Emerald treasure wreck

M

mariner

Hero Member
Apr 4, 2005
877
18
I have asked this question before, but as there are constantly new and returning visitors to this forum, I would like to ask it again.

Does anybody know if the so-called emerald treasure wreck supposedly located off Cape Canaveral and being salvaged by Archaeological Discovery Ventures of West Palm Beach is real, or whether it is just a front for selling emeralds and jewelry?

The wreck was featured in several magazines and newspapers when it was discovered six or eight years ago, and the artifacts are being sold via a web site www.emeraldtreasure.com

Mariner
 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!
Maybe you should ask the State of Florida, and see if they got their cut. ;)
 

This wreck is supposedly some 13 miles off Cape Canaveral, and at the time it was said to have been discovered, this placed it in International waters, so ADV would not have applied to the State of Florida, whose territorial waters only extend to 3 miles off the East coast. At that time the limit of US jurisdiction was 12 nm, but in 1999 Bill Clinton issued a Presidential Proclamation extending that limit to 24 nm. This almost certainly brought it within US jurisdiction, if the wreck exists.

I exchanged some e-mails with the President of ADV, Victor Benilous, who said that they were proceeding slowly, partly because of the hurricane season and partly because they had no legal protection. At that time, he estimated that it would take another seven years (now five) to finish their recovery of the cargo.

I agree that some of the Native artifacts look as if they are Mayan, rather than Aztec, and may even be from Honduras, but if the story is true that the ship was taking back to Spain treasures accumulated by the Cortes family over two centuries or so, then it might have included material from further afield than Mexico. Cortes himself spent almost two years on an expedition to Honduras to quell a rebellion by one of his right hand men.

Mariner
 

The whole story of the huge Isabella emerald is bunk. Isabella (of Portugal) was the wife of Emperor Charles V, who was also King Charles 1 of Spain, and it is true that she was jealous of the present that Cortes gave his wife, Juana de Zuniga, but that present was not one large emerald but five emeralds exquisitely carved in shapes such as a rose.

This, and the story of the help ADV got from psychics in locating the wreck, make me doubt the whole story, but it is hard to know whether these are just embelishments on a basically true story, or whether the whole thing is bunk. If it is true, then the value of this wreck probably rivals that of the Atocha.

I really would like to know if the wreck actually exists. Does anybody in the West Palm Beach know if ADV have a ship that is equipped for carrying out this kind of salvage. Is there a register of ships and their owners in Florida ?

Mariner
 

The Isabella to whom this story refers is the wife of Charles V, but as I pointed out, the story as told on the ADV website is not true.

Of course, the wreck, if it exists, may not be as far as 13 miles off shore. When Victor found it, he might just have said it was that far out to place it in International waters, and out of US jurisdiction. It might well be only two or three miles out, or even closer to the shore.

However, if it is twelve or thirteen miles out, why would the Gulfstream make it more or less impossible to salvage? I do not know that part of the world.

Mariner
 

Doc,

Juanna the Mad was the mother of Charles V, not his wife. He married the Infanta Isabella of Portugal around 1526, and she died in 1539. Cortes married his second wife, Juana de Zuniga in 1528.

However, thanks for the info about the speed of the Gulfstream. It suggests to me that the wreck, if it exists, is closer to the Florida coast. I will look up the western limits of the Gulfstream, though I imagine these vary quite a bit.

Mariner
 

Hi everyone,
I have been involved for many years in recovering many different items that come from the Atlantic Ocean.
Remember that Cape Canaveral is part of the Space Center and is under Government control and I mean GOVERNMENT CONTROL.
The 13 mile limit is considered within the DROP ZONE for falling rocket parts and is patrolled by the Navy. ANY and I mean ANY ship that stops in this zone is checked out and WILL be boarded and inspected and you had better have the correct paperwork or you have BIG PROBLEMS.
This tells me that the story is BS.
Peg Legged
 

Having been in the gem trade for a couple of years in my youth I can assure you the emeralds pictured on the web site are modern cut stones!
Zootman
 

I have to say that, fishing can be a problem if your to close to space center, the falling rocket zone is off limits at times, and also being an private pilot I can tell you it is a no fly zone as well, so any kind of operations of anykind would be closely watched by big brother. Also I understand that because of "challenger" it is a no salvage area too. nobody wants pieces of the shuttle on ebay
 

Does anybody know just what the exclusion zone is around Cape Canaveral for marine activity ?

Mariner
 

I got the answer to my own question by phoning the Coast Guard. The restricted area around Cape Canaveral is only three miles from the shore, so if this wreck exists and is more than three miles off shore, then there are no boating restrictions in the area.

Mariner
 

Permits to fish within the 3 mile zone off of Cape Canaveral can be gotten, and there are about 30 boats working that aria at this time.
I am yet to find any emeralds in this location, I will keep an eye out just in case.

Q
 

hi all,
i worked a permitted site off the cape in 98, and we found no emeralds, we dug several anomalies and inspected a few areas of interest. that was a great experience for me as bob Marx was our archaeologist and came out to the site and dove with us to inspect a few things.
security is very tight, even more so after 911, as i magged two sites there in 04 and procedures for entering and leaving the zone are strict.
as for the three mile range if i recall the radio transmission the night before a launch in 98 we had to leave the zone and the area was restricted from 3 miles north to 3 miles south and for 70 miles east for 24 hours.
this launch was one where i believe a titan missile went off coarse a was self destructed, and we weren't allowed back on location for days.
 

Well, you ask the right question,Cornelius. Whose wreck is it?

If it exists, and I am far from sure that it does, it certainly does not belong to the West Palm Beach company that claims to be looting it. They have no legal right whatsoever. They claim to have been asked to find it by descendants of Cortes' wife, but they never went to court to get legal authorization, and besides just because you are descended from somebody does not mean that you are the descendant who is the legal successor.

The rightful current heir to both Hernan Cortes and his wife is lady who lives in Northern Italy,and who is a good friend of mine. If this wreck exists, and is as described on the www.emeraldtreasure.com web-site, then my friend is the legal owner, under the terms of the 1902 Treaty of Friendship between the US and Spain. ADV are just looters.

I know that many people who use this forum believe in a policy of "finders keepers" but that is not the law, and it is that policy that has got Treasure Hunting such a bad name over the years.

Personally, I believe on balance that the wreck does not even exist,and is just a front for selling modern emeralds being imported from Colombia. I cannot see why such a large proportion of the Cortes family treasure, even given that it was accumulated over two centuries, would be in the form of emeralds, which were not native to Mexico but only to Colombia. I would love somebody to prove me wrong, by providing first hand information about the wreck, and allow the current heir to claim what is rightfully hers. I am sure she would be prepared to give a share of the resulting benefit to anybody who could provide adequate information about the wreck. If the wreck really does exist, even a small share would be worth a considerable amount of money.

Mariner
 

It might be our wreck , a few years ago me and some friends went fishing just out from jetty park,(cape Canaveral) we were in a 25 ft center console which really wasn't big enough for all of us, so we pulled a john boat behind us with the coolers in it like a trailer, we were all laughing and having a good time. Until we got out to our fishing spot the John boat was gone, I guess it wasn't tied very well or it sank, because all we were able to find was the cooler with the beer, all our bait was gone

oddly enough we were all happy to have found the beer, and after throwing a cast net a few times we saved our fishing trip

So if you find a John boat out there it was mine, don't think i want it back now, but at least you know how it got there probably around the 3 buoy
 

mariner said:
This wreck is supposedly some 13 miles off Cape Canaveral, and at the time it was said to have been discovered, this placed it in International waters, so ADV would not have applied to the State of Florida, whose territorial waters only extend to 3 miles off the East coast. At that time the limit of US jurisdiction was 12 nm, but in 1999 Bill Clinton issued a Presidential Proclamation extending that limit to 24 nm. This almost certainly brought it within US jurisdiction, if the wreck exists.

I exchanged some e-mails with the President of ADV, Victor Benilous, who said that they were proceeding slowly, partly because of the hurricane season and partly because they had no legal protection. At that time, he estimated that it would take another seven years (now five) to finish their recovery of the cargo.

I agree that some of the Native artifacts look as if they are Mayan, rather than Aztec, and may even be from Honduras, but if the story is true that the ship was taking back to Spain treasures accumulated by the Cortes family over two centuries or so, then it might have included material from further afield than Mexico. Cortes himself spent almost two years on an expedition to Honduras to quell a rebellion by one of his right hand men.

Mariner
Click to expand...

I agree with Mariner. The native artifacts are Mayan (but probably from Guatemala. They look like Tikal stuff) although a couple of the gold pieces are Aztec. As far as the gold artifacts go, unless they were contraband, they would have not been allowed on the ship. The gold and jewels were fine but the church demanded it be melted down as it represented "Pagan" idols. To be caught with them was heresy and that was not a good thing in those days....lol. The bloody Bishop DeLanda ordered all gold artifacts melted down and their jewels removed.

Deepsix
 

mariner said:
I have asked this question before, but as there are constantly new and returning visitors to this forum, I would like to ask it again.

Does anybody know if the so-called emerald treasure wreck supposedly located off Cape Canaveral and being salvaged by Archaeological Discovery Ventures of West Palm Beach is real, or whether it is just a front for selling emeralds and jewelry?

The wreck was featured in several magazines and newspapers when it was discovered six or eight years ago, and the artifacts are being sold via a web site www.emeraldtreasure.com

Mariner
Click to expand...
I realize I'm responding to a very old post, but I can say for sure that the Isabella Emerald and other artifacts (other gems, crystal skulls, gold artifacts) are real, but I can't say for sure what the exact back story is.

In either 1992 or 1993, while living in West Palm Beach, I had a photo assignment from The Associated Press to photograph some of these items, including the Isabella Emerald. It was a strange feeling holding a 964 carat, $20 million (in today's dollars?) gem. I met Victor Benelous in an Italian restaurant during the day before it opened for business (I assume he owned it or had some connection) and shot the photos. That was one of my more memorable assignments from that period.

Dave Barak
www.davidbarak.com

David Barak / Photojournalism - David Barak / Photojournalism

Dave Barak is a San Diego-based contract photojournalist for ZUMA Press. He's available for editorial assignments, both in the country and abroad.
www.davidbarak.com www.davidbarak.com
 

Area out 13 miles and slightly north? I had been taking a good look at bottom structure there... it just looked like good shipwreck snag sunken island tops with sloping bars.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Deep Blue Marine Inc.

⬅️ Previous Thread

A Pirates Booty

Next Thread ➡️

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
High Plains Prospectors

Latest Discussions

Back
Top