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"Being shipwrecked
was a constant and terrifying threat to all vessels using the Florida straits.
From the earliest period, when navigators returning to Spain began to sail
through the waterway, the bones of ships and their victims piled up on
the beaches of the islands and coasts flanking it. As early as 1578, the
governor of Cuba had written the Spanish crown of the treacherous nature
of the passage, describing the beaches of Florida as littered with treasure
as well as the bones of shipwreck victims. In another letter the governor
informed his Majesty “of the great amount of gold and silver said to be
lost in the islands and keys of this channel. Many rumors are current here
of men who have escaped on rafts and logs and got to Florida where they
were seized by the Indians. Some inhabitants of this region talked with
them before they died and affirmed this matter saying that there were many
lost ships and many bones on the shore of people who died and had taken
their silver and gold to the land where it was lost.”
From the book
Funnel
of Gold by historian Mendel Peterson
Read
on: When
the Frenchmen Rene Laudonniere undertook the ill-fated settling attempt
at Florida in 1564,he reported that “there is found among the savages good
quantitie of gold and silver, which is gotten out of the shippes that are
lost upon the coast, as I have understood by the savages themselves.” Even
John Hawkins reported about this practice in the 1565 voyage account when
he was near Los Martires, (Florida Keys), where proportedly an Indian king
named Cabs had a “... great store of golde and silver, so farre foorth
that in a certaine village he had a pit full thereof, which was at the
least as high as a man, and as large as a tunne... The greatest part of
these riches was had, as they sayd, out of the Spanish shippes, which commonly
were cast away in this straight.
Both Hawkins
and Laudonniere had found the Bahama Channel "dangerous," because of "sundry
banks", and Laudonniere comments on the "masts” which were the wracks of
Spaniards coming from Mexico," and to these "wracks" he ascribes the presence
of gold and silver among the Indians, which the latter used to buy what
they wanted from the Frenchmen.
When Hawkins
returned to England he reported to the Queen that he had examined much
of la Florida and that it was an exceptionally promising region. Although
there were no silver mines as in Mexico and Peru, significant quantities
of precious metals and pearls had washed and no doubt would continue to
wash upon Florida's gently sloping beaches from the wrecks of Spanish galleons.
Hawkins to
Elizabeth, Padstow, Sept. 20, 1565, in Report on the Pepys Manuscripts,
Historical Manuscripts Commission (London,1911)
So here we
have eyewitness accounts from the years 1564, 1565 and 1578 that the eastern
coast of Florida was littered with shipwrecks and treasure was strewn across
the beaches. And there was 300 years of Spanish, French, English, Dutch
& American shipwrecks still to come. Entire Spanish fleets were destroyed
in 1622, 1715 and 1733. Many merchants ships went down in the great storm
of 1810.
Mel Fisher
estimated that there is a shipwreck every 1/4 mile along Florida's coast.
Conservative estimates number in the range of 4000-5000 ships lost. Some
of these disasters are historically documented, but many are not. In a
one mile area along Vero Beach you can find artifacts and treasure from
shipwrecks lost in the years 1618, 1715, 1810 and 1824!
I am regularly
contacted by people from across the globe, from all walks of life, asking
how they can become involved in one of our projects.
We offer interested
partners and financial backers a "hands-on" opportunity to participate
in the once in a lifetime thrill of an archaeologically responsible shipwreck
search & recovery operation. We are not a publicly traded company and
we do not sell or trade stock.
Wreckovery
Salvage is actively seeking funding for several exciting projects planned
for the year 2012 and beyond.
please
contact us via email
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Thank you and welcome
aboard!
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