by: Michele Wells

[aka 'the Mermaid'[

Back Then:
In 1985, Atocha motherlode was discovered after a 16-year triumph and tragedy filled search. The methods used to find the 370-year-old shipwreck relied most on human resources stretched to capacity. A dogged determination and literally Tens of thousands of hours of traditional scuba diving, day in and day out by scores of hopeful wet heads under the now legendary determination and vision of Mel Fisher and his family culminated in one of the greatest archeological 'treasure troves' ever discovered in the United States.

"High Tech" back then was having a new tank, a good light, a sharp knife and a 2-pound hammer, -and if you were really uptown, you were lucky enough to sport a custom neo-prene shorty wet suit and a regulator with an emergency air supply, with a built in compass and pressure gauge! Manual dive tables were plentiful but dive computers -well, they did not yet exist. Long johns, layered underneath old worn out jeans and leaky horseshoe collar BC's were the more common working scuba divers uniform. Everything else was begged or borrowed or hand made! Even the commercial divers preferred the old familiar gear to newer untried offerings. Scuba diving in general was not the popular family oriented sport it is today, and wreck divers were a very motley unknown and tiny entity in the public eye. "Crazy diver" was the most commonly used appellation, and it carried some truth.

Navigation, surveying and relocating areas was a luck of the draw event, relying heavily on the daily experiences of an often exhausted crew and Captain and their painstaking attempts to hand draw, map out, and record where they had been and what -if anything- they'd found on paper charts and notebooks. Mother nature and the ocean are not always the most cooperative partners in this effort. The highest tech-recording item back then would be underwater cameras and video cameras, housed in huge and often handmade bulky housings, and they appeared rarely until after the main pile was found.

.

Magnetometers including proton mags were often employed but sometimes created as many problems as they solved. It could record hundreds of hits - or none at all- and each 'hit' had to be checked out with a physical dive. If the magnetometer wasn't calibrated properly it would record a huge set of false readings. If it was towed a wee bit too fast, the readings were worthless. Then there were the countless towline problems and failures. Snapped, hard to replace cables, pilot errors in navigation, entangled equipment, too much or not enough buoyancy in the tow fish, the list went on endlessly. Every day was a lesson learned. Marine surveying was literally mapping uncharted territory using untested equipment in an unknown environment. Furthermore, it was tedious time consuming exacting work. "Mowing the lawn" became an expression that hardly alluded to the level of rigorous demanding precision of piloting needed to capture a good survey. Hardly the glamorous exciting swashbuckling 'adventure' the vision of shipwreck salvaging conjures up in most imaginations! But good surveying is an essential primary element to good shipwrecking.

Most of the 'hits' would turn out to be the debris of recent man's activities-and not items from an ancient shipwreck. There's an incredible amount and variety of "stuff" out there! After diving several hundred shell casings and sunken appliances, one could easily grow weary of the search. Much of where the Atocha and Margarita lies sleeping has been a US Navy ordinance practice zone and the evidence of 50 years of 'target practice' lies generously sprinkled across the entire seabed. Worse than finding a needle in a haystack - it is more like trying to find a needle in a haystack full of nails and other needles! Combined with a featureless sea bottom of constantly moving sand and shell rock substrate, the "Quicksands" became a well-named and daunting area of ops for the Fisher crew. The shallow bottom depth belies the degree of difficulty of this area. The overburden depth could change at a rate of 20 feet in 24 hours.

Ten Years Later:
In 1995, there were changes already afoot. The techniques and tools of other underwater intervention industries, such as offshore oil and mineral exploration interests and the technical advances of military technology were finding their way into the small niche industry known as professional shipwreck salvaging. The military and commercial oil and mineral exploration industry is to underwater exploration enthusiasts what NASA is to backyard science mechanics and gadget geeks. There are many inventions that owe their development to these industries.

Much of the highly specialized gear and equipment developed for their use has found new applications in the shipwreck exploration field. After the mid 80's recession, many oil equipment manufacturers liquidated inventories and these items became affordable and accessible in the marine salvage industry. The North sea offshore oil industry continued to be a vanguard in developing high end special applications survey and marine intervention equipment - which provided a whole new era of engineering disciplines and subsequently illuminated where deep water survey and recovery could now venture.

What had been primarily the avocation turned vocation image of marine shipwreck salvage evolved rapidly into a highly technical vastly more professional and accurate form of operations. It also became more serious and not surprisingly- more expensive endeavor. Products and equipment that once lived only in the daydreams of divers and salvors and the occasional underwater adventure Clive Cussler classic, were now being produced as off-the-shelf items. Although expensive and often hard to procure and of beta type experimental quality, these new tools expanded the do-able, explorable territory exponentially.

It also increased the level of accuracy to previously unimagined levels. Suddenly the cost and accuracy of surveying ocean bottom became more affordable and more accurate. Areas that were previously considered "out of reach" and not cost effective suddenly became affordable and do-able. What was once a highly risky and labor-intensive operation was now attainable and affordable and utilized remote towed vehicles instead of divers. Survey capabilities were further enhanced with the infusion of computer technology and new developments in sub bottom pulse, CHIRP and laser technology. Where even the highest quality surface sonar could only record "images" lying on top of the sea bed, sub bottom sonar 'punched through' up to several layers of sea bottom, [sand, clay, loose rock and silt] to indicate 'sub bottom pockets/anomalies' not previously available by non-invasive efforts.

Sonar technology also vastly improved and the resolution and sensitivity reached extraordinary quality which simultaneously became more affordable. Today's high end 'fish finders' and depth finders are nearly as sensitive and sophisticated as some of the most expensive high tech sonar gear being built by the military was only a decade ago. Live, real time digital quality color images are stored via laptop versus miles of thermal paper. DGPS targets are embedded using interfaced navigation equipment. These are elements of technology that seven years ago we only dreamed about. Now, tow fish arrays are more streamlined and rugged and can produce a virtually unlimited degree of resolution quality to fit the survey application. They are capable of handling higher tow speeds and currents. More promising improvements occur as rapidly in this industry as in the electronics and computer industry. The amount of professional and technical literature available is mind-boggling.

Another interesting change occurred in the 1990's subsequent to the Gulf War. The mainstay of navigational tools for most mariners switched from Loran chart readings, to GPS [Global Positioning Satellite] readings. Satellites were utilized to provide locator readings to GPS receivers on land and sea. Although designed for accuracy to within less than a half meter, U.S. Govt used to 'scramble' the readings intentionally for national security purposes. This was called SA or selective availability. Accuracy could only be restored with the addition of another fixed station GPS receiver -which provided a "DGPS" or differentiated [adjusted/corrected] signal. When first out, this descrambling feature could cost you up to $50k! In the late 90's this "selective availability" scramble command was removed and today's single unit GPS readings are as accurate as technology allows. You can now buy a basic hand held GPS unit in a department store for under $100.00!

Cesium magnetometers opened up a whole new realm of 'reading' any type of magnetic anomaly and could identify ANY submerged items elemental qualities by it's unique magnetic frequency. The 90's brought the edge of new and exciting reality and a vastly different perspective to what private sector marine salvors could do. It offered the tools needed to satisfy some of the most daunting challenges of old shipwreck recovery. It offered solutions to biological marine impacts and scientific demands as well. Our realm of explorable underwater territory increased twenty-fold, and yet, that represents a fraction of what still remains-for a variety of reasons- still out of reach. This is rapidly changing as the focus of man's inner space exploratory quests has shifted and equaled our previous desire for outer space exploration.

"As above so below", seems to have resonated equally with astronauts and aquanauts being viewed and supported by the public as pioneers of equally important spheres of understanding life. Both areas of exploration languished and remained stagnant under the auspices of exclusive government funding and development throughout the 80's and early 90's. But with the advent of affordable private industry accessibility came new faces, new funding and new dreams. Very soon the private sector was funding and fueling original new ventures in the inner and outer space exploration projects. This reignited a spark of inspiration and rekindled public support for these long overdue efforts. Consequently, a paradigm shift occurred in the attitude of government agencies, which began to realize that partnerships were not only inevitable but practical investments that were being developed by public demand. Once again, free market economics fosters progress.

Another thing has shifted profoundly - public viewpoint no longer expects nor desires government exclusivity in these quests. It has become increasingly apparent through private sector development and sponsorship that privatization of these highly technical and engineering development industries are properly promoted and developed via private industry investment. In a move to place the upwards-advancing salvage industry into the fold of more traditional global scale marine industry standards, many salvage companies performed makeovers of their companies mission statements and invested heavily in new advanced equipment and elevated their already uniquely qualified skill base.

Although the private sector industry's founders and pioneers were more akin in personality and profile to the legendary characters -whose ships they sought to recover- today's serious underwater research and recovery teams more likely resemble the enthusiastic geeks and technical inventors of the college science lab club! Unlike their more academically inclined brethren however, the private sector salvor has a keen and unfaltering desire to make things work in the field and to see things in action bear fruit. If you can recall as a child taking something apart to see what makes it work, or testing the limits of a toy until it broke, then you can understand what drives today's marine explorers. The excitement of new boundaries is to go beyond the edge of what is currently known. It's appropriate that new technology for exploring new underwater frontiers is as exciting as the exploration itself!

Just try telling the new breed of marine salvor that "it can't be done", and they'll set out to prove that it can! What a remarkable and precious indicator of why mankind needs to support this industry! Partnered with the new generation of leading edge technology and the new breed of marine archeologists and scientists, the potential for incredible leaps into understanding our past and discovering more about our oceans becomes something we can realize in our lifetimes.

"The Future Is Now":
On the horizon and already developed- are the products that will help us observe and record almost anything from anywhere -in real time. One of the biggest challenges facing any artifact recovery process is the ability to document the entire discovery and recovery process and the objects in such a way so as to preserve as much integrity as possible and make it stable enough to be available to anyone at anytime. Oh, and let's not forget -this must be done in a timely and affordable fashion!

Until recently, the feasibility of accomplishing this data collection was extremely limited by time, cost and logistics. An average archeologically 'correct' U/W excavation of a single wreck site averaged 7-9 years! The impact in already heavily stressed urban areas which demanded huge civil engineering projects often unwittingly came to a screeching halt after stumbling into a Pandora's box of cultural resource woes when, during excavations to build a bridge or a new government building, a significant historical or archeological site was uncovered. It soon became apparent that in order to satisfy the often diametrically opposed needs of both interests - new and faster methods of artifact and site recovery needed to be created. The standard process currently isn't meeting the timeline or cost needs and the result is a snafu battle between current public infrastructure requirements versus historical preservation needs. No matter which side the decision falls on, the public essentially loses something invaluable and potentially irretrievable.

Recovery decisions therefore are based on the manual effort required and the degree of success expected in stabilizing the recovered material, AND of course the overall cost. It required reducing the effort of extraction to the point of ensuring every item recovered remained as intact as possible and this often required extraordinary amounts of man-hours and tremendous handling and stabilizing expenses for often negligible or intrinsically questionable results. All of this manual effort relied on human calculations and hand drawn recordings and notes. Although digital photography has greatly enhanced documenting quality, a virtual reality video composite so far, remains a dream.

Photo mosaic quality and accuracy has increased dramatically which now insures that in situ documentation and excavation status recording has attained a level that surpasses even the most exacting hand documented standards of yesterday. An exciting new land based technology called photo-grammetry -used to restore architectural landmarks and rebuild historic buildings, is being explored as an underwater tool for increasing the accuracy of the survey grids of excavation sites. The potential applications for the marine recovery industry are great for this tool. Soon, a digitized video capability will be available, making real time video surveys with an architectural grade grid mapping accuracy of within .15cm possible!

The fact that public funds were required, and these funds were inevitably 'unavailable', insured that many known sites remained 'in situ' and often in danger of disappearing forever, being exposed to one of the most extreme and hostile environments known to man- combined with man's continuing need for more space and more buildings -the ocean. Furthermore, we haven't begun to address the physical aspect of storing these items in a secure and stable yet accessible environment. We might be able to realize solutions to this dilemma in our lifetimes, but ONLY if private salvage industry is supported in its progress and desire to meet these needs.

The Prodigal Mermaid Returns-A blast from the past, swims into the future!:
July 2003- I recently returned to the Keys after a seven-year hiatus off shore to visit with friends and 'reconnect' with my former colleagues and co-workers at Salvors Inc. I'd kept in constant communications with various folks in the industry worldwide, and had managed to make a trek to Seattle in 2001 to learn more about side scan sonar techniques from Crayton Fenn of Inner space Explorations LLC, who is undoubtedly one of the best sonar survey gurus in the business. Although I remained 'dormant' in the marine salvage business during this time, I never lost interest and kept the communication lines open-often writing articles and keeping in touch with colleagues far and wide.

My trip back was an eye opener and an inspiration. Ironically and fortunately, I arrived during the second annual Salvor's Re-union held in Key West! It was not without some trepidation I arrived at the beachside bar where the first nights festivities were to commence. Would I see anyone I had worked with and known? Would they even remember me or would anyone from the old Keys wide community of Salvors show up? On all counts I was immediately reassured. The sights and sounds and smells of the Key West bar on a breezy sultry afternoon immediately put me at ease and as I walked in I could see small chatting groups of old familiar faces and lots of new unfamiliar but friendly ones too! Soon I was greeted by Debbie -one of the Golden Girls- and that evening became a whirlwind of hugs and hellos. Suddenly I was 'home' again among old and dear friends and often missed companions. We caught up and reminisced, we marveled at the growth of a whole tribe of children whom I'd only remembered seven years ago as bald headed infants! I was invited to come down the next day and 'take a tour' of my old stomping grounds -the Mel Fisher offices and upstairs in the old armory Museum building rooms and the unused attic spaces where we used to film our weekly shows which also housed the conservation labs where the treasures displayed in the Heritage Museum below were stabilized and inventoried. Back then it was a start up enterprise.

The next day I caught up with Pat Clyne and Dana Langolf along with Joe Beaton at the Conch Republic Seafood Company. This is a huge open-air restaurant and a popular hang out down on Mallory Square that hadn't existed before I left the Keys. After hearty hugs and introductions and a delicious Keys style 'long lunch' we made it back to 200 Greene Street where I was allowed to park in Mel's old spot. I can't describe the mixture of emotions I felt as I stepped out onto that old familiar sidewalk and took in everything. So much remained the same and yet the edge of new people and things lent an underlying buzz of excitement to the continuity and permanence. I'd worried this had been lost with Mel's passing - I soon realized how foolish those fears were. As I entered the building I saw new faces and old familiar ones doing the old familiar functions and performing new and exciting activities as well. I walked in and was greeted by Kim Fisher who occupies Mel's old office now. The office embodies the spirit and sense of both father and son. No longer the chaotic overcrowded cluster of books, files, maps and ashtrays, a top a massive desk surrounded by an assortment of chairs and couches, it is now a more open and cleanly decorated space with a new computer system on the desk presiding over an uncluttered desktop.

Several paintings and books and a selective group of "Mel" artifacts decorate an otherwise functionally impressive yet comfortable office. It states this is Kim's office now, but Dad is always present and welcome. Kim's smile, a ready hello and handshake instantly put me in mind of his Dad and the physical resemblance as Kim matures is uncanny. I suddenly realized that the incredibly wondrous legacy of the Mel Fisher "family" not only continues- but thrives. An old phrase comes to mind- "We stand on the shoulders of giants"- I knew then that Mel's one in a million spirit and the essence of his dream was not only intact but definitely expanding and going strong into the next century. I must admit to NOT holding back tears of joy and remembrance many times during this visit!

The old dumbwaiter style elevator was the same and provoked chuckles of fond memories. Pat's office- which had been located in a tiny cramped and windowless vestibule when I'd left, had 'migrated' and expanded significantly to the other side of the large third story mezzanine area overlooking part of the second floor conservation labs. I teased him about the vast improvements to his digs and smiled in envy and awe at his 'suite' of digital media toys and electronic wizardry. No doubt about it, Pat was living large in uptown digs these days! Despite this, his office maintains the offbeat and cozy ambiance of a Golden Crew member who still doesn't recognize his own greatness. He prefers the bachelor adventurer image and this is his 'lair' - after all he says "I have too much fun here to think of it as an office!" Good thing he enjoys it, as his days often extend way beyond the usual 8-10 hours and it is no exaggeration to say he actually 'lives' there!

Dana Langolf presides over a large section of this sprawling penthouse suite and manages to make multi-tasking in the media world look like child's play. Her professionalism and competent ease belies her youth and adds to her beauty which by any standards would be deemed 'stunning' She is the perfect counterpoint and compliment to Pat's shot gun style enthusiasm and 24-7 drive. She is part of the new generation here. A very competent diver who is just at ease in front of a camera as behind it, she also wields a mean keystroke and produces the monthly newsletters for the ongoing expeditions at Salvors. I immediately liked her and saw what an asset she'd been for Pat's always heaping plateful of myriad "in the works" projects. As the duo responsible for all of the media presence at Salvors, they add new meaning to the word "dynamic"!

Pat had to do "some work" that afternoon and left me to explore the conservation lab and meet and greet old and new faces. I recalled as I walked around how often we'd be working overtime and would day dream out loud about all the things we wished we could do to improve our company's often and unfairly maligned image and improve the industry's standing overall. There weren't any rulebooks or standards for much of the industry back then so it was accepted as a matter of course that part of your job was to invest time and effort into new ideas and new ways of doing things better. Daydreaming was brainstorming out loud with fellow boat Captains, divers, conservators, artists, and administrators and Mel or Deo was something we all looked forward to. We made a motley bunch and came up with some pretty wild ideas -many of which surprisingly today are now a reality! My tour of the labs soon illustrated that progress was screaming right along at Salvors, and that this tried and true method of 'daydreaming out loud' was still very much alive and well! Encouraging and inspiring would be the best description.

As I walked into the lower offices adjoining the main tank area, I was struck by how much expansion had taken place. The once mostly open and empty area was now almost too full with well organized holding tanks filling the center and the outer walls lined with lab stations and equipment. This 'workshop' sported a new long lusted after item too! A donated X-Ray machine stood in the forefront of the labs. It is a long awaited joy to behold! A much-improved item over the ancient one previously used.

Then on the southwestern side of the holding tank area is a suite of offices that didn't exist before! The front holds smaller tanks for more delicate items and a full stabilizing and documenting lab! Now THIS was news! Something we'd all wished for and saw a need for but had seemed so far off! I met Abraham Lopez, a new face and a very welcome addition to the family. He is the Chief Conservator and this area was his world. I marveled at how far along this had come since I'd left and he seemed very pleased to show off the facilities and update me on new projects. The office was already becoming crowded and I could see he would need more room soon. He led me to the back of his office which opened into another office, this time I recognized the face behind the desk with pleasant surprise, it was Capt Gary Randolph, who had been the 'new' guy at the helm of the Magruder when I'd left! He quickly updated me on the most exciting development at Salvors Inc. so far. The creation of an on line comprehensive shipwreck database! http://www.historic-shipwrecks.com/

Now I was floored. This was one of the longest dreamed of goals I could recall coming to fruition finally! Salvors Inc. had always maintained a very good manual inventory and artifact records. This was a requirement for the State Archeological Guidelines and it also assured excellent disposition records for locating artifacts and insuring collections. In fact, it was the dedicated efforts of Mel and his daughter Taffi- who actually created the system by which marine artifacts were graded and inventoried -and this process remains the same today with expanding details added yearly.

Maintaining manually created data on over thirty years of accumulated inventory can be overwhelming. For example, imagine a collector or investor who suffers a theft, or disaster that destroys his certificates and/or his collection. It is the duty of the salvor to maintain good records of each and every item so that these records can be available for any future need. It used to take a minimum of five working days to process a request for a replacement certificate. This was time consuming and expensive and if the cert reference number wasn't available - it became nearly impossible.

Gary saw this need and often pondered the possibility of creating a good database to handle all of this information and more, to make a public on line vehicle for anyone's needs. This certainly wasn't a new idea but until recently there simply wasn't any way to embrace it.

Gary took this challenge to a friend of his who specialized in program writing. Together, he and Cliff Sirman spent several years composing what would become the Salvors on-line shipwreck database. This ambitious and monumental undertaking is far from being complete- in fact, the nature of this project assures that it will never be a 'done deal' because there will always be new information to download! Massive amounts of already gathered hand written data must be entered into the program. Once entered however, Salvors Inc. will be the proud sponsor of one of the most exciting and user-friendly on-line marine archeology and shipwreck databases available anywhere.

The goal is to provide a multi field interactive database of each shipwreck and artifact inventory ever recorded by Salvors Inc. According to Gary, a net user could enter the data base and obtain information about an artifact, a shipwreck or anything included in it's fields and compile custom built data reports to satisfy any portion of a user's needs. This database will include digital photographs and multimedia video streaming capabilities so that related and pertinent media archives and publications can also be accessed directly via this database!

I had visited the Sebastian offices of Taffi Fisher's Treasure Salvors Museum the week before and had seen the most exciting aspect of this program for salvors application. She proudly showed me the online overlay grid of one of the sites on the Treasure Coast which was a completely coordinated overlay "map" of everything ever surveyed, excavated and recovered by item, from this location! The only appropriate term that comes to mind is AWESOME! She clicked on one of the color coded markers and brought up an artifact inventory description and photo page which also hyper-linked to other artifacts found in that location and various excavations and wreck details over the years!

Gary was busy diligently working out the wrinkles while I was there and we commiserated over the incredible amount of effort this undertaking will require. It is in its infancy stages but promises to be one of the most exciting and significant developments yet in the private sector salvage industry.

What most folks do not realize is that our State and Federal Archeological Departments are lagging behind in this area. Incredibly, even large well-established renowned collections and museums such as the Smithsonian Institute are not publicly accessible on line nor are their inventories completely documented on line. Many of these organizations are struggling with the sheer volume of their inventories and cost of developing on line programs capable of maintaining and operating such an archive. A computer database is only as good as the information that is entered into it. The biggest challenge facing anyone endeavoring to 'computerize' old hand written or typed files, is that there is no method for accurately transmitting all this old data into the new program without manually entering it! Add to that the number of changes made to forms and files over the years and the addition of new information- well, it is an undertaking of behemoth proportions.

Again, the phrase "we stand on the shoulders of giants" comes to mind. Without the need for such a database, which arose originally from the vision of a handful of "crazy wreck divers" we wouldn't see this exciting and publicly acclaimed 'on line' concept created. Now more than ever, our industry has its mission and future defined for it. We can best express our appreciation of the pioneers of the past by continuing to swim forward and heartily embrace the challenges of the future with the same spirit and determination they left as their legacy. Go For It! Today is the Future! Actually-