Is the Big Bend the next treasure coast?

[sabre15]

What chance is there that from cedar key to the big bend there could be the next Atocha?

 

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[allen_idaho]

Slim. Very slim.

 

[G.I.B.]

I don't know about another Atocha-

But they are there. Where is the question.

The east coast of Florida is easy. The water shallows up pretty quickly which limits the search are considerably.

The Gulf coast on the other hand, is pretty even tempered when it comes to depth, which means the wrecks are not as concentrated. A galleon caught in a tempest could have the bottom split due to large swells quite a distance from the actual shoreline. No doubt, they are there... just an awful lot of seafloor to cover.

Add to that the tremendous thunderstorms striking some of the ships and starting a fire. They burn to the waterline and sink on a rather massive shelf between 50 and 18 feet deep.

They are there... they are surely there...

 

[pcolaboy]

I have to agree that it's very improbable that another Atocha-style wreck exists along the Gulf Coast. However, the standard route taken by the New Spain fleet leaving Veracruz for Havana did take a northerly route skirting the entire coast line of the American gulf coast. I would imagine this had more to do with currents and prevailing winds rather than safety.

I'm personally aware of a few payroll ships that were lost off the coast of the Florida panhandle but I'm not aware of any treasure fleet wrecks. I'd certainly be interested to know if anyone else is aware of any .

Pcola

 

[ivan salis]

dead reckoning (navigation) had a lot to do with the coast hugging ways of the early spanish fleets & they used known landmarks and rivers on the coastlines to navigate by. since they had no way "fix" their exact long & lat postions until the mid 1700 era / as far as a treasure wreck's in the area goes ---the american vessel carrying the money to "buy" florida from spain was lost in the 1820 era in that area --- 5 million bucks --- thats well worth while in my book.

 

[Salvor6]

Hey Ivan, I researched the Louisiana Purchase and if I remember correctly, the purchase price was $11,750,000.00. The ship carrying the money (in gold bars) was called the Peacock and it sank somewhere near the Suwannee River during a hurricane.

 

[ivan salis]

I know the buy price for florida alone was $5,000,000 * in gold so I knew she had at least that much on her off hand without even checking my files -- well worth finding while by any bodies standards -- at 11.75 million in gold at those days "gold price" say $30 per oz vs say $840 today (28 x as much) the wrecks worth at least $329 million just for the raw gold value alone -- never mind the coin collector value * -- one hellva strike if you can find her. -- govt will claim the gold is their's most likely and grab it however.