Every summer Spanish ships carrying their treasure met in Cuba. In 1715 a storm sank that year's fleet on the shoals between Sebastian and Fort Pierce. Most of the crew survived but the cargo lay on the floor of the ocean. Shortly thereafter, salvagers arrived to try to retrieve the treasure from the ocean floor. Less than half the material originally on the ships was salvaged. In 1928 a wreck from the 1715 fleet was discovered off Fort Pierce. In the mid-1950's a hurricane completely changed the face of the shore. Kip Wagner discovered another spot in Sebastian where the treasure appeared. Mel Fisher also dove to look for the treasure and petitioned the Florida government and owns that part of the ocean to look for the treasure.
Even today people are finding treasure along the coast near this museum, which enticed Jim to buy a metal detector. However, we never did get to the coast to search for any treasure. Next time we are in Sebastian, we will make an effort to get to the coast to search for some treasure.
The large anchor is from a 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet Galleon, and is one of several steam anchors normally carried on a Spanish Galleon. The stream anchor was the second largest anchor on a Spanish Galleon. On close inspection, you will notice that this anchor is made up of many small bars of wrought iron which were hammered and forged together.
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| Twelve Pounder Cannon |
This cannon was found one-half mile offshore from the museum at a 1715 Spanish shipwreck. It is a muzzle-loading, smooth-bore weapon that was typical of the period and capable of firing a variety of projectiles. In fact, it was found to be still loaded with both a cannonball and a barshot.
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