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On September 4, 1622, the big Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de Atocha sailed out of Havana, Cuba. It was headed for Spain.
The sailors were happy. They knew their king would be pleased. They were bringing him great treasures from Spain’s American colonies.
The Atocha was a galleon. That’s a large, strong, well-armed ship with several masts. It seemed like nothing could hurt it. But after only two days at sea, a fierce hurricane hit. Slammed against reefs along the Florida Keys, the big ship broke up and sank. Only 5 of the 265 people aboard survived. A fortune in treasures was lost.
Centuries passed, and the Atocha stayed in its ocean grave. Then, in the 1970s, came Mel Fisher and the scuba divers of his company, Treasure Salvors. They began searching for the Atocha. What happened when they found it? That story points to one of the biggest questions in treasure-hunting history: Who has the right to salvage and keep the treasures of the sea?
