1715 fleets info -- straight from the records is best in my point of veiw *

ivan salis

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there are folks who disagree but I think that the documents clearly show where 9 of the 11 Spanish fleet vessel are generally located and provide possible hints as to the possible location of the 2 "missing vessels" of Echeverz's " Galloens de Terra firme" fleet

in the document "ESCRIBANA DE CAMARA 55C" dated Sept 20th of 1715 -- Francisco Salmon's report to the King of Spain ---about the status of the 1715 fleet for which salmon as head of the rescue efforts is accountable to the king , he states that 9 vessels are lost and that 2 of the "galleons" are missing (basically 2 of Echevrz's fleet are unaccounted for) "but thought to be lost at sea because wreckage of a large vessel or vessels was found on the north coast of St Augustine"

now thru study of the Spanish documents , we know that all 5 of Ubilla's vessels plus both of Echeverz's main treasure vessels and the small Dutch prize vessel from Echeverz's fleet -- basically wrecked quite close together (8 vessels in total) plus 1 of Echeverz's vessels the Conception is known to have sank somewhere near the Cape Canaveral area--- because 4 men were found at the cape after floating 2 days on a hatch cover * --this accounts for the 9 known lost vessels that salmon is reporting about --as for the 2 missing vessels of Echevrz's fleet ( the dyewood hauling French prize vessel "El Ciervo" and the Spanish tobacco hauling nao "San Miguel")--salmon thought them lost around the St Augustine area --because wreckage of a large vessel or vessel was found upon the north coast of St Augustine .

thus this should settle several questions like --how many ships in the fleet-- 12 ---- 11 Spanish vessels plus the French vessel griffon and where they sank at ( at least the 8 that sank together more or less)--and since salmon was not held accountable for the griffon (being it was a French vessel ), he did not include it in the report , as he was busy enough coming to terms with the 11 Spanish vessels that he was accountable for . (frankly most likely salmon could have cared less about the griffon at the time ) :thumbsup:
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it is my point of view that before the storm stuck the fleet that Ubilla as senior commander of the combined fleet ordered Echeverz to join his two major royal treasure vessels from his fleet with Ubilla';s fleet and that Echeverz although not happy about it did so and that Echeverz also brought the dutch prize vessel (holandisa) along with him -- (because during the rescue efforts --Echeverz wrote letters stating that he was writing them from the shelter of the HOLANDISA ) * as a smallish vessel it came close to shore before it stuck bottom , and as it did so , its entire upper deckworks sheared off and slid ashore like a giant surf board ..it is known that the cabin area of it was used as a "shelter" during recovery efforts -- so this accounts for 3 of the six vessels of Echeverz's fleet as well as all 5 vessels of Ubilla's fleet --note the griffon left 2 days before the main storm hit the fleet * -- a day before the main storm hit he fleet the other 3 vessels of Echeverz's fleet were allowed to "break away" from "Ubilla';s fleet" since they officially had no royal treasure upon them (basically they were privately owned ships with no royal cargo upon them) so Echeverz cut them loose to try to survive and get away from the slow moving over loaded treasure vessel "fleet " of 8 vessels -- * the 3 vessels headed northward just like the griffon did -- but it was too late by then they were as they say "a day late" ---- so -unlike the griffon which raced northward then cut eastward avoiding the storm safely and returning to breast ,france as the 1715 fleets sole survivor ---the 3 "break away" vessels of Echeverz's fleet all sank or went missing when the storm caught up with them..
.-- my view point is backed up because records of the fleet pilot's reports to Cuban officials who were looking into the 1715 fleets loss as to the where abouts of the 3 missing vessels *
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thanks Boatlode , thetigers2 , grossmusic & the seeker..
 

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theseeker

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Ivan, always enjoy the research you share with us! Thanks for putting it out there!
 

sharpscuba

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Ivan,
Back in the year 2000 my family and I were out in international waters off the cape. We had spent several years collecting data and many hours plotting our search area. In the early summer of 2000 we found 2 iron cannons along with several carets of emeralds. We had a particular ship we felt this could be and your post here would confirm it. As luck would have it though right after we found this tragedy found its way into our family. I had ignored pain in my abdomen until a tumor exploded in my colon. I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. My father soon followed with a lessor degree. While we were healing my sister ( who was the one to actually find the emeralds) went back to her home in Colorado. While there she and her spouse were coming down the mountain on a motorcycle when they hit a rock slide causing them to go over and fall several hundred feet. Her spouse was killed and she is alive only by the grace of God. To say the least we were never really able to take the time and money and continue our search. I believe that we were closing in one of the remaining lost ships. We had our theories and the Conception is the ship we felt it was. I won't bore you but our reasoning led us to believing this. Unable to dive and with the deaths and tragedies as the years have gone by I watch from time to time to see if our believes were right.
 

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ivan salis

ivan salis

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sharpscuba with my research being what it is it is very possible that the ship you found could be the Conception ... sadly bad luck seems to follow those that find "treasure ships" it seems oddly -- mel fisher lost his son and daughter in law and one of their dive crew member when one of their vessels sank at night due to someone not shutting the water in take valve on the toilet flooding the boat ... this was shortly after they found the Atocha..
 

sharpscuba

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Yes it is very strange that great fortune comes with a price. I am very aware of what happened to Mel's oldest son and his wife. As for us, after a view years of recovery and time to gather funds we were once again crushed by a strange coincidence. The year of the 2004 hurricanes namely Frances and Jean put the end to our search. Frances whipped out my family house and then Jean came two weeks later and sunk the boat. I moved up here to Wisconsin and that put an end to our search. I often think about the adventure and what seemed like a curse for my greed. I am unable to dive now due to health reasons but I will say that the mastic often attempts to pull me back in.
 

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ivan salis

ivan salis

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treasure hunting --it seems to get into ones blood .... my bad health prevents me from being able to dive (copd) and thus I can not learn to scuba dive due to it ......also my poor overall physical health does not help much ..can't get around much or do much sadly ---I had hoped to retire and once I retired to really do a lot a research and hit it hard treasure hunting wise ...but sadly by the time I retired my health was shot to bits ...so research is now my strong suit ..... thankfully my brain still works and is as sharp as ever..... thanks be to GOD .
 

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sharpscuba

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Sorry to hear about your health issues Ivan. It does suck getting old but yet it beats the alternative. I did enjoy all the research myself. I was lucky enough to even hit the Archives in Saville Spain during the early nineties while serving in the Air National Guard. We were stationed in Maron Spain at the end of Desert Storm and then Operation Restore Hope. Good luck to you sir and keep up the good work.
 

teklord

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Thanks for that. Have you found any record of ships sent to rescue people and treasure which were then themselves lost? A few years ago someone thought they found one of these down in the Keys, but I never saw anything about it again.

Tek
 

bobinsd

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Ivan,
Back in the year 2000 my family and I were out in international waters off the cape. We had spent several years collecting data and many hours plotting our search area. In the early summer of 2000 we found 2 iron cannons along with several carets of emeralds. We had a particular ship we felt this could be and your post here would confirm it. As luck would have it though right after we found this tragedy found its way into our family. I had ignored pain in my abdomen until a tumor exploded in my colon. I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. My father soon followed with a lessor degree. While we were healing my sister ( who was the one to actually find the emeralds) went back to her home in Colorado. While there she and her spouse were coming down the mountain on a motorcycle when they hit a rock slide causing them to go over and fall several hundred feet. Her spouse was killed and she is alive only by the grace of God. To say the least we were never really able to take the time and money and continue our search. I believe that we were closing in one of the remaining lost ships. We had our theories and the Conception is the ship we felt it was. I won't bore you but our reasoning led us to believing this. Unable to dive and with the deaths and tragedies as the years have gone by I watch from time to time to see if our believes were right.

Sharpscuba, hope your health is holding up. I am approaching
that time of life myself. Did you ever come to any conclusions re:
the legal problems you may have encountered if you had been able to
start a recovery? I am referring of course, not only to our own US
government making claims, bur also the Spanish?
 

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