A group of Florida-based treasure hunters recovered hundreds of coins this week from a fleet of 300-year-old shipwrecks off the Atlantic coast.
One diver described the discovery late last month as “almost paralyzing.”
“We weren’t expecting anything like that,” said Captain Grant Gitchlag. He told FOX 35 on Friday. “Always hoping, never expecting.”
Fellow treasure hunter Collin Lee agreed that he “definitely” hadn’t expected it, but that “that’s how the best discoveries happen.”
They explained that the discovery of 214 coins and other artifacts salvaged from a Spanish shipwreck known as the 1715 Treasure Ship is unusual because they had been salvaged for decades.
“To have this much in just a few days is a very exciting start,” Gitchlagh told the station.
The group signed with Sal Guttuso, 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC; The sole salvager of the wreck and custodian of the U.S. District Court.
The hunters are now working to clean 300 years of sea dust from the coin, leaving it sparkling again, before they are ready to head out again to see what else awaits them.
In July 1715, the fleet set sail from Cuba for Spain with cargo and treasure from the New World, but a week later most of the fleet was sunk in a hurricane, according to 1715 Fleet Queen’s Jewels LLC.
“Discovery. It’s all about discovery,” Lee said. “I love history as someone who discovered something 309 years later that was lost in a tragedy.”
