Emeralds:

mariner said:
Very interesting. I have raised questions on this forum a couple of times about the so called Cortes emerald treasure wreck that is described on the web site www.emeraldtreasure.com A company called Archaeological Discovery Ventures based in West Palm Beach, and whose president is Victor Benilous, claims on their web-site that they have found, and are looting, a wreck that sank in 1757 while carrying a ship full of treasures belonging to the descendants of Hernan Cortes from Mexico to Spain. They claim that the wreck is in fairly deep water, some 12 miles off Cape Canaveral. They claim that the ship was carrying a great many emeralds, both raw and cut, including one stone that was 946 carats, and supposedly the largest single emerald in the world.

Quite a bit on their web-site is pure BS, including the story that this large emerald was a wedding present from Cortes to his wife, which made Emperor Charles V's wife, Isabella, so jealous that the stone was named after her, though she never owned it.

Sometime ago, I reached the conclusion that the wreck never even existed, and the story was just a front for the selling of emeralds and emerald jewelry. However, the story featured on a recent thread about the two ships from the 1715 fleet that have never been found, coupled with this comment from SeaHunter, makes me pose this question: is there a chance that this wreck does actually exist, and is one of those two missing ships, and the one that Mel believed to be carrying lots of emeralds ?

What would somebody have done back in the early 1990s if they had found one of the two missing ships, perhaps in an area already covered by one of the leases given to Kip Wagner & Co.? Sometimes the best place to hide something is in open view. So perhaps you go ahead and start looting the wreck, invent a plausible story that makes it not one of the missing 1715 fleet, and lie about how far out to sea it is. Then you simply start selling the emeralds on-line. You can't sell the coins, because the preponderance of dates on them would ring all sorts of bells, so you melt the coins down, and use them to produce supposed replicas of Cortes' signet ring that you claim to have found on the wreck.

There were several magazine articles published about 1993 claiming that this was the richest wreck ever found, more valuable even than the Atocha. I have tried without success to contact John C. Fine, a legitimate underwater photographer and scientist, who wrote several of the articles. He seems to have vanished without trace.

I also had some telephone conversations and exchanged e-mails with ADV president, Victor Benilous. Here is what he said about his recovery operation:

"I am sure you'll appreciate, having located the wreck in International waters, and having only recovered less than 30% of the recorded manifest presented to us and not having the luxury of having State or Federal protection we have been extremely vague, often evasive and in many occasions have deliberately contributed in passing inconsistent information in keeping the site and any information available in the archives that may lead others to the possible location of our shipwreck. I have personally financed this operation with the help of the ancestors of the Zuniga family and we have refused to bring in outside investors and therefore it has not been necessary to disclosed for investment purposes any information. This salvage industry is quite ruthless and full of devious undesirable characters, I have been quite vocal about their deceptions and dishonesty, and am not well accepted in their circle.

Nature has not cooperated well, we estimate that it may take us an additional 5 to 7 years to complete the salvage operation. Due to the "North Westerlies" that makes it undesirable and economically unfavorable to dive in the winter month, the dive season in the Caribbean's starts in April and ends around October . When you consider the hurricanes season that starts in June and ends in November it makes it practically impossible to operate a normal deep water salvage operation while trying to keep a very low key recovery.

We have been documenting through 100's of hours of high resolution videos our complete diving operation. We do not plan to sell any of the unique artifacts, rather we have already been contracted and very well compensated by committing to future books, DVD's movies and a world traveling exhibit, and eventually the collection will find a permanent home in our own Maritime Museum.

Kind regards

Vic"

Anybody got any ideas about this suggestion, or any real information, about this supposed wreck ?

Best wishes,

Mariner
Click to expand...
Hi Mariner,

I was looking up Victor Benilous and came across some of your posts. Does he really run a pizza shop? I bought one of his rough shipwreck emeralds about 10 years ago and gave it to my wife as a Christmas present along with a copy of the Time magazine that featured his discovery. My wife still wears it as pendant. I don't have the heart to tell her it was a scam. I will let her live the fantasy.
 

Boatmak said:
Hi Mariner,

I was looking up Victor Benilous and came across some of your posts. Does he really run a pizza shop? I bought one of his rough shipwreck emeralds about 10 years ago and gave it to my wife as a Christmas present along with a copy of the Time magazine that featured his discovery. My wife still wears it as pendant. I don't have the heart to tell her it was a scam. I will let her live the fantasy.
Click to expand...
What copy of the Time magazine were you able to locate? The one I found on a vintage bookstore does not have the mention of the supposed "Isabella Emerald" in it. Do you just have a copy of the front page of the magazine or an actual Time magazine that states the "Isabella Emerald"?
 

Guys this thread was 14 years ago
 

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sabs77 said:
What copy of the Time magazine were you able to locate? The one I found on a vintage bookstore does not have the mention of the supposed "Isabella Emerald" in it. Do you just have a copy of the front page of the magazine or an actual Time magazine that states the "Isabella Emerald"?
Click to expand...
I dug it out. I have an actual Time magazine. Dated Oct 25th 1993. There is only one paragraph in the article that mentions Victor. "Victor Benilous, who has recovered what he believes to be the "Isabella Emerald" from a secret site off the Florida coast, claims to have found his wreck with the help of psychics."
 

Boatmak said:
I dug it out. I have an actual Time magazine. Dated Oct 25th 1993. There is only one paragraph in the article that mentions Victor. "Victor Benilous, who has recovered what he believes to be the "Isabella Emerald" from a secret site off the Florida coast, claims to have found his wreck with the help of psychics."
Click to expand...
Is there any way you could copy it and email it to me or fax it to me?
 

I'll assume long since resolved but here's
Mel Fisher holding a jar of Colombian Emeralds and some Gold recovered from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
www.fortunaauction.com

Rare Muzo Emerald from Shipwreck Comes to Auction | FORTUNA

Read more about how a team of divers discovered the remains of the shipwrecked Spanish galleon, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, off the Florida coast.
www.fortunaauction.com www.fortunaauction.com

Emeralds have been found off southern end of Assateague Island rolling in the surf on to beach by rangers (supposedly). Off limits to TH'ers. Close to Chincotaegue Island, VA entrance.
 

sabs77 said:
Is there any way you could copy it and email it to me or fax it to me?
Click to expand...
Here's a photo. Send me your email and I can send you a copy of the entire article.
 

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mariner said:
Very interesting. I have raised questions on this forum a couple of times about the so called Cortes emerald treasure wreck that is described on the web site www.emeraldtreasure.com A company called Archaeological Discovery Ventures based in West Palm Beach, and whose president is Victor Benilous, claims on their web-site that they have found, and are looting, a wreck that sank in 1757 while carrying a ship full of treasures belonging to the descendants of Hernan Cortes from Mexico to Spain. They claim that the wreck is in fairly deep water, some 12 miles off Cape Canaveral. They claim that the ship was carrying a great many emeralds, both raw and cut, including one stone that was 946 carats, and supposedly the largest single emerald in the world.

Quite a bit on their web-site is pure BS, including the story that this large emerald was a wedding present from Cortes to his wife, which made Emperor Charles V's wife, Isabella, so jealous that the stone was named after her, though she never owned it.

Sometime ago, I reached the conclusion that the wreck never even existed, and the story was just a front for the selling of emeralds and emerald jewelry. However, the story featured on a recent thread about the two ships from the 1715 fleet that have never been found, coupled with this comment from SeaHunter, makes me pose this question: is there a chance that this wreck does actually exist, and is one of those two missing ships, and the one that Mel believed to be carrying lots of emeralds ?

What would somebody have done back in the early 1990s if they had found one of the two missing ships, perhaps in an area already covered by one of the leases given to Kip Wagner & Co.? Sometimes the best place to hide something is in open view. So perhaps you go ahead and start looting the wreck, invent a plausible story that makes it not one of the missing 1715 fleet, and lie about how far out to sea it is. Then you simply start selling the emeralds on-line. You can't sell the coins, because the preponderance of dates on them would ring all sorts of bells, so you melt the coins down, and use them to produce supposed replicas of Cortes' signet ring that you claim to have found on the wreck.

There were several magazine articles published about 1993 claiming that this was the richest wreck ever found, more valuable even than the Atocha. I have tried without success to contact John C. Fine, a legitimate underwater photographer and scientist, who wrote several of the articles. He seems to have vanished without trace.

I also had some telephone conversations and exchanged e-mails with ADV president, Victor Benilous. Here is what he said about his recovery operation:

"I am sure you'll appreciate, having located the wreck in International waters, and having only recovered less than 30% of the recorded manifest presented to us and not having the luxury of having State or Federal protection we have been extremely vague, often evasive and in many occasions have deliberately contributed in passing inconsistent information in keeping the site and any information available in the archives that may lead others to the possible location of our shipwreck. I have personally financed this operation with the help of the ancestors of the Zuniga family and we have refused to bring in outside investors and therefore it has not been necessary to disclosed for investment purposes any information. This salvage industry is quite ruthless and full of devious undesirable characters, I have been quite vocal about their deceptions and dishonesty, and am not well accepted in their circle.

Nature has not cooperated well, we estimate that it may take us an additional 5 to 7 years to complete the salvage operation. Due to the "North Westerlies" that makes it undesirable and economically unfavorable to dive in the winter month, the dive season in the Caribbean's starts in April and ends around October . When you consider the hurricanes season that starts in June and ends in November it makes it practically impossible to operate a normal deep water salvage operation while trying to keep a very low key recovery.

We have been documenting through 100's of hours of high resolution videos our complete diving operation. We do not plan to sell any of the unique artifacts, rather we have already been contracted and very well compensated by committing to future books, DVD's movies and a world traveling exhibit, and eventually the collection will find a permanent home in our own Maritime Museum.

Kind regards

Vic"

Anybody got any ideas about this suggestion, or any real information, about this supposed wreck ?

Best wishes,

Mariner
Click to expand...
Terrible website.
 

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