Spanish Salvage

-by Morgan Perkins

Spanish Salvage

When Mel Fisher comes to mind the immediate reaction is gold, chains, coins, silver bars, emeralds... TREASURE. While the glitter of gold may shine the brightest, bronze and iron tell the true story. The searcher doesn't set his/her sights on the one gold chain, but find yourself an anchor or a cannon, and you have something to fight for. These types of finds are the telltale markers of the journey. The cannons on the Atocha, the anchors from the Margarita; every bit as valuable as the Wedding Chain or a 78 carat emerald. When a diver finds a cannon, they know they’ve found a shipwreck, the size, the armament, the origin, the story unravels with that one piece.

The grappnel hook, pictured above, recently recovered at the wreck site, was used by 17th century salvors in their efforts to locate and reclaim the Atocha and the Margarita. This type of anchor was dragged behind the salvage vessel in an effort to hook a piece of the lost ship. It is unusual that a salvage boat would loose an anchor because normally they would be going to sea in calm waters. The question of how or why the hook was lost may never be answered, perhaps they were caught in a hurricane, or maybe the hook caught hold of something large--a piece of the ship, the ballast pile, maybe a wall of silver bars. As the anchor was cleaned we found the makers mark, the same mark found on the grapnel anchor discovered at the Margarita site.

The Spanish government relied on treasures from the New World to support the crown, and an already fragile economy, so they wasted no time beginning salvage efforts. Only twelve days after the tragedy, the governor of Havana commissioned Gaspar de Vargas to retrieve the valuable cargo lost on board the Tierre Firme fleet. The expeditions to reclaim the lost treasure were never easy. The first attempt was short lived due to a second hurricane, and a lack of skilled divers.

In 1626, with the use of a bronze diving bell, Francisco Nunez Melian, a politician from Havana, located the remains of the Margarita. The increased threat of Dutch warships and pirates, made the salvage efforts even more difficult. By 1644, all salvage efforts were abandoned, Melian managed to salvage a full third of the Margarita’s cargo, including 200 silver ingots and 30,000 silver coins. The Atocha remained a mystery.