Our upcoming conference in Vero Beach (January 8 – 10, 2024 ) features 10 outstanding speakers covering a wide range of topics including the 1715 Fleet (naturally), Spanish colonial numismatics, treasure, maritime archaeology to name a few. The other day it was brought to our attention by Fleet Society member Dave Crooks (member # 7) that two of our scheduled presenters, Mike Perna and Carl Allen (Alen Exploration), recently made the news. Mike was featured in an article that appeared in the TC Palm: Vero Beach treasure hunter follows bread crumb trail of coins for the last five years. Mike has been around since the early 2000’s. He has recovered many rare and one of a kind artifacts as set forth in this article. Mike will be presenting his lecture on Wednesday, January 9 at 1:30 PM. His topic will be “The Value of a Treasure Hunter”.
Carl Allen formed Allen Exploration in 2018. Since then, he has been searching for the Maravillas, a vessel that sank in 1656. He made the news recently when his crew recovered a 70-pound silver bar from the Maravillas. See the video describing this find: 70 lb. Silver Bar from Sunken 17th Century Treasure Ship. Carl will be speaking on Tuesday, January 9 at 2:45 PM. His topic will be “Allen X and Current Work on the Maravillas and New Wrecks”.
