Treasured History
LIVING HISTORY
PIECES OF
HISTORY
17
Vero Beach’s Eugene Lyon
has focused much of his
scholarly research on the
Spanish treasure wrecks
off Florida
BY JANIE GOULD
Here’s a work in progress for you. It’s been close
to three centuries since a fleet of treasure-laden
Spanish galleons sank off the east coast of
Florida, and divers are still seeking more of its
riches. And Dr. Eugene Lyon, a historian whose
research helped famed treasure salvor Mel Fisher find the
site of another wrecked Spanish galleon, says work on the
1715 fleet is likely to go on for years.
Except for one ship that was blown off course and ended
up in France, the 1715 fleet of 11 ships went down in a hurricane.
Amazingly, some of the crew made it to shore in present
day Indian River County and trudged north on the beach
to the Spanish settlement at St. Augustine. Other survivors
got word to people in Havana and the race was on to recover
the sunken gold and silver. Cuban authorities sent troops,
supplies and equipment to salvage the ships, Lyon said.
Since the ships had foundered in shallow water close to the
coast, the job was easier than deep-water salvage would
have been.
“Havana people got there first with the most and they beat
out St. Augustine, which had hoped to get rich from it,”
Lyon said.
Those early treasure salvagers recovered some but hardly
all of the treasure from those doomed ships. For the next two
centuries, the ships were mostly forgotten as Spain paled in
Historian Eugene Lyon’s
research originally
focused on the founder
of St. Augustine, Pedro
Menendez de Aviles. But
through a friendship
with treasure salvor Mel
Fisher he later
researched and helped
locate the treasure-laden
Atocha wreck off the
>> Florida Keys.