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Gene Lyon found the Atocha on paper first
Part three of four. In 1970 a grad student read one Spanish note, and it put Mel Fisher on the right island.
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In 1969 Mel Fisher’s divers worked the water off Matecumbe Key, Florida. They found no sign of the Atocha, a Spanish treasure ship lost in a 1622 hurricane. By our count the wreck lay 110 miles away. And Gene Lyon, a Miami historian, worked that out in 1970 without getting wet.
Lyon was a grad student at the University of Florida, and Fisher knew him from church. So Fisher asked him to read the Spanish papers on the wreck. They sit in the Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain, which holds the papers of Spain’s old empire.
Lyon found a handwritten note from the 1620s. It said the survivors had camped on the Cayos del Marqués. Hunters had read the old papers as pointing to Matecumbe. But Lyon showed the name meant the Marquesas Keys, about 20 miles past Key West.
In 1985 Fisher’s crew found the main pile of the wreck. His company puts the take at about $450 million in silver, gold and emeralds.
His method works on any Spanish wreck, and most of it is free online. |
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The legend
Fisher’s divers think the lost stern holds the captain’s gold.
Fisher’s side tells it as luck plus faith. Every morning Mel told his divers that today was the day, for 16 years.
In the telling, Lyon spots one line in a stack of worm-eaten pages, and the hunt swings west.
And the tale runs past 1985. The sterncastle, the raised back end of the ship where the captain kept the best cargo, has never been found. Fisher’s crews believe a second fortune in gold and emeralds is inside it.
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The evidence
Three bars found in 1973 had the same numbers as a list in Seville.
The trail starts on September 6, 1622. That day a hurricane sank eight ships of a treasure fleet west of Key West.
In 1626 Francisco Núñez Melián, a Havana official, camped on the Marquesas to dig out treasure. He told King Philip IV they raised 350 silver bars from the Santa Margarita, the Atocha’s sister ship. His reports went to Seville.
In 1970 Lyon found the Marquesas note in that same archive.
Then in 1973 divers found three silver bars. Each bar had a serial number, and all three matched numbers in the Seville cargo list. That was good news for Fisher and bad news for Florida, which called the wreck state property.
And in July 1975 Fisher’s son Dirk found five bronze cannons with Atocha marks. In 1982 the Supreme Court made Florida hand back the Atocha finds it held.
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What’s still down there
Kim Fisher says 300 silver bars are still down there. By our math that is 12 tons.
The best answer is that the sterncastle broke off and spread across the sea floor. A second hurricane hit the site in October 1622. Fisher’s company blames that storm.
Mel’s son Kim runs the company. He has said the water still holds 100,000 coins and 300 silver bars of 80 pounds each. By our math that is 24,000 pounds of silver, or 12 tons.
The strongest objection is that the Spanish got there first. Spain gave out salvage licenses on these wrecks for 50 years after Melián. But Melián’s reports describe the Margarita, and the Atocha stayed lost. And in 2011 Fisher’s crew found a gold and emerald ring in ground it had never worked before.
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What's true
Eight claims. Five are documented. Three are campfire stories.
Legend
Mel said today was the day every morning for 16 years.
Lyon found the clue in one lucky glance.
The sterncastle hides the captain’s best gold and emeralds.
Evidence
Eight ships sank on September 6, 1622. NOAA’s Quicksands survey.
Melián raised 350 bars from the Margarita in 1626. His report to Philip IV.
Lyon found the Marquesas note in 1970. His 1979 book, The Search for the Atocha.
Three bars matched the Seville cargo list in 1973. Archive of the Indies.
Florida had to hand back Atocha artifacts in 1982. Supreme Court reports, volume 458.
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Where it is
The Atocha sits under 55 feet of water, about 35 miles from Key West.
The Florida Keys are small islands curving off the bottom of Florida. Key West sits at the far end, and Matecumbe Key is in the middle. Then come the Marquesas, empty islands about 20 miles past Key West. Past them lies the wreck, 35 miles west of Key West, in 55 feet of water.
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Where to start
John Worth’s free guide walks you through the Spanish search screens.
Start with Lyon’s book, The Search for the Atocha. Then open PARES, Spain’s free archive site, at pares.mcu.es. Filter for the Archive of the Indies, tick the box for records with pictures, and search a ship’s name and year.
John Worth at the University of West Florida posts a free guide to those screens. Expect old handwriting and old place names, because that is where Lyon won.
A federal court gave Fisher’s company the rights to the Atocha. The site also lies in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a federal park. You need a permit to take old objects there. So the legal way down is a paid company dive week.
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Happy Treasure Hunting!
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Lyon later led the board of the Fisher museum in Key West. The Atocha silver sits there today.
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Sources Lyon (1979); 1715 Fleet Society; Mel Fisher Maritime Museum; NOAA (2021); Heritage Auctions (2025); NBC Miami (2011); Florida Keys tourism council; 458 U.S. 670 (1982); University of West Florida
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