Mel Fisher in 1961

[Old Bookaroo]

I just completed my set of Treasure Adventure Magazine (somewhat confusingly, the cover appears to be titled "Adventure Treasure"). Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring 1961 - fifty centers per copy!) has the following brief story on page 62:

Southern California Skin-Diving Treasure Expedition

Veteran skin-diver and treasure hunter Mel Fisher of Redondo Beach has surveyed over 100 local shipwrecks in southern California waters and now is attempting to organize a salvage expedition of divers who will hunt on a percentage basis for sunken treasures. "There's tremendous amounts of amassed wealth off the southland coast...[in the original] millions and millions of dollars not only in gold and silver, but also in sunken safes filled with payrolls and jewelry...[ditto] general cargo, often more valuable than treasures," Fisher declared. He claims one of the major obstacles to date in treasure searching is that many of the wrecks lay in water over 200 feet deep. His boat, the 65' Golden Doubloon is equipped with $35,000 worth of electronic treasure hunting gear.

The careful reader will discern this is vintage Mel Fisher on many levels!

Take a look at the famous January 1965 National Geographic article about the fabulous Florida sunken treasure finds. There's a photo of Mel Fisher captioned "one of Kip Wagner's divers."

Good luck to all,

~The Old Bookaroo

PS: With no modesty, false or otherwise, I contend my article on the Brother Jonathan wreck is considerably more accurate than the piece in this issue.