| Atocha cannons on show in Key West, 1975. Photo: Dale M. McDonald, State Archives of Florida. |
| Based on a true story |
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The film that said Dirk Fisher had found the Atocha
Part four of four: a 1976 TV film told viewers the Atocha was found. The main pile was ten years away, and the richest part is still missing.
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Dirk Fisher was 21 when he found the guns. On July 13, 1975, his crew found bronze cannons west of Key West, Florida. Markings on the barrels matched the gun list of the Atocha, a Spanish treasure ship lost in a hurricane in 1622. Seven days later, Dirk was dead. The family's salvage boat, the Northwind, rolled over before dawn on July 20. Dirk, his wife Angel and diver Rick Gage drowned below deck. The New York Times put the treasure at $100 million that week. Then in December 1976, PBS aired a National Geographic film about the hunt, called Treasure! But the film came ten years early. The main pile, the hull and cargo hold, sat miles away. Kane Fisher's crew found it on July 20, 1985, ten years to the day after Dirk drowned. Mel Fisher's company puts that haul at more than $400 million. And the sterncastle, the tall back deck where the captain kept valuables, is still missing. |
| The Arbutus, once Fisher's guard ship, sunk in the shallows by 1985. State Archives of Florida/McDonald. |
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The legend
In July 1975, Fisher told reporters his crew had found the Atocha.
The version Key West tells runs like a movie. Dirk finds the guns, dies a week later, and his father keeps going. Mel Fisher's line every morning was "Today's the day."
In that version, the 1975 guns are the moment the Atocha was found. A UPI story on July 21, 1975, said Fisher had announced the find. So the film's library record tells it the same way, as the story of a man who found a fortune.
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The evidence
A 1976 court case put the wreck within 2,500 yards of a single point.
Early in 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court drew Florida's sea line, and the Atocha site fell outside it. The Numismatist, the coin club journal, told that story in October 1986.
Fisher's company sued in federal court for title. Then the U.S. government stepped in and said the treasure was its own.
On July 13, Dirk's crew found the guns. Most accounts say five, and The Numismatist counted nine. Their markings matched the guns on the Atocha's cargo list.
In 1976 a federal court in Florida ruled for Fisher's company. Its case set the wreck within 2,500 yards of one point at sea. On March 13, 1978, the appeals court in New Orleans threw out the U.S. claim.
PBS aired the film between those rulings, on December 7, 1976. And on July 20, 1985, the Dauntless sat over the main pile.
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What's still down there
The missing back end may hold 12 tons of silver, by Kim Fisher's count.
Pat Clyne filmed Fisher's dives for more than 35 years. Because a second hurricane hit on October 5, 1622, the top half of the ship tore loose, he told the Cape Gazette in 2011. By his account, it came to rest about nine miles from the main pile.
Kim Fisher, Mel's son, has said the family is still hunting the sterncastle. He puts what is left at 100,000 coins and 300 silver bars of 80 pounds each. Our arithmetic: that is 24,000 pounds, or 12 tons, of silver.
So our answer: the sterncastle lies on the path the top half took, between Dirk's guns and the main pile. That rests on Clyne's account and on where the guns turned up.
But Fisher's crews have dug that trail since 1985 without finding it. Corey Malcolm led archaeology for the Fisher museum. He told Slate the wreck runs about 11 miles.
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What's true
Eight claims. Five are documented. Three are campfire stories.
Legend
Dirk's 1975 guns marked where the Atocha lay.
By 1976 the hunt was over.
A second hurricane carried the top half nine miles.
Evidence
Dirk's crew found Atocha guns on July 13, 1975 (The Numismatist, 1986).
Dirk, Angel and Rick Gage drowned July 20, 1975 (UPI, Desert Sun).
Treasure! aired December 7, 1976. The New York Public Library has a copy.
An appeals court threw out the U.S. claim in 1978 (569 F.2d 330).
The main pile turned up July 20, 1985 (The Numismatist, 1986).
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Where it is
The main pile lies in about 55 feet of water, 35 miles west of Key West.
Key West sits at the far end of the Florida Keys, the island chain off the tip of Florida. It is 160 miles by road from Miami. The main pile lies past the Marquesas Keys, a ring of empty islands, in about 55 feet of water.
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| Key West to the main pile is about 35 miles. That is a bit less than Baltimore to Washington. |
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The real one
Federal courts gave the Atocha to Fisher's company. The site is off limits to you.
Search the New York Public Library catalog for Treasure!, the 1976 National Geographic special. Ask how to view the 16mm print before you travel.
Then see the treasure. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum is at 200 Greene Street in Key West. One Atocha cannon sits in Seville, Spain, at the Archivo General de Indias.
The 1978 ruling, 569 F.2d 330, is free on public case-law sites. Federal courts gave the wreck to Fisher's company. So the site is theirs, and your detector stays off it.
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Happy Treasure Hunting!
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P.S. Kane Fisher was 16 on that life raft in 1975. Ten years later, to the day, he was the captain over the main pile.
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Sources The Numismatist, Oct. 1986; UPI via Desert Sun, July 21, 1975; New York Times, July 21, 1975; 16mm Filmography; TheTVDB; 569 F.2d 330 (1978); Cape Gazette, Apr. 18, 2011; Florida Keys tourism council; Slate.fr; NBC Miami, June 25, 2011; CBS News, 1998; photos: State Archives of Florida
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