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of 66 days recovered 23 gold coins, a gold disc, 1488 silver coins several gold jewelry items, navigational dividers, a pewter plate, and a lot of pottery shards. The following year the recoveries dropped off to 29 silver coins, a ring, a few artifacts, and probably a lot of bad weather and frustration. Then in 1980 another serious salvage effort was begun when Art Hartman sub-contracted the site from Fisher. He used his 86' vessel Dare, anchored with its prop wash directed at the beach a few feet away, and began blowing the deep 7' sand away. He uncovered clumps of coins, a couple of gold discs and many artifacts. His total find was over 1,500 coins, silver tableware, navigational dividers, a flintlock pistol, cargo hooks, wrecking bar (used by the 1715 salvagers), pieces of firebrick from the ship's galley, and over 150 encrusted objects. The 2 large anchors he salvaged also come from the beach area. Recoveries after that are as follows: 1981 1982 1983 Silver coins 861 1928 514 Gold coins 17 34 2 Copper coins 0 1 3 Gold bars 0 5 0 Gold bar bits 0 10 0 Gold discs 0 1 0 Silver splashes 0 11 0 Silver forks 2 30 1 Silver spoons 2 14 0 Silver cups 1 4 0 Silver handles 1 44 0 Gold rings 0 5 2 Gold buttons 0 3 0 Gold toothpicks 3 1 0 Silver buckles 7 1 0 and many, many artifacts. The author worked the San Roman site in 1984 and recovered over 400 silver pieces of eight, 2 Vanilla bean jars, a pewter bowl, 2 sounding lead weights (used by 1715 salvagers) and a number of porcelain and pottery shards. John Brandon, working nearby on the Endeavor salvage boat, recovered 2 gold discs. John also worked close in on the beach between the State beach markers A and B and recovered an ornately designed sword hilt in the shape of a snake's head, as well as the ornately carved prow of the shipwreck. The San Roman offers the speculator a good return if he doesn't mind the poor visibility on the site. However, there have been days when visibility has been excellent, and on those days the professional salvager surveys the bottom so that he has a mind's eye picture of what the bottom looks like and where the major reefs are located. The author and his wife took that opportunity one day to swim the cannon area, and it was obvious that much of the area still had not been completely worked. Three young lobstermen were flippering along the inside of the first reef only 300' off shore in 7' of water, when one of them kicked the sand off a solid gold communion tray. The State now has this on display in Tallahassee. In 1985 a newcomer to the site, who decided to work the edge of this first reef, was advised by John Brandon to pick up the chalice that went with the communion tray. Within a week the group leader reported he had found 86 gold coins, and he said "I also found that cup you talked about'.' He had indeed found the missing gold chalice! Much of the reef is bare and fairly flat, with a lot of fissures running parallel to the beach. Some of the reef is rugged where salvage efforts have cut into the sand pockets, but the area that has potential treasure stretches 2000 feet seaward and as much as 5000 yards north and south. It will take years for a methodical salvage effort to cover this bottom efficiently. And then, as the San Roman artifacts thin out to the north, the San Martin and Spring of Whitby (1810) wreck-sites are there to be looked over. |
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"Sunken Treasure On Florida Reefs," by Robert "Frogfoot" Weller
For additional information see: "Galleon Hunt," "Shipwrecks Near Wabasso Beach," "Salvaging Spanish Sunken Treasure," "Famous Shipwrecks of the Florida Keys." by Robert "Frogfoot" Weller,
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