Greed and death, emeralds and gold, and the obsessive search for the legendary ghost galleon Atocha.
When the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha sank off the coast of Florida during a hurricane in 1622, it went down with forty tons of treasure-thousands of silver and gold ingots, enormous grass-green emeralds, thirty-five treasure chests, and other smuggled booty. Three and a half centuries later, the legendary Mel Fisher set out to find it.
Written by Jedwin Smith
Jedwin Smith is a journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution who has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. He has been working with the Fisher family since the 1980s. Smith has found emeralds and pieces of eight while hunting with the crew, and his brother also worked for the Fishers on the treasure hunt.