New Admiralty Claim filed in the Keys

[old man]

According to today's Key West Citizen newspaper. Attorney Hugh Morgan filed an Admiralty Claim in shallow water near Duck Key for a Commercial Fisherman. According to the newspaper article the wreck is in shallow water and can be worked with scuba gear. The vessel is listed as an unknown sailing vessel.

According the the article. The Company is waiting for a permit from the State of Florida and the Marine Sanctuary before they disturb the bottom. The paper also states that the wreck is a hazard to navigation.

 

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[ARC]

Awsome.
Sheesh.

 

[huntsman53]

Cool! This is probably related to the find of Silver Bars on a sand bar many years ago by a fisherman. He was night fishing in that area and drinking as well and got a little too drunk. The next morning he woke up in his' boat which had landed on a sand bar North of Duck Key. When he got out of the boat to assess his situation, he found a lot of very heavy and partially covered rectangle bars of metal laying on the sand bar. He assumed that they were lead, loaded 5 or 6 of them in his' boat and took them home to use as ballast. Years later when a gentleman came to his' home to purchase a boat he was selling, the gentleman asked what the rectangle bars were. The fisherman stated that he believed that they were lead, that he found them on a sand bar and that there were many more. The gentleman asked if he could take one to have it checked out and with the fisherman's okay, he left and was never seen again.


Frank

 

[captbilly]

Old man good luck with that. First strike he has against him is being that hated commercial fisherman who gets blamed for just about all the woes of the sea. I know because i was one in that same area for thirty years. Then he is in State waters and in the sanctuary. Duck Key multi-million dollar homes are not going to like that eye-sore of someone chasing his dream. Can you say Sea-Grass destruction. Yeah that request is going to go over real well to the sanctuary officials. About like a fart in a space helmet

 

[Jolly Mon]

According to today's Key West Citizen newspaper. Attorney Hugh Morgan filed an Admiralty Claim in shallow water near Duck Key for a Commercial Fisherman. According to the newspaper article the wreck is in shallow water and can be worked with scuba gear. The vessel is listed as an unknown sailing vessel.

According the the article. The Company is waiting for a permit from the State of Florida and the Marine Sanctuary before they disturb the bottom. The paper also states that the wreck is a hazard to navigation.

I don't understand how the claim could be worked given the location...but I'll tell you one thing, the area around Duck Key is a very interesting place.

 

[TreasureCDave]

"EPW Salvage, Inc., owned by Edward Peter Worthington Jr."

"Worthington is a commercial fisherman, said his lawyer, Hugh Morgan of Key West"

Proof that anyone can incorporate in this great nation

Whole article is here

 

[old man]

Old man good luck with that. First strike he has against him is being that hated commercial fisherman who gets blamed for just about all the woes of the sea. I know because i was one in that same area for thirty years. Then he is in State waters and in the sanctuary. Duck Key multi-million dollar homes are not going to like that eye-sore of someone chasing his dream. Can you say Sea-Grass destruction. Yeah that request is going to go over real well to the sanctuary officials. About like a fart in a space helmet

Capt. Billy, I agree. I don't think this group is ever going to get all the permits needed to salvage that wreck legally.

And if they did get the permits? Spain would jump in,
"If" there is Treasure on the wreck.

Sometimes it's better to just keep things to yourself.

 

[Jolly Mon]

Sometimes it's better to just keep things to yourself.

Boy, howdy !!

 

[huntsman53]

On the South end of Islamorada, Spanish 1, 2, 4 and 8 Reale pieces were found many years ago and they came off a shipwreck salvaged off the same Key on the Atlantic side. These were first found after some washed out of the sand dunes and it is theorized that the many Hurricanes, lesser Tropical Storms and Severe Storm systems that have pounded the waters and the Key itself, actually blew some of the coins across the Key into the Gulf of Mexico waters and that many actually lie right under Highway U.S. 1.


Frank

 

[Jolly Mon]

On the South end of Islamorada, Spanish 1, 2, 4 and 8 Reale pieces were found many years ago and they came off a shipwreck salvaged off the same Key on the Atlantic side. These were first found after some washed out of the sand dunes and it is theorized that the many Hurricanes, lesser Tropical Storms and Severe Storm systems that have pounded the waters and the Key itself, actually blew some of the coins across the Key into the Gulf of Mexico waters and that many actually lie right under Highway U.S. 1.

Frank

Could be, Frank, but there are other means by which treasures from the 1733 fleet could have been deposited in unexpected locations: flotsam and jetsam.

Given the Spanish penchant for smuggling, can you imagine how much treasure might have been unknowingly tossed overboard as the crews desperately tried to lighten their ships?

How about the potential for a fat merchant or two to be washed overboard with pockets full of gold and a money chain or two around his neck?

Targets like these won't attract the professional, but they might well be compelling possibilities for the "weekend warrior".

Contemplate the positions of the known wrecks. Consider the changing wind directions during the storm. Couple these considerations with potential tidal currents and local bottom conditions. Quite an intellecual puzzle presents itself.

Are there possibly locations in the keys where treasure from 1733 fleet flotsam and jetsam might be more likely to be found than in other areas??

 

[huntsman53]

Could be, Frank, but there are other means by which treasures from the 1733 fleet could have been deposited in unexpected locations: flotsam and jetsam.

Given the Spanish penchant for smuggling, can you imagine how much treasure might have been unknowingly tossed overboard as the crews desperately tried to lighten their ships?

How about the potential for a fat merchant or two to be washed overboard with pockets full of gold and a money chain or two around his neck?

Targets like these won't attract the professional, but they might well be compelling possibilities for the "weekend warrior".

Contemplate the positions of the known wrecks. Consider the changing wind directions during the storm. Couple these considerations with potential tidal currents and local bottom conditions. Quite an intellecual puzzle presents itself.

Are there possibly locations in the keys where treasure from 1733 fleet flotsam and jetsam might be more likely to be found than in other areas??

Jolly Mon... One of the scenarios you describe could be the case but due to the proximity of the shipwreck, when salvaged, Silver bars were found and very few coins ever recovered from the wreck and the fact that my friend and his partner found over 30 Spanish Pieces of Eight in two trips there. The partner found an unknown amount between the first and second trips and after the second trip as he was sneaking back at night without my friend and digging in the Sand Dunes. After he showed some of the coins he found on his late night ventures to my friend who had a photographic memory and who knew that they were not found on their trips there together, the partnership ended. The treasure hunting at the location also ended as this so-called partner had destroyed most of the Sea Oats when digging in the Sand Dunes and when my friend went back to look for more coins, the site had been put off-limits and a Sheriff Deputy was parked there in an attempt to catch the person who dug up the Sand Dunes.


Frank