NATURE'S FURY

The San Agustin

SPANISH TREASURE OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST

Sixteenth-century Spanish traders did a brisk business navigating between two colonial outposts on the Pacific Ocean. In the Philippines, they traded East Asian goods, such as silk and porcelain, and in New Spain (Mexico), they bartered for silver and gold. The San Agustin, a three-masted, 80-foot (24 m) Manila galleon, was one such treasure ship. She holds the distinction of being the oldest known shipwreck off the coast of California.

The San Agustin departed Manila in July 1595. Bound for Acapulco, she carried treasure from her home port in the Philippines. King Philip II of Spain had ordered Captain Sebastian Rodriguez Cermeño to chart the coast of California, in hope of finding a safe harbor. The galleon reached Cape Mendocino, near the Oregon border, and from there she continued south along the foggy coast. Coming around the treacherous waters of Point Reyes in November 1595, the San Agustin put in at Drake's Bay, just north of San Francisco. With the San Agustin safely moored in the bay, Captain Cermeñ±o took most of his crew on shore to explore.

Three weeks after the San Agustin dropped anchor, though, a fierce southeaster blew in, dashing apart the ship and killing two crewmen. The storm left Captain Cermeño and his men stranded on an unfamiliar shore, their 150 tons (136 metric tons) of treasure sunk to the bottom of the Pacific. The wreck of the San Agustin has never been found, but bits of blue Chinese porcelain and other artifacts likely from the lost galleon have washed ashore in Drake's Bay. Archaeologists and federal agencies renewed the active search for the San Agustin in 1997, and she remains a shipwreck ripe for discovery.

TO MEXICO IN A PLANK BOAT

AFTER THE WRECK OF HIS SHIP, Captain Cermeño was faced with a near-mutinous crew of 76 men, stranded on a beach some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from their destination in New Spain. Crew members' letters and journals and the captain's own log document their incredible passage to safety.

Cermeño decided to press on toward Acapulco by any means necessary. During their three weeks ashore, the crew members of the San Agustin had been assembling a small plank boat, called a vicoro, intended for inland exploration. Captain, crew, and one dog piled into the rickety craft and headed south. Navigating out to sea, they would have drifted past the perennially fogbound San Francisco Bay, one of the world's safest natural harbors. Two months later, in January 1596, the vicoro arrived safely in Acapulco. Cermeño had lost the king's ship and a fortune in goods, and he had failed to discover the sought-for safe harbor, but his fortitude had saved his crew.

FLOTSAM & JETSAM

Drake's Bay in California is named for the swashbuckling English privateer Sir Francis Drake (1540 — 95), who roamed the seas plundering Spanish ships.

Nuestra Señora de Atocha

SUNKEN TREASURE IN THE FLORIDA KEYS

Guns and cannons can protect against pirates and buccaneers, but they are no match for a ferocious hurricane. The hundreds who perished on the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha learned this bitter lesson. The Atocha was one of a fleet of 28 ships to leave Havana in 1622, laden with precious metals and other bounty of the New World destined for the coffers of the Spanish crown.

The voyage across the Atlantic to Spain was perilous, but never more so than in the initial stretch. Pirates, who roamed the Caribbean, frequently targeted treasure-laden galleons, so armed escort boats accompanied each fleet. The 112-foot (34 m), three-masted Atocha served her fleet as almiranta, or heavily armed rear guard. Because she was so well protected by firepower — including 20 bronze cannons — she carried a ransom in treasure. Experts believe that the Atocha carried some 24 tons (22 metric tons) of silver bullion, 125 gold bars and coins, and huge measures of copper, tobacco, indigo, and jewels.

On September 4, 1622, the fleet set sail, weeks later than it intended. That night and the following morning, the wind began to rise, and the flotilla made for the calm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The Atocha, along with two other ships in the rear guard, didn't make it. High winds and monstrous waves drove the Santa Margarita, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and the Atocha onto a coral reef near the Dry Tortugas. With 260 souls and tons of treasure aboard, the Atocha, her hull badly damaged, sank in only 55 feet (17 m) of water. Five men who clung to the mizzenmast survived to tell the tale.

FLOTSAM & JETSAM

"Once you have seen the ocean bottom paved with gold, you'll never forget it."

— Mel Fisher (1922 — 98)

THE SALVAGE OF THEATOCHA

Days after the Atocha sank, rescue teams attempted to salvage her sunken treasure. But another hurricane blew in, tearing the standing masts and sterncastle from the hull, and obliterating any trace of her whereabouts. Searchers found her sister ship, the Santa Margarita, in 1626, and salvaged much of her treasure. But the Atocha faded from memory, too far submerged to hope for recovery.

Three centuries later, though, hope drove wreck diver Mel Fisher to search for the Atocha. Fisher and his crew had already helped discover the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet (see pages 18 — 19), and his success now led him to a greater challenge: the Atocha. Most rescue efforts had focused on "the last key of the Matecumbes," the location noted by seventeenth-century records. In 1985, after nearly 16 years of searching, Fisher discovered the Atocha and her sunken treasure near Florida's remote Marquesas Keys. A legal battle ensued, with both the United States government and the State of Florida laying claim to the bounty. Finally, the court ruled in favor of Mel Fisher. Many of the Atocha's treasures are now housed in a museum in Key West, Florida.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

MEL FISHER HAD PERSISTENCE, SKILL, AND DRIVE, but he also had the right tools for the job. He invented a device he called a "mailbox," which sent a stream of clear water down to the ocean floor, enabling treasure hunters to spot their quarry. Fisher also used a proton magnetometer, a highly sensitive form of magnetometer. These devices are commonly used in archaeology; they measure variations in the earth's magnetic field, indicating the presence of ferrous objects, or metals.

The 1715 Treasure Fleet

THE WRECK OF THE WEALTH OF THE INDIES

Spanish treasure ships had been lost before, but none so dramatically, or with the loss of so many men...