Mel Fisher

Did any one catch that Mel fisher Treasure hunting program on the travel channel lately? or even know who Mel Fisher is? i wander how much those investers pay to dive for treasure

i had a dream the other night about doing that, all day ive been thinking of treasure hunting know!!

i mean this guy or well know his comapany makes a fortune finding stuff every day

Must be nice...one day I WILL DIVE AND FIND TREASURE..its been a goal in life i made for my self before i die..

New2ScubaSC once bubbled...
Did any one catch that Mel fisher Treasure hunting program on the travel channel lately? or even know who Mel Fisher is? i wander how much those investers pay to dive for treasure

i had a dream the other night about doing that, all day ive been thinking of treasure hunting know!!

i mean this guy or well know his comapany makes a fortune finding stuff every day

Must be nice...one day I WILL DIVE AND FIND TREASURE..its been a goal in life i made for my self before i die..

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I read in the paper yesterday that someone just found a wreck with what they think might have 100million in gold on board. I wondered it it might have been Fisher. As far as I know, Fisher has only ever found one wreck of any significance and he's been working it decades. Sounds intensly boring to me.

R..

It wasn't Mel, he's been dead for several years.
It wasn't all a bed of roses for Fisher, he'd been looking for the loot for years & years before finding any. The search cost him a son & daughter-in-law when their tug capsized & they drowned.
Back in the early 70s when I got the offer to join in the going rate was $1000.

A new finding by an Admiralty Court has indicated that the nation of original ownership can lay claim to treasure found on the bottom, taking a lot of steam out of any treasure salvor's sails.

I wonder if that means if the Incas can claim the gold?

You're probably better off doing some gold dredging.

Mel Fishers claim to fame was finding the Atocha off the Florida Keys. He spent years and years looking for the wreck, paying dearly for his find. He lost a son in the search.

There is a museum in Key West that spotlights the find along with a room with gold bars and pieces of eight still not cleaned...

Mel was an interesting fellow; I met him briefly at a conference many years ago. The most interesting things about him involved diving that did not include treasure hunting. He purchased one of the first Aqualungs to enter the US in 1946. His obsession with treasure hunting caused him to (as Jenny mentioned) lose a son and spend most of his life in poverty. He was a multimillionaire the last few years of his life, but for the vast majority of it, he was poor as a church mouse. Most investors in his ventures lost their investments, as an investment gave you a share of the findings for a specified period of time.

I don't know if his company still owns them but for ahwile he held the leases to several of the 1715 wrecks off of the Vero area. He had an artifact conservation lab and museum up in Sebastian .

Here's a site that pretty much describes how things got divided among the family

http://www.melfisher.com/salvage/keywest/leaders.htm

Bob3,

Do you happen to know the details of that court case you mentioned (who the parties were)? I'm doing a paper on underwater archaeology/admiralty law and how it affects museums, and am curious if this is one of the cases I've come across... thanks.

New2ScubaSC -- there's a new book out called _Fatal Treasure_ by Jedwin Smith talking about Mel Fisher, his family and the Atocha... definitely takes some of the "shine" off of treasure hunting as it talks about the day-to-day experience!

Is it me or am i starting to realize that the search for gold stories
have always turned out bad in some sort of way, i mean seems that every story you hear about "ever" from the western gold rush to treasure hunters, hell even in the movies theres always
danger with any think thats associated with gold, i know im some what fading from the point, but just reading your replies has made me think alil different "kinda" i still think every one has a lil gold in our blood....


but as far as treasure it may not be the value in weight, but the history that follows i guess. ide prob. get the same feeling finding an old coke bottle at the bottom, just to be able to hold history since the last time it wasnt history

finding a 5" Megalodon tooth excites me where my heart is about to pop out my chest, just holding it and thinking of the size of a shark that once ate whales for snacks, this shark could of been 70' long

i cant imagine just strolling along and bumping in to a pile of treasure, Crist i wouldnt know what to do!!

any how thanks for all the replies

later, Erik & linds

If I found treasure on the bottom of the sea floor the first thing I would do is TELL EVERYBODY about it.
Yea, right.
I'd keep my big yapper shut and get all I could and run.
FINDERS KEEPSERS, LOOSERS WEEPERS

Going to prison is not my idea of a holiday.

walter scott once bubbled...
If I found treasure on the bottom of the sea floor the first thing I would do is TELL EVERYBODY about it.
Yea, right.
I'd keep my big yapper shut and get all I could and run.
FINDERS KEEPSERS, LOOSERS WEEPERS

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