The Florida coastline is littered with colonial Spanish wrecks. The Fleets, or Flotas, laden with the wealth of the Indies, would rendezvous in Havana to prepare for the voyage home then sail north to the Straits of Florida, past the Bahamas and setting course for the Azores and Spain.

   On Friday the 13th of July, 1733 (a date that was to prove most ominous), a fleet of four great galleons, 18 merchant naos and sundry smaller vessels departed Cuba. The following day, in sight of the Florida Keys, they were caught in a deadly hurricane. All ships but one were wrecked and scattered from modern Grassy Key to upper Key Largo.

   The Spanish authorities salvaged what treasure they could over the next few years. Then these shipwrecks were forgotten until the 20th century.

   On another July day, 246 years later, master treasure hunter, D.L. Chaney, with world-renowned archivist, Jack Haskins, were working a wreck site together. It would prove to be a veritable “treasure trove”:- pieces of eight, a silver locket, 1733 pistol with much ornate bronze handiwork, a gold ring, a musket and numerous gold doubloons including five of the now famous

1733 Philip V 8-escudo portrait coins.