Diving for Sunken Treasure

John McSherry Heads to the Depths

Apple picking had its own rewards, but so does sifting for buried treasure. John McSherry, of McSherry's Orchard in Sweden, Maine, made the transition from caretaking his family's apple crops to uncovering buried treasure on a Sunken Spanish galleon one week this past July, leaving the farm to join friends on a diving expedition off the coast of Florida.

Located close to shore in about 15 feet of water, the wreck went down in the fall of 1715 just North of West Palm Beach in a hurricane that cost the King of Spain all 11 members of his fleet. Laden with about $1 million in gold, silver, and jewelry from the mines of the New World, the wreck was discovered and superficially salvaged by noted treasure hunter Mel Fisher in the 1960s. Fisher successfully located seven of the 11 downed galleon wrecks, but soon moved onto an even more valuable wreck dating back to the 1600s containing treasure worth more than $75 million.

With Fisher pulling away from the 1715 fleet to concentrate on the other vessel. the coast was literally clear for others to move in and finish his initial salvage work. Friends of John McSherry's took advantage of that opportunity three years ago, as they filed an "admiralty" claim for the rights to the side. The group was soon out working the region, but then questions and suits challenging Florida's salvaging laws arose in the courts, leading the state to declare a moratorium on all wreck salvaging until the cases were resolved.

After the courts finally set a salvaging framework agreeable to most this past July, John McSherry received a phone call at his orchard from his Florida diving friends. "They were ready to go, and they asked me if I wanted to come down the following week to help out," John related this past week, back home in Mt. Washington Valley. After making some quick arrangements at the orchard to cover for himself, the former US Navy fighter pilot took off for Florida to see what Davey Jones' locker had in store for the group. Says John with a laugh, "I knew it would be rough to break away from the orchard for seven days, but I wouldn't miss that kind of opportunity for the world."

Arriving in Fort Pierce just north of West Palm Beach on the east coast of Florida, John was out to the site with the crew of six the next morning. A recreational diver since his high school days and a serious devotee of the sport for the past five years, John's past salvage work consisted of dives to wrecks boasting only artifacts, and not gold, silver, or jewelry. He soon discovered that this wreck would be different. "After bringing our two boats out to the site that first morning," John recalled, "we started uncovering valuables in a matter of minutes. It was pretty exhilarating - the flow of silver was steady," he added, "intermixed with gold coins. I likened it to the thrill of landing a fighter jet onto an aircraft carrier at night for the first time."

Known in diving circles as "treasure fever,' that thrill of discovery made the days of nine-hour dives short, and the joys of diving long. "Time means nothing to you down there, as you get so excited that you want to stay at it," John said. "You come up, and the sun's almost done down. Treasure fever can be rough stuff."

Ascending to the surface after each discovery to show off his finds at the beginning of the week, John soon grew more accustomed to the routine thrills of treasure diving, including close encounters with man-eating sharks, barracudas, and a moray eel. Working at times in waters of zero visibility, he and the other members of the crew used blowers attached to the sterns of the boat to clear away the eight-foot depths of silt, sand, and shell overlay covering the treasure. "The heavy metals such as silver and gold sift down the bedrock through the sand, so you have to use the blowers to blast the top layers away," John explained.

Located on the boats' sterns in front of the propeller, the blowers deflected the propeller wash 90 degrees to the ocean bottom, where it spread out the silt in a 360-degree radius. Divers meanwhile scanned the area with metal detectors, reaching out with their hands to grab the churning gold and silver coins before they were carried away.

"The silver coins usually come out with a blackish film on them, due to oxidization," John related, "but the gold comes out of the sand looking as bright and sharp as if they were lying in a jeweler's display case." The crew also found musket balls, a perfectly preserved silver dagger in a sheath, and an intact anchor. All of the items were transported to the surface where they were placed in a container of salt water on deck, a move designed to prevent destruction from oxidization when placed in contact with the air. "Gold is okay in the air, but you have to be careful with the silver as oxidization will wreak havoc," explained John.

Under Florida State Law, the treasure is placed in a safety deposit box on shore, jointly owned by the crew and the state. At the end of the treasure diving season (late fall for the mainland; year-round for the protected Florida Keys), McSherry says the state will examine the finds to evaluate their worth.

"Under Florida law, the state is entitled to have first choice on all the items and can keep as much as 25 percent of your finds' total value," John noted.

After the state completes its inventory and makes its selections, the crew will divide up the remaining 75 percent among themselves depending on hours worked. John says he doesn't know how much he'll make, only that it won't be much. "Having only worked a week, I'm not expecting much, other than my traveling expenses down there," he said, adding that he is grateful for just having the opportunity to participate in the adventure.

While the dive off West Palm Beach may not yield any millions for McSherry, he notes that other expeditions he's planning for the future more than likely will make him a wealthier man. All that he needs now is an investor to back his plans, someone in the right 30- to 50-percent tax bracket who wants to participate in an exciting adventure, while receiving a good return for his investment.

"An article in Time Magazine earlier this year noted that many people looking for a tax shelter are investing in salvage operations," McSherry stated. Items found on the dives are often donated by the backers to maritime museums, entitling them to tax credits. Noting that investing in a salvage expedition is not as speculative as one might think. McSherry said that he's looking for a commitment of between $15,000 to $25,000. The money would be used to purchase a sophisticated metal detector, known as a boat-towed magnatometer.

With the help of the device, McSherry says he would be able to proceed with his other planned dives. One potential wreck is a previously undiscovered schooner that went down off the coast in the early 1700s. While not containing any buried gold or silver treasure, the ship would yield many artifacts which might be of interest to museums. In addition, he's narrowed the location of a galleon that went down with the rest of the King's fleet in 1733 to an area that's 3/4ths of a mile in length and half-a-mile in width. Noting that the wreck is located in 150 feet of water, McSherry stated that the magnatometer will be essential if he is to succeed in accurately pinpointing the wrecks' whereabouts.

Other possibilities include a few galleons an old salvage diver told McSherry about after winning his trust in Key West a few years ago. Like a tale from an Ernest Hemingway novel, the old diver had first searched the ships during the 1930s with the intention of returning to get his loot. World War II interrupted his plans, however, and he never was able to get back to finish the work. "His leads have proved to be true in the past, so I have no reason to doubt him," said John.

In the meantime, with the autumn harvest rapidly approaching, John will be confining his treasure hunts to the bounty found in his family's orchard. Like his underwater dives, he expects a good yield in terms of quality, if not quantity.