I felt like a ghost visitor, walking through my past.
A stranger stops us on Duval Street. He likes our car... a long chat leads to complimentary admission to the Mel Fisher Museum. We actually hadn't planned to visit the museum this trip, but the gentleman was so nice.
It brought back so many good memories to go there again...
and WOW. What a great experience to see what has been accomplished over the past 20 years since Mel, his children and many others brought in the Mother Load from the sunken Spanish Treasure Ship, the Nuestra Senora Atochia.
The story goes...that the ship left Havana, Cuba (which is only 90 miles from Key West) on Sept 4, 1622 on a return trip to Spain.
Unfortunately they sailed into the season's first hurricane.
For the 1622 return voyage, Atocha was loaded with a cargo that is, today, almost beyond belief -- 24 tons of silver bullion in 1038 ingots, 180,00 pesos of silver coins, 582 copper ingots, 125 gold bars and discs, 350 chests of indigo, 525 bales of tobacco, 20 bronze cannon and 1,200 pounds of worked silverware! To this can be added items being smuggled to avoid taxation, and unregistered jewelry and personal goods; all creating a treasure that could surely rival any other ever amassed.
The Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank with 265 people on board. Only five -- three sailors and two slaves -- survived by holding on to the stump of the mizzenmast, which was the only part of the wrecked galleon that remained above water. A ship which had been on the bottom of the sea for over 400 years. Many searched for this ship over many, many years but in vain.
We moved to Key West in May, 1985. We were there when...
On July 20, 1985, Kane Fisher, captain of the salvage vessel Dauntless, sent a jubilant message to his father’s headquarters, "Put away the charts; we’ve found the main pile!" Ecstatic crew members described the find as looking like a reef of silver bars. Within days, the shipper’s marks on the bars were matched to the Atocha’s cargo manifest, confirming Kane’s triumphant claim. At long last, the wreck’s "mother lode" had been found -- and the excavation of what was widely referred to as the "shipwreck of the century" began.
So you see, we lived in Key West during the years of the discovery and watched the ships come and go from the site....this made us feel a part of this excitement. It was amazing to witness new loads of silver brought in and unloaded here and there in haphazard stacks.
On one of those many days, which now seems so long ago,
I was hanging around down where they were bringing in a new load, when Taffy, Mel's daughter. came running over to us standing by stacks and stacks of silver bars. She was so excited..."Look what they just brought in!!" Her excitement was justified...we gasped at what she had to share. "May I hold it?" I asked.
I slipped the most beautiful ring I had ever seen on my finger...a perfect fit... a gold gold as no gold I had ever seen had been painstakingly worked into lace around the setting and even on the underside of the stone...such gold art work was the setting for this perfect emerald about 6 kt..."It wasn't even under sand" she said, "it was laying right on top of the sand at the bottom of the sea." It was perfect. Wasn't a blimpish on any part of it. My heart longed for this magnificent piece, I tell you. No doubt priceless, we said.
Today, I saw the other two emerald rings. One small one in the museum case and another for sale in their shop. The price on the one for sale was $280,000. The third one and the one I held the day it came back to this world, has been awarded to an investor. It was much superior to the one in the shop.
This 'ghost' felt so proud to see what a wonderful job they had done in these past 20 years.
AHHHH...nothing like Key West. A beautiful place to haunt.
iJune
The Conch Train makes yet another tour of Old Town Key West. 
