Kip Wagner (1906 – 1972) was instrumental in the formation of the team that later became the Real Eight Company and one of the greatest salvage groups that ever explored the 1715 Fleet wrecks.  He was born in Miamisburg, Ohio and moved to Florida in the 1940’s. Together with a doctor friend, Kip Kelso, Wagner unlocked the key to the location of the wreck sites of the 1715 Fleet. He obtained a license from the State of Florida to search those sites. Later, after helping to form the Real Eight Company, he and his team went on to recover a large portion of the treasure lost in the hurricane that destroyed the Fleet in 1715. Kip was the prime mover in arranging the first public auction of 1715 Fleet coins in October 1964.