"get [PDF] Download 1715 TREASURE: History, Manifests, Analysis, Photos
On July 24, 1715 a Spanish treasure fleet of ten frigates sailed from Havana carrying a cargo of 14 million pesos in gold, silver and jewels. In the Florida Straits near present day Cape Canaveral the fleet ran into a hurricane. The storm battered the ten ships unmercifully. One after another the vessels ran aground and were torn apart by the storm. Tons of iron cannons, bars of silver, chests of silver coins and gold doubloons were scattered over the sand and lime rock bottom as the ships slowly disintegrated. Over 700 people lost their lives in the tragic event.Survivors were eventually saved, and Spanish salvors recovered some of the treasure. But the bulk of it was lost for the next 250 years. In the early 1960s people began finding odd-shaped pieces of corroded metal on the beaches opposite the wrecks. Many were skipped back to sea. Until one curious fellow named Kip Wagner found that these odd blackened lumps were actually corroded silver coins. With a friend named Kip Kelso he
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