A diver who was exploring the wreck of a sunken fleet that disappeared beneath the waves over 300 years ago was shocked to come across £100,000 worth of treasure.
Grant Gitschlag and his crew were diving down to the wreckage of the 1715 treasure fleet, which was actually two Spanish treasure fleets consisting of 11 ships that were all sunk by a hurricane after sailing from Cuba.
The treasure fleets had been carrying silver back to Spain when they were struck by a hurricane and sunk off the east coast of Florida, with around 1,500 sailors thought to have died.
Gitschlag's crew consisted of business partner Mike Penninger, along with Nick Amelio and Corinne Lea.
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They were able to recover more than 200 silver cobs, which are coins of an irregular shape manufactured back in the days before they were minted by machines.
Depending on the quality of the coins recovered the treasure hoard could be worth anywhere between $12,000 (£9,200) and $130,000 (£100,000).
That's not a bad haul of sunken treasure.
Grant said that finding the sunken silver was like fulfilling a childhood dream of discovering buried treasure.
He said: “I was always into trying to find stuff from a very young age. What little boy doesn’t dream about buried treasure, ya know?
“It wasn’t until I was in my late teens that I realised people were actually out here doing this, and I wanted in.
“So I signed on with a captain down here in 2014 and that kick-started this. We always expect to find something – nine times out of 10 we do."
The diver explained that normally when exploring a shipwreck they'd find things like shards of broken pottery and metal spikes, with even the discovery of one coin being cause for celebration.
He said he 'instantly knew' he'd found coins when he saw them.
“Silver coins can develop a thick crust from corrosion after spending hundreds of years in the water, but there is no mistaking a piece of eight when it comes up," he said, explaining that sunken coins were rather heavy and you could sometimes spot details on the money poking through.
The haul of coins was found among the debris of one of the two flagships that formed the 1715 treasure fleet, remember that it was actually two fleets sailing together, though Gitschlag isn't sure which vessel is which at this point.
The diver said he thought the coins might have been minted in Mexico City, and that the sinking of the treasure fleet would have been a major loss to Spain.
The diver and his crew were subcontracting for 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC, the company with exclusive salvage rights for the wrecks, who said that most of the coins were higher denominations.
However, the diver said that they'd not been properly appraised yet and not many of them would be sold, as instead they'd go to museums.
Joe Harker