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Detectives of the Deep
Michelle Seaton
01/01/2006
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Victory at Sea
Treasure hunting for thrill and profit entered the
modern era on July 27, 1956, when Peter Gimbel, department store heir and
adventurer, took the first pictures of the Andrea Doria, the ocean liner that
collided with another ship two days earlier, sinking the next day, 45 miles
south of Nantucket. Using crude diving gear, Gimbel and a friend dove 150 feet
down, following the trail of bubbles still rising from the groaning hull. They
snapped photographs of the ship’s pristine deck and unbroken portholes for Life
magazine. Over the next three decades Gimbel became obsessed with the wreck, and
the artifacts that he could salvage from it. In 1981, one of his fellow divers
cut a hole in the side of the ship, now called Gimbel’s Hole, in an attempt to
recover the ship’s safe. Over the years, more than a dozen divers have died
trying to recover artifacts from the ship.
 | | MANY ARTIFACTS were recovered from the SS Republic, such as the porcelain
angel above.(Photograph courtesy Odyssey Marine Exploration.) |
As research methods have improved,
so has the quality of the finds. Real estate developer Harvey Kaltsas has found
15 wrecks from the 1800s in the waters near Florida. Kaltsas and his group of
investors, who call themselves the Spanish Main Treasure Co., have surveyed a
40-mile swath of the west coast of Florida using sidescan sonar equipment. He is
currently searching for the remains of a Dutch warship called the Eendracht,
which is believed to have sunk off the southwest Florida coast in 1624. Although
Kaltsas is captivated by the historical significance of the ships he is hunts
for, he is also planning to be rewarded for his efforts. “I fully intend to make
a profit at this,” he says.
Having circumnavigated the globe, the Eendracht
is of great historical significance to more than one nation. It was one of the
first European ships to explore the western coast of Australia, under Captain
Dirk Hartog. While chasing Spanish ships in the Gulf of Mexico, the Eendracht
went aground and sank. The crew abandoned ship, seized one of the vessels they
were chasing and left the Spanish sailors stranded on shore. Kaltsas’ company
has already sent researchers to the Netherlands to review the accounts of the
seamen who returned.
Next, Kaltsas must locate the wreck, which can take
years, even with the most sophisticated sonar equipment. If the wreck can be
found in waters shallow enough to dive, and if Kaltsas can negotiate a deal with
the state of Florida, the Dutch government and perhaps even Spain, then he might
be in a position to become a wealthy, legendary explorer—assuming of course that
he does not run out of money first. To date, Kaltsas and his fellow investors
have spent $300,000 on a boat, equipment and fuel, and after so many years of
searching, he is taking a break to focus on real estate ventures, which are
“less speculative,” he says. He and his partners, however, plan to resume their
search soon.
TOP VIEW
Traditionally considered a hobby for eccentrics, searching for shipwrecks containing lost treasure has become big business. Treasure hunters
with staffs of historians, archeologists and divers use sonar, historic maps and
undersea robots to locate and recover valuables lost at sea centuries ago. They also lure investors to fund their increasingly expensive efforts. While the odds
of seeing a generous return are slim, adventure and fascinating cocktail party
conversation are nearly guaranteed. |
By far the most successful treasure hunter was a former chicken
farmer named Mel Fisher, who spent 16 years searching for the wreck of a Spanish
galleon, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in 1622 off Key West, Fla.
Fisher followed rumors for the first six years. Then, funded by a group of
investors, he sent professional researchers to Seville to translate historical
records of survivors in order to narrow the search to a manageable area.
On
July 20, 1985, Fisher’s persistence paid off: He found pieces of the Atocha and
some of the treasure entombed within. The recovered fortune is worth $500
million, and divers still bring up artifacts. Researchers have accounted for
just 60 percent of the items in the ship’s manifest, including six pounds of
uncut emeralds from an estimated 70 pounds that were on the ship when it sank.
“We’ll be salvaging it for years to come,” says Kim Fisher, Mel’s son.
Thrill and Profit
Even successful treasure hunters like Fisher rarely
fund all their expenses from their own pockets. The Fisher family has had
investors since the 1970s, when the family sold shares to a few entities who
then sold those shares to individuals. The family formed a limited partnership
in 1980 and sold 500 shares for $1,000 each. Under this scheme, each investor
had to renew the investment annually. The big payout finally came after the
company found treasure in 1985. In 1992, the family formed its first limited
liability company and sold shares in the business for $40,000 each. It turned
out to be a good year for investors, who earned a 6-to-1 payout after divers
found a bag of emeralds. After legal problems with the state of Florida were
settled in the 1990s (see “Finders Keepers?”) the company, Kim Fisher
recalls, threw its first investor party and handed out $80 in treasure for every
dollar invested.
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