Here is an article written by marine archaeologist Rob Westrick that all should read;
Could Heartland Treasure Quest Have Found the Missing 1715 Fleet Concepción? An Alternative Theory
Rob Westrick
The patache Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, San José y San Francisco is one of the missing 1715 shipwrecks awaiting discovery. The Concepción struck the south side of Cape Canaveral and sank. Seven survivors floated on a hatch cover for three days as the currents swept them around the shoals and sand bars of the cape, where they landed on beach and walked to St. Augustine. Treasure hunters have been looking for the Concepcíon for years without success.
Patache, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, San José y San Francisco: 265-tons, armed with thirty-two iron cannons, Master Pablo Soliac, owner Don Antonio Echeverz went to Havana where she loaded 3,000 pesos in gold doubloons, four gold bars valued at 5,703 pesos, 15 serons of cocoa, one chest of vanilla, 15 3/4 tons of brazilwood, 1,440 cured half-hides and a large quantity of tobacco.
Rex Stocker and his company Heartland Treasure Quest discovered an as yet unidentified debris trail or shipwreck site off Cape Canaveral. Stocker a resident of Sebastian, Florida was a former member of the Real Eight Company in the 1960’s. Heartland Treasure Quest (HTQ) had secured an exploration permit from the State of Florida Division of Historical Resources to search for shipwrecks off the cape. They then obtained a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to salvage treasure within about a mile of shore from Cocoa Beach to Melbourne Beach. HTQ formed a partnership and agreed to subcontract the area to Amelia Research Company of Amelia Island; and Florida Research & Recovery, a group of investors primarily from Georgia.
In late August 2004, while exploring the area, the group recovered several artifacts that increased their hopes. Tom Funk, an archaeologist who teaches history at Satellite High School in nearby Satellite Beach, Florida stated to the press: ?Our artifact collection is pretty interesting. We have enough artifacts, I think, to show what period they belong to.? The most diagnostic artifact was a partially intact, silver-handled flintlock pistol dated 1709. It was also marked with the name of a manufacturer from Mexico. The pistol was loaded with two musket balls wired together. Other artifacts included what appears to be a boarding sword, which has a curved blade, a silver dagger or knife handle and two ornate silver Communion or Church platters beautifully inscribed with names of nobles or merchants. The collection also included some cannonballs, pewter plates and many other period artifacts including pottery, bronze and iron spikes, and wood ship pieces all indicate a shipwreck buried over time. According to the company’s Research Design Plan, the shipwreck is located in a deep layer of heavy anaerobic (without oxygen or bacteria) clay, covered with sand with seabed conditions including low visibility, shark infested waters, difficult to salvage, and in cold deep waters.? These conditions should allow very favorable conditions for a high level of preservation potential.
Flintlock pistol dated 1709. (Photo: courtesy Florida Research and Recovery Group)
The area where the artifacts were recovered lies about twenty-seven miles south from the tip of Cape Canaveral, opposite Spessard Holland Beach, off Melbourne Beach, Florida. HTQ is confident that the artifacts could be from the patache, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, San José y San Francisco, one of the missing 1715 fleet shipwrecks. The Concepción struck the south side of Cape Canaveral and sank. Seven survivors floated on a hatch cover for three days as the currents swept them around the shoals and sand bars of the cape, where they landed on beach and walked to St. Augustine. One particularly interesting statement given by a survivor is on deposit in the Archivo General de Indias at Seville, Spain. He testified to a court notary that he floated on a hatch cover for three days within sight of land:
?... Captain Sebastian Mendez, pilot of the ship...he departed from Havana on the 24th day of July in company of the Galleons and the Flota, and he was lost on Wednesday the 31st, at two o'clock in the morning, because of a hurricane that came on from the east-northeast so strongly that although he has sailed the seas for many years and suffered through many tempests he has never seen another like it for violence, and his ship and all the rest were lost, some before and some after Palmar de Ays (Cape Canaveral), at 28 degrees 10 minutes (North Latitude)...in an area nine leagues (27 miles) from north to south...?
Other historical information gathered by Heartland Treasure Quest reveals there were visual sightings reported during the hurricane to the west towards the lower mouth of the Banana River which is at 28° 08 minutes. The Southern Area of the E-155D exploration permit area is situated just south of the lower mouth of the Banana River. Artifacts have been found both to the north and south of this location by beachcombers for many years.
Concepción Update:
On November 10, 2012 I had an interesting and informative phone conversation with salvor
Glenn ?Ace? Ridgely. Ace was diving with Seafarer Exploration Corporation (SFRX), a salvage company led by CEO Kyle Kennedy. According to Ace, Seafarers had been trying to get a salvage permit to work the Juno Beach wreck but kept getting denied by the State of Florida’s Bureau or Archaeological Research. State officials cited the company didn’t display enough ?financial? capabilities to do a responsible job. Ryan Wheeler, the Florida Division of Historical Resources’ archaeological research bureau chief, promised Kennedy they would be granted a permit if he could raise $500,000. Seafarers promptly raised the half million. What happened next is somewhat clouded with confusion. Ace informed me that the State of Florida hadn’t issued a new salvage permit in over twenty years and the emails proved that government officials were using their
positions to essentially prevent citizens from doing what they were legally entitled to do ?salvage shipwrecks? under state law. Heads rolled and one individual was fired, another was demoted and several others in the department were either terminated or transferred to other departments.
Prior to his involvement with Seafarers, Ace had been diving with Florida Research & Recovery. The company was working in conjunction with Heartland Treasure Quest searching for the Concepcíon of the 1715 fleet. They found a cannon outside of Heartland’s exploration contract area. Ace told them they should file for a lease extension to just include the newly discovered cannon, but at the time it was just an old rusty cannon and instead of submitting the necessary paperwork it was easier just to pick up the cannon and drag it a few hundred yards to a new location within their area. Ace felt they were more interested in attracting new investor money. Later they returned to the original cannon location and found something very interesting. An old flintlock pistol and some silver platters. Subsequent cleaning revealed the pistol was dated 1709. The silver platters were stamped with the owners mark. Further research obtained through Dr. Eugene Lyon revealed the owner was a passenger and aboard the Concepción.
Flash forward to the present-day. Kyle Kennedy bought part of the Heartland Treasure Quest group and now owns the Heartland lease area. The Concepción represents one of the biggest undiscovered? shipwrecks in Florida waters. According to Ace, Robert Bendis, who had replaced Wheeler wished the entire mess had not happened and the State of Florida is now working with Kennedy. Ace stated Seafarers should be getting a permit within the next few months to salvage the Concepción.
I asked Ace for some clarification regarding on the pistol and platter. Ace wrote me back stating:
Heartland Treasure Quest found the pistol. I think Steve Reedy’s son Zack found the pistol and platter, I don’t know who else was diving at the time. The pistol was made by a gunsmith sent over to the new world by King Philip V to make presentation pieces of gold and silver he made pistols and swords I don't know his name though, once Rreedy goes public with the platter story you can contact him for all the inside story but not until then. The pistol is unique because of its flint lock down device he is the only person to make that type of lock down, there has only been one other pistol found like it and it was found on the Corrigan's wreck site and I don’t know who found it or when it was found. I’m sure it will be found in Taffy’s (Fisher’s) records of that wreck site, booth pistols are made of silver and are very unique pieces. (500)
Could Heartland Treasure Quest have found the missing Concepción? Is Ace right in his assessment that Seafarer Exploration Corporation could be awarded a permit to salvage the wreck? Or is all this talk merely another pipedream, wishful thinking and people believing what that want to believe and hearing what they want to hear in the quest for sunken treasure? Only time will tell!
References Cited:
?Hunters Scour Sea for Sunken Ships? by Jim Waymer in Florida Today, April 28, 2004 HTQ, Inc. Supplemental ?Attachment C? E-155D, June 3, 2010? by Thomas Funk. Personal Correspondence with Glenn ?Ace? Ridgely
Personal Correspondence with Jim Stringer, Florida Research Recovery Group.
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