The Most Notable Treasure Hunters In History

April 2024 ยท 1 minute read

In 1715, a fleet of 11 Spanish ships was sailing from Havana on their way back to the motherland. Unfortunately for the fleet, they crossed paths with a hurricane and ended up on the ocean floor near Florida. Fortunately for Brent Brisben, they were all carrying treasure.

Brent Brisben is the owner of the salvage company Queens Jewels, which owns the right to all 11 vessels of the 1715 fleet. In 2015, on the 300th anniversary of the wreck to the day, Queens Jewels found 350 gold coins in the wreckage. It doesn't sound like much, but those 350 coins are worth $4.5 million, and they found all of them in only six feet of water. Nine of the coins were Royals, which hadn't been found in almost 20 years. Brisben described the finding as "something magical," most likely because of the timing, but the money is pretty magical as well.

Because Brisben's team owns rights to the wreckage, anybody who finds treasure from the 1715 fleet in the water has to relinquish it to Queens Jewels, but Brisben says the beach is fair game. And, there's still $400 million waiting to be found.

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