October, 2018
October Salvage Update
A few of our members came to Key West this week to dive on the Santa Margarita shipwreck trail! They dove alongside the crew of the Magruder and found a great mix of artifact, most of them encrusted. Divers also found 2 musket balls and a glass button. (See below)
One of the most interesting artifacts recovered was a black glass button. According to research from Corey Malcom, "eight black glass buttons were recovered from throughout the lower hull structure site of the Atocha and one from the Margarita. All of them were found loose and not in association with any sort of garment (no clothing was recovered from either wreck). They have a shape best described as "rounded-hemisphere," and all have two holes in the backside where a wire loop was inserted. None of these loops remain, but corrosion products in some of the holes appear to be iron oxide, leading to the conclusion that an iron wire was dipped and twisted in molten glass and then drawn out, and the piece smoothed and allowed to cool."
Malcom, Corey. "Glass from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha." Volume 6, No. 1 - Fall, 1990. Page 8. Print.
ROV
We are working on a new remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) and we are developing our next generation EM (electromagnetic) detector system to be mounted on our new Mojave ROV. We have just completed the first round of array design testing with a silver bar and copper ingot. Gary has been finalizing the USBL tracking system, navigation system and magnetometer system on the vehicle.
We used a silver bar and copper ingots while designing and testing the new EM arrays. This ROV will help us recover many more artifacts with this amazing technology!
September, 2018
September Salvage Update
In honor of the Atocha shipwreck which sank September 6, 1622, we annually invite our members to join us for a week of emerald sifting at Emerald City. A tropical storm rolled through the Keys the first part of the scheduled Emerald City week but a stretch of workable weather allowed Captain Andy to get the Magruder set up for the last part of the week. We were sifting for emeralds in the dark green area of Emerald City where the emeralds are harder to find but worth more in value. Unfortunately, no emeralds were recovered during this trip.
Captain Andy and his crew then headed to the Margarita Site to an area that produced an abundance of gold bars, gold coins and gold chains in the early 1980's. The crew recovered iron square spikes that the Santa Margarita was built with, a piece of Chinese Ming Dynasty Porcelain, lead sheathing, encrusted objects and ballast stones.
Captain Josh Fisher and his crew focused on the northern section of the Margarita wreck, working between three known galleon anchors that were found in the past, along with an anchor ring and shank. Divers recovered 40 encrusted objects in the area, two of which appear to be fragments of a barrel hoop, and one that could possibly be ships rigging. Finding new material to the north could expand the collective knowledge of the site and the events surrounding the wreckage. These artifacts are currently in our lab being conserved by John Corcoran. We are excited to find out what treasures will emerge after conservation. Stay tuned for updates from the lab!
September, 2018
Mel Fisher Days raised $21,890!
The Mel Fisher's Treasures team presented a check for $18,000 to Wesley House Family Services and a check for $3,890 to Michael Abt Jr. Have a Heart Foundation on behalf of the Fisher Family from Mel Fisher Days 2018. To date the Fisher Family has donated $125,000 to Wesley House Family Services. This year's $18,000 donation will go directly to Healthy Families Monroe which promotes positive parenting, promotes child health and development, encourages stable and nurturing homes and helps ensure that the medical and social needs of families are met.
From Left to Right: Bryan Green, Jan Stauch, Taffi Fisher, Megan McDowell, Kim Fisher, Lee Fisher and Julio Torrado.
THANK YOU SPONSORS!
September, 2018
Scuba Nation airing this Saturday at 12pm FOX Sports SUN
Also airing:
Saturday 09/08 12:00 PM
Monday 09/10 8:00 AM
Friday 09/14 8:30 AM
August, 2018
Salvage Update
The Magruder has been working a virgin area along the Northern Margarita main trail, just east of an area where we found a gold chalice. They've been finding a good amount of encrusted objects (which we call EO's) and pottery shards in this area but Captain Andy wanted to also hit one of the old "honey hole" areas of the site just north of the cannonball clump area to try and put some treasure on the deck.
he old saying that "Nothing Glitters Like Gold" came true for the crew when long time salvage diver, Bill Reighard surfaced with a glittering gold artifact in his hand. With a smile Bill shouted "…We are back on the trail". This very unique gold artifact is called a Palmander.
The Magruder crew recovered two gold pieces on this trip. The second is called a gold garment mount piece that looks similar to a small broach or button and unfortunately is missing the jewel that once sat in the center of the piece. Keep looking guys! According to our conservationist, John Corcoran, the missing jewel could have been an emerald or quartz crystal.
The crew also found an interesting piece of faceted crystal. It has a hole down the center so it was attached to a larger piece at one time. Along with the gold and crystal, Captain Andy's crew also brought back several silver coins and a few EO's from this area. The Dare crew was not to be outdone, and also made an outstanding contribution to putting treasure on deck. They are working in a new area off the Atocha debris trail this summer and had been meticulously following a trail of pottery and EO's until coming upon a silver plate and numerous silver coins. The Dare also returned with quite a few large encrusted objects and pottery shards.
Congratulations to both Captain Andy and Captain Papo for an outstanding week of treasure finding!
August, 2018
Salvage Update
Last week we finally managed to get eyes on the target that we believed to be a very old wreck and ultimately be identified as the Consolacion. As you can see from the following images of the wreck, it is clearly modern and certainly not a Spanish Galleon. We cannot express the emotional letdown on Friday when we realized that the wreck was not what we had hoped it to be. The ride back to Key West on Friday had all of us feeling very disappointed, who wouldn't be?
But to remain a treasure hunter means to remain forever optimistic and continue forward, on to the next target! We still have documentation from the Spanish archives in Seville that speaks to eye witness accounts of the Consolacion sinking in deep water outside the reef off Key West. The Consolation is still out there and we will continue to search for her.
Since discovery of the new target last year, the first order of business was to obtain visual proof that we have the shipwreck we are searching for and next to retrieve an artifact in order to arrest the vessel with an Admiralty claim. As you recall, we made several attempts to use our HAUV (Dolores) to get real time identification video. With consistently bad weather, the lack of good visibility and the strong Gulf Stream currents, these issues quickly became our primary adversaries. It became very clear that we needed to wait for the calm summertime weather that Key West is known for and along with it, much better visibility on the bottom.
In moving forward with our operational plan laid out by Kim Fisher in his letter to all members back in May, we are extremely happy to announce that our underwater vehicle development team has just acquired a Sub-Atlantic Mojave ROV!
July, 2018
TODAY'S THE DAY! 33rd Anniversary of the Atocha Motherlode find
Mel Fisher's crew heads out to treasure hunt on this Anniversary.
33 years later we are still finding treasure. See latest July finds in video.
July, 2018
Emerald City & Salvage Update
The crew of the Magruder wrapped up our July Emerald City trips last Friday. While working the 'dark emerald area' we uncovered a hexagon shaped,very dark 2 carat emerald. It is typical when we are searching in this area to recover emeralds of significantly higher value due to the color and clarity.
The Magruder will be heading back out to the Margarita site today to continue digging a virgin area of the northern trail just to the east of where the gold challis was found a few years back. This area has many deep solution holes that typically catch treasure & artifacts as they settle down through the sand and the crew will be using the portable airlift to excavate these holes in the bedrock looking for the glint of GOLD!
While the Magruder was working Emerald City, the Dare worked just to the northwest of the Bank of Spain area of the Atocha site, digging in the deep Quicksands where we have some large magnetometer targets. They have been finding some modern material on these targets but they have also found some very nice artifacts in this area, including some Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain and large olive jar shards. Our investor diver, John Curran, found this during their dive.
With Division Week, Mel Fisher Days and many investor dives behind us, we are gearing up to get back out to the new deep water target with Dolores with the goal of getting a positive ID on this old wreckage. The key will be timing things with the tides and the currents so that we have some good visibility and low current. Stay tuned for the latest news on this very exciting trip!
Mel Fisher Days!
Mel Fisher's Treasures, along with Wesley House Family Services, thank all our sponsors, Key Westers, Mel's Golden Crew, friends, family, volunteers, visitors and all of the treasure-hunting enthusiasts for making this Mel Fisher Days an enormous success. Throughout this past week, attendees learned about conservation in the Fisher Family Laboratory, explored our treasure-hunting boat with guided tours by the Mel Fisher's Treasures crew members and Captain Andy Matroci just outside one of Mel Fisher's favorite haunts - Schooner Wharf Bar.
Congratulations to:
Marylynne Lewis - Winner of a Margarita Shipwreck Pearl in the Cupcake Contest
Jimmy Parker - Winner of the Authentic Coin Drawing
Dianne Meisner - Winner of the 50/50 Raffle
Crowds took to the backroom of Schooner Wharf Bar to bid on over $20,000 in silent auction items including spa packages, hotel stays, restaurant gift certificates, authentic treasure, jewelry, artwork and much more donated from a host of local and supporting business.
The donations are being tallied and 100% of net proceeds from all Mel Fisher Days events will benefit Wesley House Family Services.
July, 2018
Mel Fisher Days!
Mel Fisher Days July 12-14
Today's the Day to Register!
June, 2018
Watch This!
Drain the Oceans: Sunken Treasures National Geographic Premieres Monday, June 18th at 9:00PM
Thank you to all Mel Fisher's Expeditions members who traveled to Key West last week! We were so happy to host you and we hope you had a great time.
You can view and download Division Week event pictures HERE!
Congratulations to Heidi and Richard Grabowski for winnig the "Pin the Stern Castle on then Trail 2017" game. A 1/8th share contract has just been added to their account!
Bertha Debaugh won the costume contest at the Casa Marina Costume Gala.
Last week the Magruder welders finished up the installation of our new mailboxes. The crew put the last few coats of paint on in between the rain and she went into the water this week. They still have to reinstall the mast and antennas and load the anchors and anchor lines back on board as well as finish checking all of the ships systems to make sure everything is running properly. She will soon be ready for the upcoming summer salvage season so stay tuned!
The Dare headed out last week on Friday to prepare to take investors a day early on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather turned bad and the divers were only able to do some maintenance work on the emerald airlift until the weather calmed down enough for members to come outon Tuesday for some sifting.
They then had to quickly shift gears and setup for diving days in the Quicksands. The crew handled it well and where setup and digging just north of the “Bank of Spain” area of the trail so our members could get a chance to dive the site and look for that elusive glint of gold. The conditions where very challenging with strong currents making it very difficult to get on and off the Dare. All in all it was a good week and we’re looking forward to the calm summer seas and a successful treasure finding season.
The Dare
Last week, The Dare explored some new ground in the Quicksands where the Atocha trail splits into two major parts. It was pretty rough most of this trip and they sat in the Marquesas a few days when it was too bad to work. They did recover a nice olive jar neck and a pottery shard amongst quite a few empty holes, indicating there is shipwreck material in this area.
John Corcoran and Gary Randolph went out on the Huntress with our deep towed side scan sonar system to acquire better sonar images of our new target. Again, the weather was too rough to get really good images but we gave it a shot. Once the wind came down a bit late in the afternoon we were able get a few more images and will use them to get better positioning on the target for our next dive with Dolores.
Magruder
The Magruder crew has been working very hard in the boat yard. Both mailboxes are on the Magruder. The project should be finished shortly! The crew is ready and anxious to get out to sea and put some treasure on the freshly painted deck.
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Sea Reaper
Captained by Josh Fisher-Abt, the Sea Reaper continued excavations along the main trail of the Santa Margarita wreck site and recovered treasure. The crew members diligently executed methodical prop wash and air lift excavations, concentrating on the central area of this fascinating and culturally-rich site. Their diligence was rewarded with seven silver coins and a scattering of other artifacts such as encrusted objects and lead sheathing from the widely scattered remains of the Margarita.
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Phillippe Cousteau Jr., grandson of the renowned Jacques Cousteau, and his wife, Ashlan, are sharing an exclusive first look at what could be one of the largest discoveries of sunken treasure in 30 years. NBC's Kerry Sanders reports for TODAY from Key West, Florida.
We are excited to announce The Cousteaus are in Key West searching for lost treasure and adventure with Mel Fisher's Treasures! Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau are filming season 2 of 'Caribbean Pirate Treasure' that will air on the Travel Channel (Air Date TBA). This week they traveled to the Atocha and Margarita wreck sites with us to learn more about our shipwreck salvage operation and to take part in recovering 400 years old artifacts alongside our crew.
Kerry Sanders, an NBC News Correspondent, joined in on the treasure hunting adventure with our crew and the Cousteaus. Tune in to the TODAY Show on Thursday, February 8th at 8:00am to eyewitness this week's adventures!
Day 1 Historic tour day - Atocha museum, Morro Castle, etc.
Day 2 Seminars at the Hemmingway Marina ending in a gala hosted by the Commodore featuring special guest along with Cuban cuisine and music!
Day 3 Old town Havana tour – (Tropicana show in the evening)
Travel options will be a flight from Miami to Havana or Sailing across the Gulf Stream on an historic Schooner, Atocha style. We are working with a local group that has done this before, has a good grasp of the current visitor's policy between the United States and Cuba, and also has excellent contacts in Havana. This will only accommodate a limited group of people so finding out who would be interested in participating in July is crucial at this stage. We are not sure about the cost breakdown until we get a firm grasp on the number of people and a proposed agenda. The current estimate is between $3,000 - $5,000 per person. This is still in the early planning stage. At this point we would love to hear from each of you that have a serious interest in being a part of this event. Please contact Megan at 305-296-6533 to have her pencil you name in on our list or call Onett 305-294-5266 if you need more detailed information.
In the News 2012 |
In the News 2011
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In the News 2010
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January, 2010 -- Sharon Wiley
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November, 2009 -- Sharon Wiley
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September, 2009 -- Sharon Wiley
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July, 2009 -- Sharon Wiley
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November, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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November, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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October, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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June, 2008 -- Ron Pierson
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June, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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February, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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January, 2008 -- Sharon Wiley
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December 2, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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October 25, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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October 10, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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August 15, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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July 12, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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June 15, 2007 -- Sharon Wiley
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December 13, 2006 -- Gary Randolph
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July 10, 2006 -- Ron Pierson
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June 7, 2006 -- Sharon Wiley
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May 17, 2006 -- Sharon Wiley
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April 28, 2006 -- Sharon Wiley
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