Florida

OVERVIEW

The east coast of Florida and the Florida Keys have one of the greatest concentrations of shipwrecks in the world.South Florida is the industry. The Spanish Treasure fleets of 1715 and 1733 were lost here as was the famous Atocha and Margarita of the 1622 fleet. These lost ships represent only a small percentage of the shipwrecks lost in these waters over the centuries.

RS Operations maintains it's base of operations in Key West, Florida. At this time we're evaluating a number of potential projects with current lease holders.

HISTORY

The Florida Keys became important once the Spaniards were established in Mexico. They made Veracruz the port from which they shipped home vast amounts of gold and silver from the mines of Mexico and Guatamala as well as the exotic wares of the Orient.

Each year on the way to Spain, the Nueva Espana Flota or Mexican Fleet had to pass close to the keys on the way to Havana. From Havana this fleet, along with the Tierra Firme Flota and the Tierra Firme Armada (both of which sailed up from Panama and Cartegena with the riches of Central and South America), had to pass close to the Keys as it made its way up through the Bahama Channel before heading for Europe at the latitude of Cape Canaveral.

During the Colonial Period it is estimated that over 500 richly Laden Spanish ships wrecked on the treacherous reefs of the Florida Keys. Mile for mile there is no other place in the Western Hemisphere where more sailing ships have met their doom.

1622 FLEET

In 1622 a fleet of Spanish galleons was caught in a hurricane shortly after leaving Havana, Cuba on their way to Spain. Several ships were lost in that storm including the famous Nuestra Senora de Atocha and her sister ship the Santa Margarita.

The wreckage of the Atocha and Margarita are scattered over large areas and require that detailed, high precision survey procedures are followed as treasure is systematically located and recovered along these debris trails.

ORRV is equipped with the necessary detection, positioning and mapping technology to perform this level of survey and recovery operation.

WOMAN KEY

ORRV is currently negotiating a contract with a group in Key West to begin identifying the remains of potentially three separate wrecks located in one arrest area off of Woman Key and as far south as Satan Shoals. During recent attempts to locate and identify these wrecks and on a previous contract with the lease holder, Oceanic Research and Recovery found several artifacts that are currently being analyzed for identification purposes.

Many years of previous research have already been completed by several well known individuals. ORRV plans to continue this process and to combine previous information and surveys with the latest technology to verify the identity of these wrecks. Recently more information has been provided to the lease holder that leads the interested parties to believe that this could be part of the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet. The discovery of two anchors matching the size dimensions of the anchors used by the Nuestra Senora de Atocha within the arrest area is a very good indication that this assumption could very well be correct.