I don’t know how Mel attracted investors, nor…..
is it relevant. Apples and oranges.
He didn’t purchase sites that had been explored for years or decades like SFRX has and continue to explore such a small area. His search area was over 100 times the size of Melbourne.
He initially began in the Upper Keys and Dr. Lyon came across new information which led them around Key West.
Great research is priceless. It took 16 years to find the Atocha, but not treasure.
In 1980, due in large part to archival research conducted by Dr. Eugene Lyon—today recognized as the foremost authority in the world on the history of the 1622 fleet—a team led by the late Mel Fisher discovered a 23-ft. long portion of the Santa Margarita. About $25 million in treasures and artifacts were recovered. Five years later, and just three miles away, Fisher’s team discovered the lower hull section of the Atocha shipwreck—a $400 million find. Title to both shipwrecks was awarded to the Fisher organization by the Admiralty Jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and by the United States Supreme Court.
Multi-millions in lost riches from these shipwrecks—chests full of silver treasure coins, silver and gold bullion bars, magnificent jewels, cultural artifacts—still remain buried beneath deep sand and mud along the vessel’s paths of destruction, and require specialized tools for search and recovery operations.
What better place to prove the Toy works than diving on the Atocha? It’s still being salvaged you know.
A few trinkets are still there.
Or they can stay at Melbourne. What’s another decade or two as long as you can raise money, right?
