Treasure found !!

[Shipwreck John]

Treasure Found!!

Thousands of pearls found in shipwreck

Sat Jun 16, 11:56 PM ET

KEY WEST, Fla. - Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls Friday in a small, lead box they said they found while searching for the wreckage of the 17th-century Spanish galleon Santa Margarita.

Divers from Blue Water Ventures of Key West said they found the sealed box, measuring 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, along with a gold bar, eight gold chains and hundreds of other artifacts earlier this week.

They were apparently buried beneath the ocean floor in approximately 18 feet of water about 40 miles west of Key West.

"There are several thousand pearls starting from an eighth of an inch to three-quarters of an inch," said Duncan Mathewson, marine archaeologist and partner in Blue Water Ventures.

James Sinclair, archaeologist and conservator consulting with Mel Fisher's Treasures, Blue Water's joint-venture partners, said the pearls are very rare because of their antiquity and condition.

Sinclair said pearls don't normally survive the ocean water once they are out of the oyster that makes them.

"In this instance, we had a lead box and the silt that had sifted into the box from the site of the Margarita, which preserved the pearls in a fairly pristine state," he said.

An initial cache of treasure and artifacts from the Santa Margarita was discovered in 1980 by pioneering shipwreck salvor Mel Fisher. The ship was bound for Spain when it sank in a hurricane in 1622.

The pearls will be conserved, documented and photographed in an archaeological laboratory above the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West.

"Until they're properly cleaned and conserved we don't know their value, but it would seem they would be worth upwards of a million dollars," Mathewson said.

[Iron Bess]

Maybe this topic would be better served it it was moved to the Captain Twill section?

[Shipwreck John]

Sorry Iron Bess... wasn't sure where to post it.... Guess the moderator would need to do that....

[Caraccioli]

Interesting that Mathewson is still down there and involved with treasure searches. He wrote a really fascinating book on the search for the Atocha in the Keys called Treasure Of The Atocha. Highly recommended for learning about what's involved in shipwreck hunting. (I've heard that far more money has been spent hunting for treasure than has been retrieved.)

[Red Maria]

I listened to a live broadcast to the opening of this chest on NPR on Friday. It was really exciting. Thanks for showing the picture of the plethora of pearls.