Aleman-
Lets see....I'll give you a personal history of working
with and around the Fishers. First time I've ever written this, so bear with me. No embellishment, all true, I swear! I havn't burnt any bridges with them, and several of the "tried and true" salvors read this site regularly, so
you can believe me when I say the following:
1984: My best friend Randy and I are "lifeguarding" on the Pier House topless beach on Key West, and one day he told me he had talked with Mel about working for them. Shortly thereafter, he quit the beach and disappeared out to the Atocha site for weeks at a time. I got regular reports from him...living on peanut butter sandwiches and diving & laboring on a variety of salvage boats operating at that time...Dauntless...Virgalona...Swordfish..Bookmaker et al.
1985: Kane Fisher found the Motherlode!! There were
silver bars piled up everywhere! Randy was gonna be rich!! The salvage operations continued for 2years or so on the "main pile". Randy ended up with an 80lb silver bar and a couple coins and some artifacts, and he was pleased. I got to go out to the site a few times, and was present when Johnny Carson showed up to soak up some limelight.
1990: Randy called me in Columbus Ohio where I was doing an Emergency Medicine Internship, and said he had a financial backer in Memphis who was willing to buy us a boat in Ft. Pierce which had been used on the 1715 fleet...and the backer (financier) had a pending contract to work the "emerald fields" on the Margarita
site in Key West. I went as soon as I could. We slaved on that 90 ft boat for 6 months getting it ready, and I got very little actual time aboard, but I did have some great times backin KW aboard a support boat prospecting in the Marquesas diving and magging prior to their arrival there. We kept our valuable mag in a closet actually in Mels office, so each day we were magging I got to talk with him, and he was quite informative and supportive (as well he would be, he reaped a hefty percentage of anything we found!)
Mels wife Deo (currently in Sebastion, FL and being looked after by Taffi, his daughter who oversees ops at the Treasure museum there) well, I avoided Deo like the plague 'cause she was in charge of keeping track of the divers and their credentials (dive certs, etc)....and I'm sad
to admit I had none...I kept telling her when caught in the hallway that they "were in the mail"...and she let me slide. I had been diving for 15 years with no actual didactic training, but I was pretty good at it. I DON"T RECOMMEND THIS. Perhaps my close encounter with death on the Margarita site wouldn't have happened if I had followed the rules taught in a PADI course. Randy and I were prospecting on the Margarita site after magging, and the current was, I swear, 5 knots. I pitched some leftover sandwich bread off the stern and it ZOOMED out of sight. So, we put a 200 ft tag line out with a lifejacket tied to it, so we could come up and grab it after detecting. Well, we came up, and the boat and tag line were just a dot on the horizon. And it was getting dark. No one on the boat. In that current, it was a 5 hour swim, after dropping all our valuable gear and keeping only speedo's and fins. I made it. Randy didn't. I found him later, barely alive. We don't discuss that much anymore, nasty day.
Much later: 1999: After having earned my 100 ton License I Captained a research vessel Harbor Branch Oceanographic back in FT Pierce for 5 years (great outfit!) and got laid off due to Clinton budget cuts...
So, I got hired on to crew with the legendary John Brandon, who operated a Fisher treasure vessel named Endeavor on the 1715 fleet. I crewed for him, under Fisher (Taffi and Kim) control for 2 years, with pretty good results. John consistently pulled up treasure day after day, primarily on the Nieves site (1715, Colored Beach) and my partner Chas and I got our fair share.
The Fishers dealt with us fairly and supported us financially and well.
2000: Greg Bounds, who had captained the Bookmaker for the Fishers for years on the 1715 fleet with much sucess (google him, amazing) Asked my pal Chas and myself to help him set up a salvage boat which we found in Taffi's backyard with (no kidding) trees growing in it. It had been one of Kane Fishers projects, now abandoned. We overhauled all systems, repowered itwith
Turbo Cat 3208 power and nursed it along on the 1715 fleet scatter patterns. Did a LOT of MAGGIN, and I got bored and tired of driving to Sebastian every mornin at 0600 But, one memorable day on the Goldhound I brought along old Randy (who was now teaching problem kids in Missouri) ....and we pulled up a bunch of
silver coins. I will always be thankful to Greg for his choice of salvage sites that day.
2006: January. Got a call from Morgan, Taffi Fisher's assistant, who told me a guy from Orlando had a treasure salvage boat that needed to be delivered to FT
Pierce from Daytona, and gave me his #. During the trip, he hired me to captain and dive for him, which sounded real interesting because he and his associates had developed an advanced side scan system which seems to work quite well. Again, under subcontract from the Fishers, things are going quite well. Maybe this is the BIG SUMMER.....we'll see.
I can recommend without reservation subcontracting
with the Fishers, either in Key West or on the 1715 fleet. They have consistently delivered on everything agreed upon, and treated me well. Many friends of mine feel the same. Good Luck in your adventures.
I hope we run across each other out there this season!
How does that value compute in the division?
