Mel Fisher and ongoing finds?

[BVI Hunter]

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/shipwrecks/425563-any-idea-what-metal-detector-2.html#post4112761


Just watched a great video about wrecks that Mel found. (see thread link above) One thing I did find interesting was during filming they pulled up approx. $1m in gold and another $1m in pearls.

They stated this was the largest find since the "mother lode" in 1985 (?) so I was curious as to what a "normal" week or year would be? a few coins? an odd bar or two?

I assume they keep going with money from investors (and wealth previously found) but do they still pull up gold and silver on a regular basis?

thanks if someone can enlighten me

 

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[releventchair]

Their taking people diving,there's potential coin. Also the museum and treasure jewelry and treasure.
There is a piece in the news on their site about sifting emeralds.Year long memberships allow often as you like dives off their salvage ship,or did a couple months ago still from my magazine article.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mel fishers treasures

Also from their news going back a little. Sorry if this is the vid you mentioned.

 

[BVI Hunter]

a dive would be good, just for the experience!

 

[releventchair]

a dive would be good, just for the experience!

Well, swing by and drop me at class while you dive...time I learn we'll be ready to raid.
The therapy girl assured me I won,t swim in circles just cause a leg is missing but the theory needs tested to prove. Salt water boosts buoyancy, maybe silver does too. Need a test.

 

[Salvor6]

Hello BVI Hunter. I worked for Mel on the Atocha and I still keep in touch with some of the guys that are still out there. They are following a "treasure trail" of gold and silver from the sterncastle that broke off the main wreck and bounced along the bottom, spilling treasure along the way. The trail is now over 8 miles from the main ballast pile, traveling along an arc because of the shifting winds from the second storm. They still have not found the final resting place of the stern. Mel kept saying there was 50 tons of treasure in the stern. It could be worth another $400 mil.

 

[BVI Hunter]

With that Holy Grail waiting, its no wonder they keep going

 

[releventchair]

Holy was part of why the stern castle deemed valuable due to its users indeed.

 

[SADS 669]

...

 

[SADS 669]

Well, swing by and drop me at class while you dive...time I learn we'll be ready to raid. The therapy girl assured me I won,t swim in circles just cause a leg is missing but the theory needs tested to prove. Salt water boosts buoyancy, maybe silver does too. Need a test.

The therapy girl lied, I have never seen a person with one leg, an injured leg or even a larger muscle on one leg due to sports navigate in a straight line underwater. It's so humorous ( I know it's wicked) to see the marker float stray off to one side on a navex dive.

However any one with one leg is welcome to dive with me anytime, it would be a pleasure, especially as some disabled people think their life is over. It's not and I can prove it...........har har.

 

[releventchair]

I,ll get wet again some year. Watched a gal free diving pearls and years later realized her efficiency in how she slid across surface before folding. After adding fins and later living on a lake it was a incredible experience each time going to bottom and getting quizzical looks from residents.Those fins helped too when being the first one in after ice out. The top few inches of water were warmer so stay on top! Far from ocean water but glad it was experienced.Kind of you to offer a dive. There is for most disabled a hump to get over and realize we just adapt to keep going. Do what we can and that's alright but learn our limits rather than imagined ones. Within reasonable caution of course.
Run vid up to about 3:47 if you want to skip beginning.
https://www.ted.com/talks/sue_austin_deep_sea_diving_in_a_wheelchair

 

[old man]

Releventchair, over 40 years ago when I was in College. We had a scuba club. One day a student with both legs missing above the knees came to the club and ask if we would take him on one of our wreck dives in 100 ft. Of water. ( He was certified to dive).
I was also an instructor.
Let me tell you. This guy was a pleasure to dive with and he loved being underwater. Go for it my friend. I think you will have a great adventure.

 

[SADS 669]

A story to convince anyone life's here to live now.....

There I was 10 feet in the air, upside down, halfway through my front somersault over a 7 foot high vaulting horse after bouncing on the springboard as hard as I possibly could. I looked down to my landing area which was a 20 foot long foam crash mat and lying there exactly where I was going to land was the performer before me Steve Rigby.

Now I am a pretty big bloke and regardless of what is actually wrong with the 'old boy' on the mat, if I land on him there is going to be absolutely no improvement in his condition. Even though I do have a first aid certificate it would be a mistake for him to look up and think of me as a flying Doctor. I did the best I could opening my legs as I landed placing them either side of his head and bounced as far forward as possible before starting my forward roll.

It was discovered that Steve ( a really nice guy) had broken his neck really high up on the spine and subsequently has to endure his life in a wheelchair. You may have read about him when he and his wife took on the Catholic Church because the local priest refused to marry them in the local church, they won the fight after involving the Pope.

Anyway, I hope the groundwork has been set for the coming story. I lost touch with Steve over the years and tried to find him on the net periodically whenever I thought of him ( which was often) with no luck. Then I managed to get back in touch and visited him while in the UK on a family trip. During conversation he said how disappointed he was that his 50th birthday plan of going to the tropics was scuppered when his carer got pregnant and couldn't go, unbelievably no one else wanted to. (send me a message if you fancy a trip, and I'll send you his address ha ha.)

I was managing a private island at the time so I invited him to come and offered to be his carer if needed, but he found one. He was not sure whether he could manage "this or that" in terms of getting to me and I had to constantly tell him to just go for it, what's the worst could happen, he has an accident and ends up in a wheelchair, again?. So he arrived on the island looking forward to a lazy time sitting in his wheelchair reading, eating, drinking red wine and imitating a lazy person.


Now, if you think for one second I am going to let the guy I nearly killed by landing on his head sit around the island turning food into farts, think again. When I asked if he went to his local pool to swim at home he said no, so in true fashion I tipped him out of his chair into the sea, put a " noodle" float behind his back and one behind his neck and he took his first unaided exercise for 30 years. It was a very powerful sight seeing Steve doing the back stroke around the bay.


At this point I had a bit of a brainwave, so I shot off and got a mask and snorkel, flipped him over and dragged him to the dock where all the little tropical fish were. To say he loved it would be without doubt the largest understatement ever uttered. I then decided if he can snorkel, he can dive, "how am I going to get back in the boat?" says he. I replied that I didn't really care because 'scuba diving' was the plan not 'climbing in boats'. Seriously, we worked out a way to carefully get him back in the boat but if that had not been possible I would have found a site near a beach, and we would be back to him taking exercise.

So, off we went to a very shallow site with the most coral and fish I could find. I put an extra long hose on my gear ( 7 feet) and carefully steered Steve around the reef. Once again he thought this was something he would never be able to do. We slowly built up the depth over a few dives, culminating in a 30 ft dive on Jeep Reef which is a world class shallow dive.

So a lesson learnt for anyone out there who thinks their life is over after an accident or a challenge based on injury or circumstance, firstly it's not over and secondly if you think it is refer to the "firstly" bit above. Steve subsequently wrote a book called "Tears in the Sand" based on his time in the tropics, the title is based on his experience of me dumping him on a sand bar in the middle of the ocean and leaving him there to his thoughts for an hour or so.

 

[releventchair]

Applause! Well written and clear. Folks have given up and others have gone forward. Steve made it over a hump then was helped over another. Bravo.
I know a Steve too. Diaphragm down no feeling. Months,last time closer to a year on his back due to complications. We don,t do what we did when more able but what fun crazy times when he can get out. Sometimes a comedy of errors but joy of doing anyway. From deer hunting to goose scaring to just shooting some years at trap ,skeet and sporting clays with the help of a gracious group. His hours of adventure keep his mind going when bed ridden and we both know there are folks worse off than ourselves.I have very few limits and celebrate that..When not trying to keep he and his chair from ponds or off platform edges or dumping in the mud due to fearlessness all is well. He has had to call the fire department more than once while impersonating a turtle on its back.
That hump needs to be met by all in life at one time or another. People being people it's a tough bet on who will make it but if there is a chance to give them a gentle push (or tip in SADS case) a whole nother perspective of limits comes to some. Under water Wallenda like feats even if only a ladder like climb are possible for some. Some never attempt or realize the chance to try. Those who choose to try to find their own limits,with reasonable caution of course (note the disclaimer again ) are the ones that smile when recovering.

 

[Red_desert]

A few weeks ago, I saw a mapped out chart on the Mel Fisher museum website, think it was on the Margarita drift trail. There is a spot where the trail goes over bedrock, possibly a crew now will go check it out. Since then, can't seem to find where I'd found the info. Theoretically, the bedrock will have a lot of goodies to find.

 

[Denarius]

Hey SADS good on ya. You get the "do the right thing award" for that.

 

[SADS 669]

Hey SADS good on ya. You get the "do the right thing award" for that.

Thanks Den,

Helping if you can, should be the minimum standard of behavior.

 

[TheRingFinder]

All I can say is......."Today is the Day"