida, and lived on a boat for years to avoid further legal exposure. On July 20, 1985—sixteen years after he began—Fisher's crew radioed in. The words have become legend in treasure hunting circles: "We found the Motherlode." They had. A field of silver bars, chests of emeralds, gold chains estimated at over $400 million total. It remains the most successful private treasure recovery in American history. But Fisher's company and researchers believe a 'primary manifest' cargo—the part listed as most valuable—is still unaccounted for. The Atocha carried two registered sister ships. Only one has been substantially recovered.
Cargo and value
Silver bars, gold chains, emeralds, tobacco, indigo
Legal status
Active recovery zone managed by Mel Fisher's Treasures Inc. under Florida permits. Ongoing commercial recovery. Limited to licensed salvors.