A legendary shipwreck in the Florida Keys has produced another rare treasure, nearly 400 years after a hurricane sent it to the ocean floor.
WPLG Local 10 reporter Janine Stanwood was aboard the DARE in Stock Island when treasure hunters brought a 22-pound silver bar back to shore, a discovery tied to the famed Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck. Stanwood reported that the find was the first silver bar from the wreck to come ashore in nearly 30 years.
“This is a solid silver bar,” Stanwood said during the report, standing near the vessel that had spent about two weeks offshore before the discovery.
The bar was recovered by a crew with Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions, the group still searching the waters off the Florida Keys for pieces of one of the most famous treasure wrecks in history.
A Last Dive Turns Into A Major Discovery
Lead diver Blake Baker told Stanwood the find came at the end of the day, when the crew was nearly finished.
“It was our last dive of the day,” Baker said. “Actually, it was almost 7 o’clock.”
Captain Drake Nicholas, who was working with the crew aboard the DARE, said the team had been searching an area with several metal detector hits. This particular target stood out because it appeared to be deeper than the others.
“We were in an area we had a lot of metal detector hits,” Nicholas told Stanwood. “This one was deeper.”
Nicholas said he went down, struck something solid with a knife, and then saw markings that suggested the object was not just another random piece of metal.
“All I saw was this right here,” Nicholas said, pointing to the markings. “And I saw this little scoop, and I didn’t believe it in the moment.”
Baker said one of the divers came up and asked for the camera, which immediately told the crew that something important had been found.
That small detail says a lot. In treasure hunting, not every signal becomes history. Most do not. But when a diver wants the camera before saying much else, the people on the boat know the day may have just changed.
A Bar Covered In Four Centuries Of Ocean Life
The recovered bar weighs 22 pounds, but Stanwood noted that it looks even heavier once a person sees it up close.
The silver was still covered in roughly 400 years of marine encrustation, crusted over by the ocean life that had grown around it since the Atocha sank in 1622.
“This is heavier than it looks,” Stanwood said while showing the bar.
The markings on the bar are expected to help confirm its history and origin. Stanwood reported that some of the marks may show signs connected to royalty, while the small scoop in the silver was likely made centuries ago to test the purity of the bar.
That detail is one of the most fascinating parts of the discovery. The scoop is not damage from the wreck or the sea. It is a mark left by people in the 1600s, part of a system used to verify that the silver was what it claimed to be.
In other words, the bar is not only valuable because of the metal. It is valuable because it still carries human fingerprints from the age of Spanish treasure fleets.
The Atocha’s Long-Lost Treasure
Stanwood explained that the Atocha was packed with treasure and bound for Spain when it sank in a powerful hurricane between Key West and the Dry Tortugas in 1622.
For centuries, the ship and its cargo were lost.
Then, more than 300 years later, explorer Mel Fisher and his crew began finding pieces of the wreck’s treasure. The Atocha became one of the best-known shipwreck discoveries in the world, and the Fisher name became tied to the long, difficult search for gold, silver, emeralds, and artifacts from the Spanish galleon.
Nicholas told Stanwood it was an honor to still be part of that legacy in 2026.
“It’s an honor to be able to be on the front lines for Mel Fisher, still pulling up treasure,” he said.
There is something rare about a discovery like this because it connects two eras at once. It belongs to the 1600s, when it was loaded for a voyage across the Atlantic, but it also belongs to the modern divers who still spend days searching the seafloor for pieces of that lost story.
The Lucky Shirt And The Moment It Hit
Stanwood also noted one lighter detail from the recovery: Nicholas was diving in a Hawaiian shirt.
She said she wondered whether it was real when she saw him wearing it, but Nicholas told her the shirt is his good luck charm.
“And I thought, ‘Is this real? Is he really diving in a Hawaiian shirt?’” Stanwood said.
The answer was yes.
For a crew that searches for treasure in an ocean full of false alarms, little traditions like that make sense. A lucky shirt may not pull silver from the sand, but after a 22-pound bar comes up, no one is likely to tell the captain to stop wearing it.
Nicholas was already ready to return to the water, Stanwood reported, hoping the find may point the crew toward more pieces of the Atocha’s scattered cargo.
That is the nature of this work. One discovery can be a prize on its own, but it can also be a clue. A silver bar found in one patch of seabed may help divers understand where other material settled after the wreck broke apart.
What Happens To The Silver Bar Next
Stanwood reported that the bar will be taken to a lab so experts can remove the marine growth and examine it more closely.
Sean Browne with Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions said the bar is worth an estimated $100,000, while Stanwood reported on air that its value may fall between $150,000 and $200,000.
Either way, the bar is expected to be kept intact as a historical object.
That matters because a find like this is more than a chunk of silver. Cleaning it carefully can reveal markings, stamps, purity testing marks, and other details that help connect it to the Spanish treasure system and the Atocha’s cargo.
Browne also explained that discovered treasures are divided among investors and then the Fisher family, according to Stanwood’s report.
For most people watching from land, that part may be less romantic than the image of divers finding silver under the sea. But treasure recovery is expensive work, and long searches depend on investors, crews, vessels, permits, equipment, and years of patience.
A Rare Find From A Wreck That Still Gives Up Secrets
The discovery is striking because the Atocha has been searched for decades, yet the ocean is still giving up pieces of it.
Stanwood described the recovery as history, and that is exactly what it is. A silver bar lost in the 1600s, buried under generations of marine life, came back to the surface because one team kept searching and one metal detector hit sounded different enough to investigate.
The find also shows why the Atocha continues to capture attention. The wreck is not just a story from a museum plaque. It is still out there, scattered across the seafloor between Key West and the Dry Tortugas, waiting in pieces.
For Baker, Nicholas, and the Mel Fisher crew, the 22-pound bar was the kind of find that makes years of searching feel worth it.
For everyone else, it is a reminder that history is not always locked away in archives or books. Sometimes it is sitting under sand, coral, and ocean growth, waiting for a diver with a knife, a metal detector, and just enough luck to recognize what no one had seen in nearly three decades.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
