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A treasure-hunting crew searching a legendary 17th-century underwater shipwreck off the Florida Keys has recovered a massive 55-pound copper ingot — the latest find along a trail that its captain believes could lead to more treasure.
The ingot was found by divers with Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions at the wreck site of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, about 35 miles west of Key West.
The Spanish treasure galleon was on its return voyage to Spain when it sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622 — carrying silver, gold and emeralds.
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Mel Fisher began searching for the Atocha in 1969. He spent years recovering artifacts from the wreck before his company prevailed in a lengthy legal battle over rights to its treasure in 1982.
Fisher’s team discovered the Atocha’s famed “Mother Lode,” or main cargo deposit, in 1985 — and the site still yields new finds decades later.
Treasure hunters searching the Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck off the Florida Keys recently recovered a 55-pound copper ingot. (Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures)
Photos show the 55-pound copper ingot — or copper bar — heavily coated in marine encrustation after spending over four centuries underwater.
In an August press release, Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Expeditions said the ingot has an estimated value of about $18,000 to $25,000.
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Captain Drake Nicholas was retracing an area from the salvage vessel DARE when his metal detector picked up a faint signal, he told Fox News Digital.
The captain said he was following a “tight trail of coins” at the time.
Captain Drake Nicholas, pictured at right, said he discovered the copper ingot while following a “tight trail of coins” at the Atocha wreck site. (Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures)
“Faint hits are always the most exciting because they lead to, you know, stuff very deep in the mud,” said Nicholas.
“And I got that very faint hit. I dug down like I always do … and it got louder, and that’s, you know, when the excitement really kicks in.”
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Nicholas said he initially mistook the ingot for a cannon due to its rounded shape, large size and bronze-copper coloring.
“I was so excited,” he said.
“I thought it was a cannon, but it ended up being a copper ingot, which was also very exciting.”
“I thought it was a cannon, but it ended up being a copper ingot, which was also very exciting.”
Though the ingot may appear ordinary to the untrained eye, Nicholas said copper was a “very precious” resource in the 1600s — especially for making the bronze cannons that the Spanish Empire relied on.
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“I believe that only certain people could actually own copper because it was making such strong cannons,” he said.
“It wasn’t something [that] an everyday guy could have a stockpile of — it was more for the king and queen to make cannons.”
The recovered copper ingot was heavily coated in marine encrustation after spending centuries beneath the waters off the Florida Keys. (Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures)
To make the ingots, metalworkers “would basically dig a hole in the sand and just pour copper into it,” he said.
“It would make this copper ingot or a copper bar,” added Nicholas.
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“They were very crude, not many markings on them, a lot of impurities in them, but it was copper being sent over to Spain for bronze cannons.”
The recent discoveries have given Nicholas reason to believe the crew may be closing in on a larger concentration of treasure.
Copper, seen above, was a “very precious” resource in the 1600s and was used to make bronze cannons, according to treasure hunters and underwater explorers. (Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures)
“The size of what we’ve been finding lately is … leading us to what I believe is the rest of the treasure,” Nicholas said.
Part of that confidence comes from new technology that Nicholas said allows the crew to detect targets deeper beneath the dense mud covering the site.
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“We’ve never really [gotten] to penetrate that mud with a metal detector to get down and find, you know, the rest of the silver bars, copper ingots and coins,” he said.
“Right now I have 19 targets that are very interesting, very high-value targets that I’m going out after next,” added Nicholas.
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“And it’s a lot of digging through that mud and getting down to that level. But once I’m there, I’m very, very confident and excited — we’re just very excited to see where this is leading.”
New technology allows the treasure-hunting crew to search deeper beneath the dense mud covering the historic Atocha wreck site. (Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures)
The latest discovery follows another recent find from the Atocha shipwreck.
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Earlier this summer, Nicholas and his team found a 22.5-pound silver bar at the site, which remained remarkably intact despite heavy marine growth.