After the war on recession in 1715, the then ruler of Spain, King Phillip V, was in dire need of money and provisions for his Spanish empire. For this reason, he ordered that twelve ships be brought to emancipate Spain from poverty and hunger.
The ships were to be loaded with gold, silver, Jewelries, and precious artifacts from the colonies of the new world down to Spain. There were two sets of ships; one set was to sail from Benwry and the other from Cartagena. Both were to meet at the docks of Havana to be laden with even more riches to bring to Spain. However, on their way to Spain, all the ships encountered a deadly hurricane, and only one ship returned safely – the rest were lost in the sea along with the treasures they carry.
Of all the eleven ships that drowned in the ghastly hurricane at about 300 years ago, six have been found and some of their treasures recovered. However, that leaves five whole ships out there just waiting to be found. Word reaches Josh that another of these ships was on the verge of being discovered and Josh wants to get in all the action.
He heads to the Sunshine city, Florida, to meet with Eric Schmidt. Over the years, Eric had made the news as a big time treasure hunter who had found over two million dollar worth of treasure from the drowned and fallen fleet. Josh meets him on the shores of the sea scanning the land with a metal detector. When asked why he was searching on land and not at sea, Eric posits that the sea has been driven back since 1715, and a huge chunk of the land they are now standing on may have been sea three hundred years ago. He shows Josh some of his finds over the years – one golden coin worth $20-30 today and he had found over six hundred of them in the past. The lost treasure appears to be very real.
Josh then leaves Eric in his searching and heads to one of the most successful treasure hunters today – Mel Fisher. Receiving the legacy from his father, the Mel Fisher establishment has found millions in gold, silver, jewelry, and other artifacts which they now display in their treasure shop – Mel Fisher Treasure Museum.
Josh then heads on to meet another of these enthusiastic treasure hunters hunting for these seemingly lost Spanish fleet swallowed up by the sea three hundred years ago. Josh meets Gary Drayton who has a somewhat unconventional method in finding treasure. First of all, he goes to the swamps rather than the ocean, and he uses a magnet to fish for treasure underneath the swamps. When asked, he believes that after the ships sank, the winds must have blown some of the treasure and debris of the ship from the ocean, down to the swamp, and he has substance to back it up. Over the years, Gary had made a lot of findings on the swamp, including a three hundred year Spanish ring, which costs up to $500 today. With no further convincing, Josh and Gary head to the swamp and begin ‘’magnet fishing.” They find an iron conglomerate, which Drayton believes is housing a silver coin and he was right. There was after all some treasure swept away from the ocean into the swamps and Drayton is not the only one searching for it.
To find out more about these sunken ships, Josh heads to Cuba, Havana, straight to the National Archive of Cuba where he was shown documents by the then Spanish writers, documenting important information about the ships and what they carried. Many of these documents have never been seen, let alone studied by modern eyes. From these documents, Josh learns valuable information about the ships. The document identifies one of the fallen ships as Santa-Rica and also states that the eleven ships did not sink in the same area, but some had sunk further north. This new information reshapes the hunt for this treasure and Josh heads on to meet with this new information bounty hunters.
Josh heads once more to the sea to meet with Greg Bounds, a dive master and treasure hunter, too. They have new technology that will make their jobs easier – they have a magnetometer, which is submerged into the water while it sends signals of findings topside to be explored and also a “leaf blower’’ of sorts, which blows out all the sands at the river floors to give more insight to what is buried underneath.
Eventually, they read some abnormalities under water, and Josh and Greg dive in to see what beneath. Using the “leaf blower,” they uncover something incredible – a large piece of timbre dating back to the 1700’s and they also found a cannon – remains from one of the ships. These findings are revolutionary and would urge them on to find some more.
The question remains, how far north did some of the ships sink? Will they ever be found? Have they been lost forever? While a lot of explorers are relentless in finding out answers to these questions, we are left to wonder, what will become of the last five of the Spanish fleet?
