Image: From left, Sean Browne, head of investor relations with Treasure Salvors Inc., Captain Drake Nicholas and lead diver Blake Baker show off a 22-pound silver bar recovered from the 1622 wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha some 35 miles off Key West.
By Katrina Nichols, Special to the Keys Citizen
Fifty feet below the surface, in the warm waters off Key West, Capt. Drake Nicholas is digging into centuries of mud.
Somewhere beneath him could be another silver bar from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. Maybe a copper ingot. Maybe a pile of silver coins that has been waiting more than 400 years for someone to find it.
And Nicholas believes he is getting close.
“There is no certainty in the ocean, but today is more the day than ever,” he said.
Nicholas and the crew of the salvage vessel DARE have reason to be optimistic.
In June, they brought up a silver bar from an active search area on the Atocha wreck site. In August, they recovered a 55-pound copper ingot valued at approximately $18,000 to $25,000, according to Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions.
Now, new technology has identified 19 targets for the crew to investigate. Nicholas said data indicates they could be within about 30 feet of another silver bar or copper ingot. Atocha silver bars can weigh between 30 and 120 pounds.
Read the full article on KeyNews.com:
https://www.keysnews.com/news/local/treasure-running-through-our-blood/article_90ba2e85-e017-4c71-8012-bfd4bb68b79d.html
