The artifact, estimated to be worth about $100,000, is the first silver bar recovered from the legendary wreck site in nearly three decades. It was discovered by divers working with Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions during a routine recovery mission.
The Atocha was part of a Spanish treasure fleet that was destroyed by a powerful hurricane in September 1622 while returning to Europe. Loaded with silver, gold, and other valuables collected from Spain’s colonies in the Americas, the ship went down in relatively shallow water, taking nearly its entire crew with it and scattering its cargo across the ocean floor.
The report says that the wreck remained one of history’s great lost treasures until famed salvager Mel Fisher finally located its main debris field in 1985 after a 16-year search. That breakthrough yielded hundreds of millions of dollars in treasure, but archaeologists and recovery teams have continued to uncover new artifacts from the sprawling debris field ever since.
