Four crew members from the ship S/V Capitana are telling the public Thursday about how they found $4.5 million in Spanish gold coins three weeks ago.
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Salvors have made another dazzling discovery of centuries-old treasure from a Spanish fleet that sank off Florida’s Treasure Coast during July 1715.
“Over 350 gold coins including 9 Royals were recovered on July 30 & 31”.
The coins are worth $4.5 million.
The recovered treasure will be shared by Brisben, co-captain Jonah Martinez, diver William Bartlett and Dan Beckingham.
“I truly believe that these shipwrecks wanted their story to continue, that this magically happened on this anniversary because this story still needs to be told and it’s now unfolding”.
“There’s no real rhyme and reason to how a hurricane destroys a wooden ship”.
It’s been a good summer for treasure hunters in Florida. “One of our key goals is to help learn from and preserve history, and this week’s finds draw us closer to those truths”.
This video includes video from TBS/TBS-Vision and images from 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels, LLC.
” These Royals are ideal speci mens of coinage of the time and they were made on royal order for the king of Spain”, he explained. In 2013, a family diving off Fort Pierce discovered a gold chain, coins and a ring which were valued at $300,000, as the Inquisitr previously reported.
More than 350 coins were found in a shipwreck off the coast of Florida late last July.
Almost 1,000 people died in the wrecks and another 1,500 swam to shore.
Only 20 such coins were known to exist prior to the recovery of the coins off Vero Beach, Florida, salvage company owner Brent Brisben said.
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Hunters like Bartlett typically work under contract with the company, which grants them a percentage of their find after the state of Florida exercises its right to 20 percent of the haul.
