- #1
Thread Owner
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
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
The Fleet That Never Came Home
On the last day of July 1715, the biggest treasure in the history of the New World was sitting on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Twenty-four hours earlier, it had been moving across that same ocean on eleven Spanish ships, headed home to Spain. A hurricane took care of the rest.
The story starts four years earlier, in the ports and mining towns of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. From 1711 to 1715, no treasure fleet had made the crossing from the New World to Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession had been raging in Europe, and sending ships loaded with gold and silver across an ocean full of enemy warships seemed like a bad idea. So the treasure piled up. Silver coins stacked in strongrooms in Mexico City and Lima. Gold bars locked in vaults in Cartagena. Emeralds from the Colombian mines. Pearls from the Venezuelan coast. Four years of wealth waiting to go home.
When the war finally ended in 1714, King Philip V of Spain needed that money badly. He was nearly bankrupt. He sent orders to the New World: load everything up and send it. All of it. Now.
Two separate fleets gathered in Havana, Cuba, in the summer of 1715. The first, called the Nueva España fleet, was commanded by Captain-General Juan de Ubilla, with five ships. The second, called the Galeones fleet, was commanded by Captain-General Antonio de Echeverz y Zubiza, with six. A French vessel named Le Griffon joined for protection. Twelve ships in total. Roughly 2,500 people on board. Somewhere between 14 million and 400 million dollars worth of treasure in the holds, depending on whose estimate you trust.
They were supposed to leave in May, when the weather was predictable. They did not leave until July 24 — the start of hurricane season. The captains argued. Ubilla wanted to sail north quickly, get past the dangerous shoals, and turn east for Spain. Echeverz was less hurried. Weather reports from other ships and from Spanish observers on shore warned of trouble brewing in the Caribbean. Some officers wanted to wait another week.
They did not wait.
On the night of July 30 into July 31, while the fleet was sailing north along the Florida shore in what is now Indian River and St. Lucie County, a Category 4 hurricane came out of the northeast and hit them head-on. There was nowhere to run. The ships tried to turn east, away from the coast, but the wind and waves pushed them toward the shallow water near the reefs and beach. One by one, they struck.
By dawn on July 31, all eleven Spanish ships lay wrecked within a few miles of the Florida shore. The French vessel Le Griffon, which had sailed further out to sea, survived and made it to France. The Urca de Lima was grounded but relatively intact and helped feed the survivors. The other ten ships were destroyed. More than 1,000 people — some sources say as many as 1,500 — drowned or died in the wreck or in the days that followed. The survivors, several hundred of them, waded ashore onto a flat, empty strip of Florida beach with almost nothing.
The story starts four years earlier, in the ports and mining towns of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. From 1711 to 1715, no treasure fleet had made the crossing from the New World to Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession had been raging in Europe, and sending ships loaded with gold and silver across an ocean full of enemy warships seemed like a bad idea. So the treasure piled up. Silver coins stacked in strongrooms in Mexico City and Lima. Gold bars locked in vaults in Cartagena. Emeralds from the Colombian mines. Pearls from the Venezuelan coast. Four years of wealth waiting to go home.
When the war finally ended in 1714, King Philip V of Spain needed that money badly. He was nearly bankrupt. He sent orders to the New World: load everything up and send it. All of it. Now.
Two separate fleets gathered in Havana, Cuba, in the summer of 1715. The first, called the Nueva España fleet, was commanded by Captain-General Juan de Ubilla, with five ships. The second, called the Galeones fleet, was commanded by Captain-General Antonio de Echeverz y Zubiza, with six. A French vessel named Le Griffon joined for protection. Twelve ships in total. Roughly 2,500 people on board. Somewhere between 14 million and 400 million dollars worth of treasure in the holds, depending on whose estimate you trust.
They were supposed to leave in May, when the weather was predictable. They did not leave until July 24 — the start of hurricane season. The captains argued. Ubilla wanted to sail north quickly, get past the dangerous shoals, and turn east for Spain. Echeverz was less hurried. Weather reports from other ships and from Spanish observers on shore warned of trouble brewing in the Caribbean. Some officers wanted to wait another week.
They did not wait.
On the night of July 30 into July 31, while the fleet was sailing north along the Florida shore in what is now Indian River and St. Lucie County, a Category 4 hurricane came out of the northeast and hit them head-on. There was nowhere to run. The ships tried to turn east, away from the coast, but the wind and waves pushed them toward the shallow water near the reefs and beach. One by one, they struck.
By dawn on July 31, all eleven Spanish ships lay wrecked within a few miles of the Florida shore. The French vessel Le Griffon, which had sailed further out to sea, survived and made it to France. The Urca de Lima was grounded but relatively intact and helped feed the survivors. The other ten ships were destroyed. More than 1,000 people — some sources say as many as 1,500 — drowned or died in the wreck or in the days that followed. The survivors, several hundred of them, waded ashore onto a flat, empty strip of Florida beach with almost nothing.
On July 31, 1715, a savage hurricane swept across the Bahamas Channel from the northeast, catching in its path the Spanish treasure fleet on its way from Havana to Spain. The rest of the fleet disintegrated on the jagged coral reefs of Florida between Fort Pierce and Sebastian Inlet. — DiscoverSea.com, 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet history |
● The Wreck Zone — 50-Mile Stretch of Florida Coast |
Indian River County to St. Lucie County, Florida (full wreck zone) 27°30' N to 27°40' N · 80°17' W to 80°29' W The eleven ships are scattered along approximately 50 miles of Florida coastline between present-day Fort Pierce to the south and Sebastian Inlet to the north. Most sites lie within 2,000 feet of shore in 10 to 30 feet of water. |
Spain’s First Search Party
Within days of the wreck, survivors had sent word to Havana. Supply ships and salvage crews arrived within weeks. A camp went up on the beach at a spot that is now inside Sebastian Inlet State Park. Over the next several years, Spanish divers — mostly enslaved Native Americans and African men who could hold their breath and dive deeper than European sailors — worked those shallow reefs almost every month from May through October.
They were remarkably successful. Spanish records suggest they recovered approximately half of the registered treasure in the first four years. That means millions of pieces of eight, gold bars, gold coins, and other cargo pulled from those wrecks in an era before scuba gear, before metal detectors, and before any modern diving equipment. They did it by swimming down, feeling along the seabed by hand, and carrying what they found back to the surface.
They were not working alone. Pirates heard about the wrecks almost immediately. In January 1716, an English pirate named Henry Jennings attacked the main Spanish salvage camp on shore, stole approximately 120,000 pieces of eight that the Spanish divers had already recovered, and sailed away. Jennings went on to have a notable pirate career, later receiving a pardon and retiring to Bermuda. The Spanish were furious but could do little about it.
By 1719 or so, the Spanish salvage operation wound down. Most of the easily accessible treasure had been recovered. The rest was buried under sand or wedged into coral, and the technology to get at it did not exist yet. The Spanish marked the locations on charts, filed their reports in Seville, and moved on. For the next 230 years, the 1715 fleet was largely forgotten. The wreck sites silted over. The ships’ timbers rotted away. The coins and bars lay buried under layers of sand that shifted with every storm.
They were remarkably successful. Spanish records suggest they recovered approximately half of the registered treasure in the first four years. That means millions of pieces of eight, gold bars, gold coins, and other cargo pulled from those wrecks in an era before scuba gear, before metal detectors, and before any modern diving equipment. They did it by swimming down, feeling along the seabed by hand, and carrying what they found back to the surface.
They were not working alone. Pirates heard about the wrecks almost immediately. In January 1716, an English pirate named Henry Jennings attacked the main Spanish salvage camp on shore, stole approximately 120,000 pieces of eight that the Spanish divers had already recovered, and sailed away. Jennings went on to have a notable pirate career, later receiving a pardon and retiring to Bermuda. The Spanish were furious but could do little about it.
By 1719 or so, the Spanish salvage operation wound down. Most of the easily accessible treasure had been recovered. The rest was buried under sand or wedged into coral, and the technology to get at it did not exist yet. The Spanish marked the locations on charts, filed their reports in Seville, and moved on. For the next 230 years, the 1715 fleet was largely forgotten. The wreck sites silted over. The ships’ timbers rotted away. The coins and bars lay buried under layers of sand that shifted with every storm.
● Spanish Survivors’ Camp — Now McLarty Treasure Museum |
McLarty Treasure Museum, 13180 North A1A, Vero Beach, FL 32963 27°50' 02" N · 80°26' 02" W The exact site where the 1715 fleet survivors camped after the wreck and where Spanish salvagers worked for four years. Now the McLarty Treasure Museum inside Sebastian Inlet State Park. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone: (772) 589-2147. Admission $2. A National Historic Landmark. |
Kip Wagner and the Silver on the Beach
In the late 1950s, a Florida building contractor named Kip Wagner was walking the beach near Sebastian Inlet after a storm. He was not looking for treasure. He was just walking. Then he spotted something in the wet sand — a dark, corroded disk about the size of a half dollar. He picked it up. He could not read the markings. He took it home and did some research.
It was a Spanish silver coin. Old. Very old. He went back and found more.
Wagner was a practical man. He did not rush out and start digging. He spent about two years doing careful research in the State Library in Tallahassee and in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He tracked down references to Spanish shipwrecks off the Florida coast. He eventually found a copy of a 1776 Spanish document that showed, on an old map, the approximate locations of the 1715 fleet wrecks. The coin he had found on the beach was sitting almost directly on top of one of the wreck sites.
Wagner formed a small group of fellow treasure hunters in 1959 and began systematic searches. They built a water jet they called a mailbox — a large metal elbow that attached to the propeller of their boat and deflected the propeller wash straight down, blowing away the sand on the seabed below. When the sand blew away, the things buried underneath were exposed. Their first major discovery came in 1960 when they found a ballast pile — the heavy stones ships carried for stability — sitting on the bottom in about 14 feet of water. Among the ballast stones were silver coins and artifacts.
In 1964, Wagner and seven partners formed the Real Eight Corporation, named for the Spanish coin the real de a ocho, the piece of eight. The state of Florida granted them a salvage lease covering the wreck sites.
It was a Spanish silver coin. Old. Very old. He went back and found more.
Wagner was a practical man. He did not rush out and start digging. He spent about two years doing careful research in the State Library in Tallahassee and in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He tracked down references to Spanish shipwrecks off the Florida coast. He eventually found a copy of a 1776 Spanish document that showed, on an old map, the approximate locations of the 1715 fleet wrecks. The coin he had found on the beach was sitting almost directly on top of one of the wreck sites.
Wagner formed a small group of fellow treasure hunters in 1959 and began systematic searches. They built a water jet they called a mailbox — a large metal elbow that attached to the propeller of their boat and deflected the propeller wash straight down, blowing away the sand on the seabed below. When the sand blew away, the things buried underneath were exposed. Their first major discovery came in 1960 when they found a ballast pile — the heavy stones ships carried for stability — sitting on the bottom in about 14 feet of water. Among the ballast stones were silver coins and artifacts.
In 1964, Wagner and seven partners formed the Real Eight Corporation, named for the Spanish coin the real de a ocho, the piece of eight. The state of Florida granted them a salvage lease covering the wreck sites.
In the late 1950’s, after coming upon some silver coins exposed on the beach following a storm, a man named Kip Wagner began to intentionally search for and recover treasure from the fleet. — Maritime Research & Recovery, mrronline.com |
By 1964 or 1965, Real Eight had found two of the eleven wreck sites and sold $227,450 worth of coins and artifacts at auction at the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York — the first Spanish treasure auction ever held there. They were planning to use that money to find the remaining nine ships. It took sixty more years. All eleven have now been found.
● Mel Fisher’s Treasure Museum — Sebastian, Florida |
1322 U.S. Highway 1, Sebastian, Florida 27°49' 07" N · 80°28' 10" W Opened in 1992 by Taffi Fisher, Mel Fisher’s daughter. Exhibits cover the 1715 fleet and the Atocha. Working conservation laboratory with observation window. The museum’s connection to the 1715 fleet goes back to Mel Fisher’s work with Real Eight in the 1960s. |
Mel Fisher, the Missing Ships, and the Long Search
Kip Wagner did not find all eleven ships on his own. In the mid-1960s, he brought in a California diver named Mel Fisher and Fisher’s company, Treasure Salvors, as a partner. Fisher was already becoming famous in treasure hunting circles for his energy, his optimism, and his ability to find things nobody else could find. He had a motto: “Today’s the day.” He said it every morning.
Fisher’s team and Real Eight together located several more wreck sites through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. They pulled up millions of dollars in artifacts. The state of Florida took its share — usually around 25 percent — for the state museum. The salvors kept the rest and sold it.
When Wagner’s Real Eight lease expired in 1975, the operation went through changes. Fisher turned his attention south to the Atocha, a 1622 Spanish galleon he had been hunting in the Florida Keys. He found it in 1985 after sixteen years of searching and losses that included the death of his son and daughter-in-law in a diving accident. The 1715 fleet sites continued to be worked by various companies under different state permits through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
All eleven ships have now been located. Most are in shallow water between 10 and 30 feet deep, within 2,000 feet of shore, in Indian River, St. Lucie, or Brevard County, Florida.
Fisher’s team and Real Eight together located several more wreck sites through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. They pulled up millions of dollars in artifacts. The state of Florida took its share — usually around 25 percent — for the state museum. The salvors kept the rest and sold it.
When Wagner’s Real Eight lease expired in 1975, the operation went through changes. Fisher turned his attention south to the Atocha, a 1622 Spanish galleon he had been hunting in the Florida Keys. He found it in 1985 after sixteen years of searching and losses that included the death of his son and daughter-in-law in a diving accident. The 1715 fleet sites continued to be worked by various companies under different state permits through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
All eleven ships have now been located. Most are in shallow water between 10 and 30 feet deep, within 2,000 feet of shore, in Indian River, St. Lucie, or Brevard County, Florida.
# | Ship Name | GPS (approx.) | Depth | Current Status |
1 | Capitana (San Cristobal) | 27°38' N 80°21' W | 14-20 ft | Ubilla’s flagship; heavily worked; ongoing finds |
2 | Almiranta | 27°32' N 80°20' W | 10-18 ft | Near Fort Pierce; active salvage zone |
3 | Urca de Lima | 27°35' N 80°20' W | ~15 ft | Grounded; survived storm; state underwater preserve |
4 | Santo Cristo de Maracaibo | 27°42' N 80°22' W | 10-15 ft | Near Sebastian; significant coin finds |
5 | Rosario | 27°40' N 80°22' W | 12-20 ft | Active site; regular discoveries |
6 | El Griffin (dispatch) | 27°36' N 80°21' W | ~10 ft | Shallow; first coins found by Wagner here |
7 | Nieves | 27°33' N 80°20' W | 15-20 ft | Fort Pierce area; actively permitted |
8 | San Fernando | 27°35' N 80°21' W | ~15 ft | Partially sand-covered; intermittent salvage |
9 | San Miguel | 27°37' N 80°22' W | 10-20 ft | Active site; gold chain finds documented |
10 | Patache (1) | 27°42' N 80°23' W | ~12 ft | Active salvage; near Melbourne Beach |
11 | Patache (2) / Douglas Beach | 27°22' N 80°19' W | ~10 ft | Fort Pierce; 2025 gold coin find on Day 1 |
All GPS coordinates above are approximate, drawn from published research and the known wreck zone. Exact site locations are not publicly disclosed by Queens Jewels, LLC, to protect them from unauthorized salvage.
The Treasure Coast
The Florida coastline between Fort Pierce and Melbourne Beach is called the Treasure Coast. The name came directly from the 1715 fleet. After Wagner and Real Eight made their early discoveries in the 1960s and newspaper stories and television segments spread the news, the stretch of Atlantic shoreline where the ships went down became synonymous with treasure. Three Florida counties make up the region: Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin. The actual wreck sites are mostly concentrated in Indian River and St. Lucie counties, along a shoreline now dotted with beach towns, state parks, and neighborhoods where people go for a morning walk on the beach hoping to find something interesting after a storm.
Sometimes they do. In the sixty years since Wagner found those first coins, individual coins from the 1715 fleet have washed ashore hundreds of times. Not often — weeks or months go by with nothing. But after a major storm, particularly after a nor’easter that churns up the shallow water near the wreck sites, old coins come loose from the sand and roll up the beach with the tide. People who live along this coast know to walk slowly and look carefully in the swash zone after big weather.
Finding a coin on the beach is legal. Florida’s rules about underwater artifacts 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. Hundreds of people have picked up 300-year-old Spanish coins off these beaches and kept them.
Sometimes they do. In the sixty years since Wagner found those first coins, individual coins from the 1715 fleet have washed ashore hundreds of times. Not often — weeks or months go by with nothing. But after a major storm, particularly after a nor’easter that churns up the shallow water near the wreck sites, old coins come loose from the sand and roll up the beach with the tide. People who live along this coast know to walk slowly and look carefully in the swash zone after big weather.
Finding a coin on the beach is legal. Florida’s rules about underwater artifacts 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. Hundreds of people have picked up 300-year-old Spanish coins off these beaches and kept them.
● Sebastian Inlet State Park |
Sebastian Inlet State Park — Main Entrance 27°51' 31" N · 80°26' 54" W 9700 South Highway A1A, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951. Sits directly over the northern end of the 1715 fleet wreck zone. The McLarty Treasure Museum is inside the park’s south section. Phone: (321) 984-4852. |
● Fort Pierce Inlet — Southern End of Wreck Zone |
Fort Pierce Inlet State Park 27°27' 45" N · 80°17' 52" W 905 Shorewinds Drive, Fort Pierce, FL 34949. Southern end of the 1715 fleet wreck zone. The Douglas Beach Wreck, where three gold coins were found on the first day of the 2025 salvage season, is offshore from this area. |
Queens Jewels and the Modern Search
The exclusive salvage rights to the 1715 fleet wreck sites are held today by a company called 1715 Fleet — Queens Jewels, LLC, based in Sebastian, Florida. The company was built around the rights that Mel Fisher originally held after Real Eight’s lease expired. After Fisher’s death in 1998, those rights passed to his heirs and were then purchased by William O. Brisben and his son Brent Brisben.
Bill Brisben had worked for Mel Fisher in the 1980s and was part of the crew that helped find the Atocha’s mother-lode in 1985. His company Queens Jewels holds the U.S. District Court’s custody of the 1715 fleet sites and operates under strict state oversight from the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources.
Brisben does not run a single large operation. Instead, he licenses the wreck sites out to a network of subcontractors — small boat teams with their own equipment and captains — who work the sites during the permitted season, May through October. When they find something, it goes into state custody until the Division of Historical Resources reviews it, the federal court adjudicates legal title, and a split is worked out between the state, Queens Jewels, and the subcontractors.
Florida keeps approximately 20 percent of all recovered artifacts for state museums and public display. The coins that go to Queens Jewels and the finders are sold at auction, evaluated by coin grading services, and purchased by private collectors, museums, and institutions around the world.
Bill Brisben had worked for Mel Fisher in the 1980s and was part of the crew that helped find the Atocha’s mother-lode in 1985. His company Queens Jewels holds the U.S. District Court’s custody of the 1715 fleet sites and operates under strict state oversight from the Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources.
Brisben does not run a single large operation. Instead, he licenses the wreck sites out to a network of subcontractors — small boat teams with their own equipment and captains — who work the sites during the permitted season, May through October. When they find something, it goes into state custody until the Division of Historical Resources reviews it, the federal court adjudicates legal title, and a split is worked out between the state, Queens Jewels, and the subcontractors.
Florida keeps approximately 20 percent of all recovered artifacts for state museums and public display. The coins that go to Queens Jewels and the finders are sold at auction, evaluated by coin grading services, and purchased by private collectors, museums, and institutions around the world.
At the end of the year, the state of Florida will come and review what we found, assert an interest into certain artifacts for purposes of displaying in their museum. And once we work that deal out, the federal court adjudicates legal title to either my organization or the state of Florida. — Brent Brisben, CEO, 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC, CBS News, 2015 |
