August 1, 1715

General Echeverez sat in the sand on a very alien shore and surveyed the devastation. As far as the eye could see there was white water and the deafening roar of the sea. Although the winds had calmed, the ocean still held the violent energy of yesterday’s horrible storm.

Climbing wearily to his feet he and some of the other survivors began to walk down the beach towards the area where the Almirante, the ship his son commanded, had last been seen. In the surf, and tossed upon the shore, were the floatsom and jetsom of the great 1715 fleet. So much wood - so many dead. The general would be disappointed in his hope that his son had survived - no trace of his son or his Almirante were found.

The preceding narrative was created solely from the mind of the author. However, I believe that it sets the tone for what has become one of the enduring mysteries of the treasure fleet of 1715. The history of the 1715 fleet is a fairly well known story among treasure hunters, as it was one of the largest losses of treasure to occur on the coast of Florida. It was also the first well-publicized recovery of sunken treasure in modern times.

Work on this fleet (beginning in the 1950’s) would start a veritable gold rush into the area which goes on to this day, and every year the State of Florida has received its share of the finds. This continuous effort on the part of private enterprise has given the state one of the finest collections of Spanish colonial material in the world.

Many things have changed over the years including archaeological guidelines and oversight in the recovery of the material and of course technological advances. The advent of the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) has radically changed the way these sites are mapped.

The work being done at the Mel Fisher Center in Sebastian Florida is exciting. Taffi Fisher Abt, Bill Moore and others who have been switching over all the old sextant angle readings (the old method of mapping) to latitude and longitude readings, have created a computer data base and a set of maps using CAD-CAM techniques. These are beginning to interpret the sites in a whole new way and beginning to reveal some extraordinary things. It was through the new technologies that I became re-involved in the search for the Rosario. Although I had worked on the 1715 sites as an archaeologist and conservator for Cobb Coin Co. from 1982 through 1990, I had gone on to other work. I was hired earlier this year by a group from Atlanta, Florida Research and Recovery Group Inc., who had a new technology they felt had directed them to a number of sites along the east coast of Florida. I was to help them through the morass of paperwork required by both the Division of Historic Resources and the Department of Environmental Protection. When that was accomplished I was to provide archaeological and conservation guidance for any finds that might occur.

As the process for applying for and gaining approval for applications and permits can be somewhat lengthy I proposed to our group that we try to obtain a contract with Cobb Coin Company to work as subcontractors on the 1715 sites. This was enthusiastically agreed to, as it would accomplish many things for the group. Proceeding from there, as usual the details of the season slowed our work - both the weather and equipment seemed to be conspiring against us along with other mundane details of putting together the expedition. What I did advocate from the start was the search for the Nuestra Senora del Rosario.

Why the Rosairo?

The Nuestra Senora del Rosario was the Almiranta of the Tierra Firma half of the combined fleet in 1715. Her manifested treasure includes 3,000 gold coins, a small consignment of gold bars and other cargo.

It has been documented that Echeverez, the Captain General of the Tierra Firma half of the fleet, was very disappointed because the South American merchants had sent the majority of the treasure on an earlier fleet. Because of this, it is easy to believe that he would do his utmost to make the voyage profitable for himself and his family. It is well known that the transporting of contraband was a common occurrence. So one would expect much in the way of smuggled materials on this wreck - quite likely emeralds would be part of the unofficial goods since one of the main ports of call was Cartegenia in Columbia, the main depot for these gems.

The Rosario, captained by Echeverez’ son, was a 350 ton vessel that carried in excess of 50 cannons and was certainly the type of vessel that could well protect any treasure. In fact, a smaller wreck, believed to be the site of the Nieves, which had no registered treasure on board has, over the years, produced millions of dollars worth of coins and jewelry. All of these facts would lead one to believe that this wreck may very well have a huge amount of unregistered treasure on board. But the fact of the matter is - almost nothing has ever been found!

Sandy Point

All the research that has been done on the 1715 fleet over the years has led to the conclusion that the wreckage in the Sandy Point area is at least part of the wreck site of the Rosario. One reason for this conclusion is the amount of cannons that have been recovered off the site over the years. Although two or three cannons remain on the site in shallow water, over 40 were removed in the mid 1950’s by Art Mckee. Other cannons were removed over the years by Art Hartman and the State of Florida. This brings the total to over 50 for this one site alone.

The cannons were located on the inner reef in a line running almost straight East-West. The ballast associated with this area is not near enough to account for a vessel of this size. Historical accounts of the storm are fairly clear when they recount that the Rosario hit some rocks and broke up into three pieces.

Over the years, on the other sites of the 1715 fleet worked by salvors, thousands of artifacts (not including coins found) have been found. Shards of pottery, musketballs, cups, forks, plates, jewelry, religious medallions, many personal items have been seen on all the sites. If we exclude the 3,000 silver coins Mel Fisher recovered in 1968, those items that can be said to be from a Spanish galleon from the Sandy Point site number somewhere around 310! Virtually none of the materials one would expect to see - namely thousands of pottery shards one would normally associate with this type of shipwreck, have not been found.

What has been found? Cannons and a small amount of ballast, two lead scuppers and little else that is diagnostic! It seems apparent that only the gun deck portion of the vessel, along with enough of the side of the vessel to include a part of the turn of the bilge to account for a small amount of ballast, was wrecked inshore. So - the question is where is the rest of this shipwreck?

Another clue - an Anchor found in 1992

In 1992 the Bookmaker, captained by Kim Fisher was running magnetometer surveys along the known sites of the 1715 fleet. In the course of his search, at least a mile and a half offshore of the Sandy Point site, they discovered an anchor. It was not a large anchor but it was Spanish and had an intact wood stock and one of the palms off the surface side fluke missing. The measurements were taken and the orientation of the anchor was noted. It was pointing at 275 degrees, in other words just slightly north of west. The anchor was left as found (in-situ).

Signposts to Shipwrecks

As an archaeologist who has worked alongside commercial salvors for many years I have tried to impress upon them the importance of leaving in-situ, or in place, the larger signposts on a shipwreck - signposts that will help lead them to the rest of the site. The big three signposts are cannons, anchors and ballast. These types of artifacts can literally point to the primary cultural deposit of a shipwreck. Unfortunately, the majority of the cannon were removed. So upon finding the anchor I hoped that it was still in its original place, although one can never tell. It was at this point that I went to see Taffi Fisher Abt at the Mel Fisher Center in Sebastian FL, to try to track down as much as I could about the history of the site and the disposition of the anchor.

I felt that if the anchor could be relocated, exactly plotted and reconfirmed whether or not it had been set, that this would give us a starting point to our search. Thankfully, Taffi is very diligent in collecting all materials associated with the 1715 sites and her records include all the logs of all the salvors that have worked on the sites, as well as all extant historic research on the fleet. All the information I could ask for was literally at my fingertips and Taffi, the Mel Fisher Center and her staff extremely helpful.

The Dig Boats

At about this time another company, Marine Service, became involved with Florida Research and Recovery Groups’ efforts on the 1715 sites. Marine Services, out of Port Isabel Texas had joined forces with us and supplied much needed dig boats. The company is headed by Mr. Billy Kenon, who in the 1970’s helped to locate and salvage the 1554 fleet off Padre Island Tx. This find resulted in one of the longest lawsuits in the treasure business, known as Platoro Inc. v. State of Texas.

The Marine Services two dig vessels are named the "Mr. Wizard," a converted 65 ft. trawler with a deflector on the stern, and the "Rio Bravo," an 80 ft. landing craft with prop wash deflectors or "mailboxes" on the stern. Marine Services off shore operations in Florida are directed by Curtis Kenon, Mr. Billy Kenons son.

Our magnetometer vessel was the 30ft. Island Hopper, "Laffin Place" which I got to run. The two groups now joined forces and procured a Geometrics 881 Cesium magnetometer for the search.

What the Mag Found.

After some initial confusion as to how exactly the computer program for the magnetometer worked, the search for the anchor began. The area the anchor was supposed to lie in was on average about 30 feet deep. Even though we had Lat. Lon.s on the anchor, they had been done in 1992 with numbers taken from Loran, which gives a radius of some 300 ft., so we still needed to pinpoint the target. We also found, during this initial survey, that, the depth just to the east or seaward of the target area rises to within 16 to 18 feet. This is shallow enough to smash the hull of the Rosario and begin her final wrecking process should she have crossed this area during the hurricane.

After two days of magging we had enough targets for the dig boats to come in and help identify these anomalies. After identifying a modern wreck with an 80 gamma signature we examined a spot that gave about a 10 gamma hit very close to the numbers that I had obtained from the museum. Sure enough, there it was, an 8ft. Spanish anchor with a full wooden stock. Attached to the anchor, with a nylon wire tie, was the artifact tag put in place by the "Bookmaker" back in 1992. (It is still a thrill to me when I dive down to a site and know in the back of my mind that I am one of only a handful of people to have seen this object in hundreds of years. The loss and tragedy it represents makes that feeling all the more intense). The measurements were reconfirmed and the bearing was re-shot. This information gave us a line from which to work in towards the inner reef where known materials from this ship have been found. During this time, increasingly, my mind was brought back to the wreck of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, 1622. She too had come in during a hurricane, struck a shallow reef, and sank in deeper water. A subsequent storm had ripped her apart leaving the ballast where she sank and scattering her upper structure over 10 miles. Could the Rosario have suffered a similar fate?

The Other Anchor

During our survey for the site of the anchor we also magged to the seaward of the area where the anchor would eventually be found and thus we had an additional couple of hits to examine. So the Rio Bravo set up on one of the anomalies and began to dig. At about this time Mr. Tommy Gore, the state of Florida’s field agent arrived on site. While chatting with Mr. Gore another vessel arrived and as it turned out we were digging in another contract area. Unfortunately, the area we were currently set up and digging in was in their area.

Not wanting to infringe on their contract area, I had the Rio Bravo shut down until everything was resolved. Thanks to the use of a cell phone the situation was quickly smoothed over. It was agreed that no further digging or search would take place in their area, but I asked for and received permission to dive on and identify this one anomaly we had found.

At this point, the diver sent to check on the anomaly returned to the surface to report that there was another anchor almost identical to the one we had (re)located the day before. It was 8ft. long, had a full wooden stock and was missing the palm off the surface side fluke, exactly like the 1992 anchor. Very strange indeed!

Now we had two relatively small anchors almost in a row. The inshore anchor was on a bearing of 275 degrees, the offshore anchor at 270 degrees. Both anchors set and oriented almost dead west. Drawing a hypothetical line straight west from the anchors would bring us 1500 feet to the south of what I had come to think of as the cannon and ballast corridor of the site, which occurs on the inshore reef. What exactly were we being told by these pieces of evidence? My theory so far was this:

On that violent day of July 31st, 1715, the end was fast approaching for the Nuestra Senora del Rosario. The crew had, in relativly deep water, say, 12 fathoms, deployed the main anchors of the ship. (Other main anchors of the 1715 fleet have been found in this depth.) The large hawsers had begun to part and the secondary anchors were being deployed, quite possibly in a series (one anchor tied to the crown of the first.) This would give the smaller anchors much more scope and holding power. This type of deployment would explain the alignment of the anchors. Unfortunately, the kind of deployment of small anchors was probably a case of last resort, and much too late.

I believe that the ship, which would normally draw almost 12ft at the waterline, had already taken on water. Now drawing nearer to 18+ft she probably encountered the offshore reef and began to crash atop this shallow area. Bouncing over the top of this area she dragged these small anchors with her and in the process broke the palms off both. At this point the ship would have begun to break into pieces.

The archival documents stated the ship broke apart into three pieces (probably along very specific shear lines). The part of the ship with the heavy ballast and cargo may have stayed in the area of the original breakup - in other words in the mile wide troth between the outer reef system and the inner reef. This wrecking process would be much more akin to that of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, 1622 than the other ships in the 1715 fleet.

The end of the season

I would like to be able to report here that the primary cultural deposit of the Rosario had been found, but a late start and hurricane Floyd just about ended the season. Although we have been able to do productive magnetometer work on the site and have many interesting anomalies to investigate, they will have to wait another year.

As those of us who have been at this work for a while can tell you, the ocean is reluctant to give up her secrets and treasures even with the newest technologies. So we look forward to the next season with the hope that we will solve one of the last, great mysteries of the known sites of the 1715 fleet.