Written by the TreaureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov. |
There is now some weather to watch, although it looks like it could stay off-shore. That isn't bad. It could still send us some bigger surf.
I posted some good research resources lately. Shipwrecks in the Americas, by Robert Marx provides and extensive list of wrecks. For example, the section listing Florida wrecks lists well over 263. And that is just the list of Florida shipwrecks. The book, of course is much larger than that. Besides wrecks in the United States, it also includes wrecks in Canada, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, Cuba etc. Besides the listings it also has sections on things like locating shipwrecks, identifying shipwrecks, etc. The printing I have is 1987, and I'd be surprised if there aren't more recent printings.
Looking at the early wrecks of Florida, there are a lot more 16th century wrecks than you might have imagined listed as being on the Treasure Coast. Just to give an idea, I'll pick out some that are said to be near Fort Pierce. Here they are briefly summarized.
Year 1551. Nao San Nicolas, coming from Nombre de Dios and Cartagena on its way to Spain wrecked near Fort Pierce and Indians recovered a great deal of what it carried.
Year 1554. Sank near Fort Pierce richly laden with gold and silver. The King of Ais recovered a great deal from the wreck.
Year 1564. Three ships of Don Juan Menendez wrecked on the Florida coast near Fore Pierce.
Sometime before 1570. The ship Viscayo wrecked near Fort Pierce Inlet. Again, the King of Ais salvaged a great deal of her treasure.
Again, sometime before 1570. The El Mulato wrecked somewhere near Fort Pierce and the Indian salvaged some of the treasure.
Many more were listed as wrecking "on the coast of Florida." Of course, some of those could have been near Fort Pierce, but the location is not associated with a specific area.
I'll just add a couple more pre-1715 listings. Year 1618, On Oct. 10 the governor of Florida in St. Augustine received news from the Indians that a wreck identified as the Almilanta of Honduras wrecked near the Fort Pierce inlet. There are more details provided, but I am just giving basic listings.
Here is a British wreck from 1696 that wrecked "south of the Fort Pierce inlet, about a third of the distance between Fort Pierce and St. Lucie Inlet."
Of course, many more Florida wrecks are listed. Some with latitudes, but many giving something as broad as Florida coast as the location. Many other more specific locations were mentioned for some wrecks, such as Jupiter Inlet.
That will give you an idea of what you can find in Marx's book.
So, there are quite a few early wrecks out there besides those that detectorists talk about a lot. I only chose to mention in this post those early wrecks indicated as being near Fort Pierce just to give you some examples. It is therefore not surprising that Carlos and Juana coins were found on the Treasure Coast. It might be more surprising that not more have been reported found. And maybe there is a lot more out there that was recovered by the natives - perhaps on land sites.
Do your research and you won't have to follow the crowds.
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Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net