Mel Fisher

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Mel Fisher (born August 21, 1922 in Hobart , Indiana , † December 19, 1998 in Key West , Florida ) was an American treasure hunter and diving pioneer.

Childhood and youth

Mel Fisher was born to Earl and Grace Sprencel Fisher. He grew up in Hobart and in Glen Park with Gary . After high school, he studied engineering at Purdue University and later moved to the University of Alabama . During World War II , he served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers . After the war he lived in Chicago , Denver and Florida before moving with his parents to Torrance , California , where they ran a chicken farm. Fisher, who had already started diving at the age of eleven, opened a small shop in a small building on the farm, where he filled compressed air cylinders and sold diving accessories. This little shop is considered to be one of the first diving accessories stores in the world.

In 1953 he met Dolores Horton, whom he eventually married. Together they opened Mel's Aqua Shop in Redondo Beach . As a diving pioneer, Fisher taught countless students and made underwater photographs and films for advertising and education at an early age, and as an underwater filmmaker he also worked in feature films in the 1950s. His wife set a long-term diving record for women at 55 hours and 37 minutes that lasted for many years.

Silver bars and other artifacts from the Atocha in the HistoryMiami Museum

Treasure hunt off East Florida

Together with other divers, the Fishers discovered several wrecks off the California coast and also in the Caribbean . On the return voyage, Mel Fisher met the treasure hunter Kip Wagner in Florida in 1962 , who had already recovered the first treasures from a Spanish silver fleet that sank in 1715 . Since Wagner had little equipment for the underwater treasure hunt, they founded a joint treasure hunt company. Together with seven other divers, they wanted to spend a year looking for the treasures of the sunken fleet on the east coast of Florida. After 360 days, just before they wanted to give up the search, they discovered 1,033 gold coins, whereupon they continued the search for years to come. Fisher and Wagner received a government rescue permit. Archaeologists were supposed to oversee the work of the treasure hunters, and 25% of the treasures found had to be given to the state. Fisher and Wagner recovered over $ 20 million worth of treasures in the 1960s. The state portion went to the Florida State Museum Service , which split it between the Florida Museum of History in Tallahassee and local museums. After several years of treasure hunt on the east coast of Florida, where the underwater search was often not possible in the winter months, Fisher moved his residence completely to Florida and began looking for the wreck of the galleon Atocha in 1969 , the 1622 with 40 tons of gold and silver on board sank off the Florida Keys .

The discovery of the Atocha

After long negotiations and disputes with the state of Florida and with the US government, Fisher was given the right to keep all his finds from the search for the Atocha alone. The long search was made even more difficult by lack of money and diving accidents. In 1972, Fisher's divers found the wreck of a sailing ship 35 miles west of Key West. After they discovered that it was not the Atocha they were looking for, the site remained unnoticed for the next few years. It was not until 1983 that underwater archaeologists under David Moore re-examined the wreck and discovered that it was the wreck of the Henrietta Marie , which sank in 1701 , making it the oldest slave ship ever found . In 1980, Fisher first found the wreck of the Santa Margarita , which sank in 1622 , from which he was able to recover treasures worth US $ 20 million. On July 20, 1985, two of his divers finally discovered the wreck of the Atocha, from which Fisher was able to recover the largest known treasure from the sea with a value of around 400 million US dollars.

Presentation of the treasures

Most of the treasures found were shared between Fisher and his investors, but Fisher donated some to museums. As early as 1967, Fisher had acquired a replica of a Spanish galleon that he used as a floating museum. However, the ship sank in 1987. He then purchased a building from the former Key West Naval Station , which he converted into the headquarters of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society , founded in 1982 . In addition to a museum that shows some of the treasures it has found, the building also houses training rooms and restoration workshops in which the finds from the treasure ships are processed. In 1992 the Mel Fisher Center opened in Sebastian , which mainly shows an exhibition with the finds from the silver fleet that sank in 1715. Mel Fisher's life was filmed in the 1986 film Treasure Hunt in the Depths of the Atlantic by James Goldstone .

The Mel Fisher Center in Sebastian

family

Fisher had four children with his wife. His son Dirk drowned together with his wife Angel and another diver in 1975 on a treasure hunt. After the death of Fisher and his wife Dolores (2009), his son Kim and daughter Taffi continue the treasure hunting company.

criticism

It was only since the 1980s that Fisher had commissioned archaeologist Duncan Matthewson III to document the treasure hunt, who tried to secure historical relics whenever possible. For Fisher, the treasure hunt was always a priority. Critics therefore accuse Fisher and other treasure hunters of only searching the wrecks for valuables and showing little regard for the historical significance of the finds. After the discovery of the Atocha, Fisher led years of lawsuits against the state in order to prevent or at least limit state interference in the work of the treasure hunters. However, Florida has not issued any new salvage licenses since 1984. The treasure hunters also paid little attention to the sensitive marine flora. In 1997, Fisher's treasure hunting firm Salvors Inc. was fined $ 589,311 by federal court for destroying seagrass beds in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary .

literature

  • Kip Wagner; LB Taylor: Millions on the ocean floor. Modern treasure hunt off Florida . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1968

Web links

Commons : Mel Fisher  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Hanauer: Diving pioneers. An oral history of diving in America. Westport, San Diego, 1994. ISBN 0-922769-43-5 , p. 29
  2. ↑ IMDb: Mel Fisher. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .
  3. ^ Mel Fisher Maritime Museum: About Dolores E. Fisher. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 22, 2015 ; Retrieved July 3, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.melfisher.org
  4. ↑ Angus Konstan: Atlas of Sunken Ships. Treasures on the ocean floor . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0360-6 , p. 116
  5. ↑ Angus Konstan: Atlas of Sunken Ships. Treasures on the ocean floor . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0360-6 , p. 112
  6. ↑ Angus Konstan: Atlas of Sunken Ships. Treasures on the ocean floor . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0360-6 , p. 116
  7. ↑ Angus Konstan: Atlas of Sunken Ships. Treasures on the ocean floor . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0360-6 , p. 111
  8. ^ Mel Fisher Maritime Museum. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Mel Fishers Treasure website. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Angus Konstan: Atlas of Sunken Ships. Treasures on the ocean floor . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1999, ISBN 3-8289-0360-6 , p. 117
  11. ^ Archeology Archives: Florida Treasure Hunters Fined. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Fisher, Mel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American treasure hunter and diving pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Hobart
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1998
Place of death Key West