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GOLD ON THE BOTTOM©
The 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet
The Story That Started in 1715 and Is Still Being Written Today
Sebastian Inlet • Fort Pierce • Florida’s Treasure Coast • Updated Through 2025
By T. R. Lewis
(Part 2, Cont.)
The 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet
The Story That Started in 1715 and Is Still Being Written Today
Sebastian Inlet • Fort Pierce • Florida’s Treasure Coast • Updated Through 2025
By T. R. Lewis
(Part 2, Cont.)
The Big Finds — Year by Year
1964: The Parke-Bernet Auction
Real Eight Corporation auctioned 315 lots of treasure at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York, raising $227,450. The prize of the sale was a gold boatswain’s whistle that had belonged to fleet commander General Ubilla. An antique dealer from Villanova, Pennsylvania paid $50,000 for it. Bidders came from universities, museums, art dealers, and private collectors. No Spanish treasure auction had ever been held in New York before, and it told the world that treasure hunting in Florida was real.
2013: The Gold Money Chain
Eric Schmitt, a subcontractor diver working for Queens Jewels, found 50 feet of a gold chain called a money chain in the waters off Fort Pierce. Money chains were used by wealthy Spanish merchants and government officials to carry large amounts of gold in a form that was hard to steal and easy to conceal — worn around the body under clothing. A 50-foot gold chain weighs several pounds. It was the first major money chain discovery in the wreck zone in decades.
2014: The Gold Pyx
The following year, Schmitt’s team found a gold filigree pyx in the same general area. A pyx is a small religious container used to hold the Eucharist in Catholic services. A gold filigree version — made of gold wire work rather than solid gold — was an expensive, personal religious item, almost certainly belonging to a priest or high-ranking official on the fleet.
2015: The Million-Dollar Morning
On June 17, 2015, Eric Schmitt dove down about 12 feet into the water roughly 1,000 feet off the coast of Fort Pierce. His metal detector hit something. He surfaced with a gold coin, went back down, and came up with two more. Over the course of that morning, the entire Schmitt family — Eric, his sister Hillary, and their parents Rick and Lisa — recovered 51 gold coins and 40 feet of gold chain from the same site.
One coin stopped everyone cold. It was a 1715 Royal — a specially minted presentation coin made on direct order from King Philip V of Spain, intended to be given as a gift to the most important people in the empire. Royals were not put into normal circulation. They were minted in extremely small numbers, essentially as royal jewelry. A 1715 Royal is one of the rarest coins in the world. Brent Brisben valued that single coin at $500,000 and called it the Tricentennial Royal because the find came within two weeks of the 300th anniversary of the hurricane. The total haul that morning was estimated at over $1 million.
Then things got complicated.
One coin stopped everyone cold. It was a 1715 Royal — a specially minted presentation coin made on direct order from King Philip V of Spain, intended to be given as a gift to the most important people in the empire. Royals were not put into normal circulation. They were minted in extremely small numbers, essentially as royal jewelry. A 1715 Royal is one of the rarest coins in the world. Brent Brisben valued that single coin at $500,000 and called it the Tricentennial Royal because the find came within two weeks of the 300th anniversary of the hurricane. The total haul that morning was estimated at over $1 million.
Then things got complicated.
| ‘To find a 1715 gold royal is incredible. There are only a handful that are even known,’ said Ben Costello, a director of the 1715 Fleet Society. ‘To find it within a month of the 300th anniversary is almost religious.’ — Associated Press, July 2015 |
2015–2024: The Stolen Coins
In 2015, the Schmitt family’s operation found 101 gold coins in total. Fifty-one were properly reported to Queens Jewels and adjudicated according to state and federal law. The other 50 were not reported. They were kept.
Nobody knew about the missing 50 coins for years. Then in June 2024, new evidence surfaced. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched an investigation, working with the FBI. Advanced digital forensics — metadata and GPS location data embedded in photographs on a cell phone — linked Eric Schmitt to photos of the stolen coins taken at the family’s Fort Pierce condominium. Investigators executed search warrants at private residences and safe deposit boxes. They found coins that had been sold through auctions and to private buyers between 2023 and 2024. Three of the stolen coins had been placed back on the ocean floor in 2016 to be “discovered” by new investors in Queens Jewels, generating fraudulent value for those coins.
In November 2024, the Florida FWC announced that 37 of the 50 stolen coins had been recovered, with a combined value of more than $1 million. Eric Schmitt was charged with dealing in stolen property. Thirteen coins are still being tracked.
Nobody knew about the missing 50 coins for years. Then in June 2024, new evidence surfaced. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched an investigation, working with the FBI. Advanced digital forensics — metadata and GPS location data embedded in photographs on a cell phone — linked Eric Schmitt to photos of the stolen coins taken at the family’s Fort Pierce condominium. Investigators executed search warrants at private residences and safe deposit boxes. They found coins that had been sold through auctions and to private buyers between 2023 and 2024. Three of the stolen coins had been placed back on the ocean floor in 2016 to be “discovered” by new investors in Queens Jewels, generating fraudulent value for those coins.
In November 2024, the Florida FWC announced that 37 of the 50 stolen coins had been recovered, with a combined value of more than $1 million. Eric Schmitt was charged with dealing in stolen property. Thirteen coins are still being tracked.
| As required by state and federal law, the recovered artifacts will be returned to their rightful custodians. Investigators are committed to recovering the remaining 13 stolen coins and bringing those involved in their illegal sale to justice. — Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, November 26, 2024 |
2025: The Season That Opened with Gold
On the first dive of the 2025 season in May, a crew including Michael Perna on the vessel Mighty Mo found three gold coins at the Douglas Beach Wreck near Fort Pierce. Perna said: “That’s just unheard of. It’s hilarious. None of this stuff ceases to amaze me, but then after seeing it all, none of it surprises me.”
Over the full summer, Captain Levin Shavers and the crew of the boat Just Right recovered 1,051 silver coins known as Reales and five gold coins called Escudos. Other Queens Jewels crews added additional finds. The total haul for the 2025 season was announced on September 30, 2025, at a press conference at Captain Hiram’s Resort in Sebastian. The combined value was estimated at $1 million.
The silver coins were in excellent condition, many still showing the mint marks and dates they were stamped with in Mexico City, Lima, and Potosí, Bolivia, over 300 years ago. Queens Jewels Director of Operations Sal Guttuso said the condition suggested the coins came from a single chest that had broken apart in the storm, which means more from that same chest may still be nearby.
Over the full summer, Captain Levin Shavers and the crew of the boat Just Right recovered 1,051 silver coins known as Reales and five gold coins called Escudos. Other Queens Jewels crews added additional finds. The total haul for the 2025 season was announced on September 30, 2025, at a press conference at Captain Hiram’s Resort in Sebastian. The combined value was estimated at $1 million.
The silver coins were in excellent condition, many still showing the mint marks and dates they were stamped with in Mexico City, Lima, and Potosí, Bolivia, over 300 years ago. Queens Jewels Director of Operations Sal Guttuso said the condition suggested the coins came from a single chest that had broken apart in the storm, which means more from that same chest may still be nearby.
| The last time this number of large silver coins were found was during the 1990 season. — Sal Guttuso, Director of Operations, Queens Jewels LLC, 2025 |
How Much Is Left?
Nobody knows exactly how much treasure is still on the seabed. The Spanish salvagers who worked these sites from 1715 to 1719 recovered roughly half of the registered cargo by their own records. Registered cargo is only what was officially declared on the ship manifests. Historians and numismatists believe the unregistered cargo — treasure being smuggled to avoid taxes, personal valuables belonging to passengers and crew, items not listed on manifests — may have been worth as much or more than the registered goods.
Current estimates put the total original value of the fleet’s cargo at around $400 million in today’s dollars. The Spanish got roughly half in their four-year salvage effort. Modern salvors working the sites since the 1960s have recovered additional millions, but the total recovered in the modern era is estimated at less than 10 percent of what remains. Brent Brisben has publicly stated that approximately $400 million worth of treasure is still on the seabed.
After sixty years of modern salvage, the divers have barely scratched the surface of what is there. The coins keep washing ashore after storms. The metal detectors keep finding new pockets. The sand keeps shifting, revealing things that were buried the last time a diver swam over that exact spot.
Current estimates put the total original value of the fleet’s cargo at around $400 million in today’s dollars. The Spanish got roughly half in their four-year salvage effort. Modern salvors working the sites since the 1960s have recovered additional millions, but the total recovered in the modern era is estimated at less than 10 percent of what remains. Brent Brisben has publicly stated that approximately $400 million worth of treasure is still on the seabed.
After sixty years of modern salvage, the divers have barely scratched the surface of what is there. The coins keep washing ashore after storms. The metal detectors keep finding new pockets. The sand keeps shifting, revealing things that were buried the last time a diver swam over that exact spot.
| Mr. Brisben said that there is estimated to be another $400 million worth of treasure waiting to be found. — Washington Times, July 28, 2015 |
Sand moves. After the hurricane of 1715, the treasure did not land in neat piles on bare rock. It was scattered across 50 miles of coast, mixed into reefs, broken open as the ships came apart, and then immediately began to be buried by shifting sand. Coins exposed on the surface today were under three feet of sand last year. Coins under three feet of sand today may be on the surface after the next major storm. Every hurricane season is also, potentially, a treasure season.
The Rules
On the Beach
If a coin washes up on a public beach above the waterline, the person who finds it can keep it. Florida’s underwater antiquities laws apply to items in the water or on the seabed. Once a coin has been moved by natural wave action onto a public beach, it is no longer in state waters. Brent Brisben confirmed this directly in a 2015 television interview. Out in the water, the only legal route is through Queens Jewels.
In the Water
Anything in the water or on the seabed in Florida state waters — which extend from the shoreline out to three nautical miles in the Atlantic — is owned by the state of Florida. The state licenses salvage operations through the Department of State, Division of Historical Resources. Only Queens Jewels, LLC holds those licenses for the 1715 fleet sites. Diving on the wreck sites without authorization from Queens Jewels is illegal regardless of equipment or boat ownership. All discovered artifacts must be reported and placed in state custody. As the Schmitt case showed, the penalty for not doing so can include criminal charges.
For Visitors
The McLarty Treasure Museum at Sebastian Inlet State Park has real artifacts from the 1715 fleet for $2 admission. Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum in Sebastian has gold coins, chains, and artifacts from both the fleet and the Atocha. The Treasure Coast beaches are open for legal beachcombing, and after a strong storm, they are worth walking slowly. The Queens Jewels website posts season announcements and finds at 1715treasurefleet.com. Salvage season runs May through October.
Sixty Years After the First Auction
Wagner and Real Eight auctioned $227,450 in 1964 with two ships found and nine still missing. Kip Wagner died in 1972, before his Real Eight partners finished the job he started. The salvage rights he established passed through Mel Fisher’s operation and eventually to the Brisben's. Wagner never got rich off the fleet. He got famous. Treasure hunters around the world know his name as the man who rediscovered it.
All eleven wreck sites have now been identified and documented. In 2016, diver William Bartlett stuffed his glove full of gold coins off the Fort Pierce coast on a single dive, producing a haul valued at $4.5 million. In 2025, Queens Jewels’ teams wrapped up a season of over 1,000 silver coins and five gold coins, with the condition of the find suggesting more from the same chest may be close by. The next dive season opens in May 2026.
Three hundred and ten years after the hurricane, the treasure is still coming up out of the sand. An estimated $400 million worth remains on the bottom.
All eleven wreck sites have now been identified and documented. In 2016, diver William Bartlett stuffed his glove full of gold coins off the Fort Pierce coast on a single dive, producing a haul valued at $4.5 million. In 2025, Queens Jewels’ teams wrapped up a season of over 1,000 silver coins and five gold coins, with the condition of the find suggesting more from the same chest may be close by. The next dive season opens in May 2026.
Three hundred and ten years after the hurricane, the treasure is still coming up out of the sand. An estimated $400 million worth remains on the bottom.
| Historians estimate that as much as $400 million worth of gold, silver, and jewels and as many as 1,500 sailors were lost in the storm, making it one of the greatest maritime tragedies — and treasures — of the Americas. — Naval History Magazine, U.S. Naval Institute, February 2026 |
All GPS Locations in This Document
| Location | Coordinates | Notes |
| Full 1715 Fleet wreck zone | 27°22' to 27°40' N 80°17' to 80°29' W | 50-mile stretch, Fort Pierce to Sebastian Inlet |
| McLarty Treasure Museum / Survivors' Camp | 27°50' 02" N 80°26' 02" W | 13180 N. A1A, Vero Beach; inside Sebastian Inlet SP |
| Sebastian Inlet State Park (main entrance) | 27°51' 31" N 80°26' 54" W | 9700 S. Hwy A1A, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951 |
| Fort Pierce Inlet State Park | 27°27' 45" N 80°17' 52" W | 905 Shorewinds Dr, Fort Pierce; southern wreck zone |
| Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum — Sebastian | 27°49' 07" N 80°28' 10" W | 1322 U.S. Hwy 1, Sebastian, FL; 1715 fleet artifacts |
| Capitana (General Ubilla’s flagship) | 27°38' N 80°21' W (approx.) | Heavily worked; ongoing finds near Sebastian |
| Douglas Beach Wreck (Fort Pierce) | 27°22' N 80°19' W (approx.) | 3 gold coins found Day 1 of 2025 season |
| 2015 Schmitt gold find area | 27°25' N 80°19' W (approx.) | ~1,000 ft offshore Fort Pierce; 12-ft depth |
| Urca de Lima / underwater preserve | 27°35' N 80°20' W (approx.) | State underwater preserve; no salvage allowed |
| Havana, Cuba — fleet departure point | 23°08' N 82°21' W | Fleet departed July 24, 1715 with 12 ships |
Sources
DiscoverSea.com — 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet — fleet history and sinking accountFloridaHistoryIn3D.com — Spanish Plate Fleet Wrecks — fleet composition and wreck distribution
Maritime Research & Recovery (mrronline.com) — History of the 1715 Fleet — Wagner discovery story and early salvage
Associated Press (Fox News, Gulf News, 2015) — 300 years after shipwreck, family finds $1 million in gold — Schmitt 2015 discovery
Coin World (coinweek.com, 2015) — $1 Million Worth of Gold Coins Recovered from 1715 Fleet Shipwreck
Washington Times, July 28, 2015 — Tricentennial Royal, $1M in rare coins — Brisben $400M estimate
CBS News / CBS This Morning, 2015 — $4.5-million treasure discovered off Florida coast — Brisben interview
Fox News, January 2017 — Divers find $4.5 million in sunken 1715 Spanish ship — Bartlett gold coins
WPTV (CBS Miami), November 26, 2024 — Stolen gold coins from 1715 Treasure Fleet recovered by FWC
CBS Miami, November 2024 — Gold coins worth $1 million stolen from 1715 Treasure Fleet recovered
CBS12, November 2024 — Florida Wildlife Commission recovers 37 stolen gold coins — Schmitt charges
AOL / Treasure Coast Newspapers, September 30, 2025 — Salvors find over 1,000 coins from 1715 Treasure Fleet — 2025 season
1715TreasureFleet.com (Queens Jewels), September 30, 2025 — Over 1,000 silver and gold coins recovered, valued at $1,000,000
NavalHistory.com / USNI, February 2026 — Spanish Shipwreck Yields Treasure Hoard Worth Estimated $1 Million
Gulf News, October 2025 — Divers discover centuries-old Spanish treasure worth $1 million off Florida
DIVE Magazine, October 2025 — Treasure Fleet Shipwrecks Yield Million Dollar Haul
Archaeology Magazine, October 2025 — Over 1,000 silver and gold coins recovered from 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet
Reading Room / ArchaeologyNews Online, October 2025 — 1715 Treasure Fleet Coins Recovered — minted in Bolivia, Mexico, Peru
OnlyInYourState.com (2021) — The 1715 Treasure Fleet Worth Millions Sits Off the Coast of Florida
OnlyInYourState.com (2025) — The Hidden Treasure in Florida That People Still Seek Out to This Day
Wikipedia — McLarty Treasure Museum (coordinates, history, hours)
Wikipedia — Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum, Sebastian (coordinates, establishment date)
Wikipedia — Sebastian Fishing Museum (park coordinates)
Friends of Sebastian Inlet State Park — McLarty Treasure Museum description and purpose
Florida Backroads Travel (2025) — McLarty Treasure Museum — visitor information, hours, admission
1715 Fleet Society (2022) — Dateline Sebastian: The McLarty Treasure Museum
VeroBeach.com — McLarty Treasure Museum — visitor details
US News Travel — McLarty Treasure Museum description and directions
Frommers — McLarty Treasure Museum — independent review
City-Data.com — McLarty Treasure Museum — location on Orchid Island
GPS coordinates for wreck sites are approximate, drawn from published research and the documented wreck zone. Exact site locations are protected information held by 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC and Florida state authorities. Diving on the wreck sites without written authorization from Queens Jewels LLC is illegal under Florida law. Beachcombing for naturally washed coins on public beaches above the waterline is legal. All salvage in Florida state waters requires state licensing. Contact Queens Jewels at 1715treasurefleet.com for information on the operation.
I have nearly completed volume three of a planned six volume set of (ORIGINAL) lost treasure stories. The stories I place on TreasureNet are those that are nice to know about, but for the average treasure hunter will probably be too difficult to search for, so I am allowing you to peruse them as you see fit. Unlike many, if not all, treasure books, my stories will all have GPS locations to give the treasure hunter places to start looking. (I was always frustrated looking for a treasure after it was re-written by every author who put pen to paper ten or fifteen times.) If you ever find one of these treasures, please send me a token of your appreciation. Sometime this summer after I have written a few more stories from my treasury I will be looking for a publisher. (If you know of a GOOD one, send him my way.) My current estimate is that each book will have treasures valued at one billion dollars or more with the metal rates expected by the end of the year. My expected metal values will be Gold - $5,000, and Silver $100 by the end of the year.
