More than 300 years ago, fleets of Spanish galleons set sail from the waters off the American coast to retrieve vast quantities of New World treasure, including gold, silver and gemstones. On July 31, 1715, a powerful hurricane destroyed eleven of these ships, sending the ships and their precious cargo to the ocean floor.
The so-called Treasure Fleet of 1715 lay untouched off the coast of Florida for more than two centuries until the sunken ships were finally discovered – and now a group of treasure hunters say they have recovered more than 200 silver coins from the iconic wrecks.
“It was kind of numbing in a way, you know,” boat captain Grant Gitschlag told WOFL-TV on Friday. “You don’t expect that. You always hope for it, but you never expect it.”
1715 Fleet Queens Jewels/Facebook
The group, who explored the shipwrecks from their boat named the Lilly May, recently retrieved a total of 214 coins and other artifacts from the 1715 Treasure Fleet – a remarkable discovery considering the wrecks have been explored numerous times before.
“I didn’t expect it at all, and that’s how the greatest finds come about,” fellow treasure hunter Corinne Lea told WOFL-TV.
1715 Fleet Queen’s Jewels, a company that holds exclusive salvage rights to the 1715 Treasure Fleet, posted a message on social media touting Lilly May’s find as the “first treasure of the season.” The company released a photo of the treasure hunters holding coins, as well as an image of some other artifacts recovered from the historic shipwrecks.
“Just a few days into the 2024 season, the crew of the M/V Lilly May (C-69) found a hotspot at one of our locations. So far, they have recovered over 200 silver flasks!” the operation wrote in a statement. “Well done to the Lilly May crew!”
1715 Fleet Queens Jewels/Facebook
This team told WOFL-TV that they have been searching together for treasure off the coast of Indian River County for years, noting that some artifacts and coins still wash up on Florida beaches today. In 2020, a treasure hunter uses a metal detector on a beach 22 silver coins found of the legendary shipwrecks.
“It’s all about the discovery,” Lea told the channel. “I love history because I am the first person in 309 years to find what was once lost in a tragedy.”
According to the National Park Service, during the 18th century, pirates and ships from other European countries sometimes tried to seize the expensive cargo of Spanish fleets, threatening Spanish dominance over the Americas. But the greatest threat came not from rivals searching for treasure, but from unexpected hurricanes. The wrecks of two of the ships sunk by powerful storms – the Urca de Lima of the 1715 fleet and the San Pedro of the 1733 fleet – are protected as Florida Underwater Archaeological Reserves.
“These ships are time capsules from a bygone era and can reveal much about the history of the mighty maritime system that America helped shape,” the park service said.
National Park Service
1715 Fleet Queens Jewels, which bills itself as “the largest authorized historic shipwreck salvage operation in Florida waters,” says the state by law receives up to 20% of the artifacts found at each site for display in museums set.
In 2015, the salvage operation announced that it had been found 350 gold coins worth an estimated $4.5 million from the sunken shipwrecks. Earlier that same year, the Schmitt familya subcontractor of 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels, discovered $1 million worth of artifacts.
