| Santa Margarita Shipwreck Treasures Divided! |
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Key West, Florida Keys – “Gold is most excellent,” 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus penned in his sea journal, “of gold there is formed treasure…” He also compared the taste of iguana to chicken. In some ways, life has not changed much in the five centuries that separate his quests from those of modern adventurers. It is still common to compare the taste of almost everything to chicken, and gold is still considered “most excellent.”
Today, subsequent to last week’s formal, legal adjudication by Judge James Lawrence King, long chains and bars of historic shipwreck recovered gold gleamed on a wooden table in a simple office, and along with rare silver coins and a fortune in natural pearls, were formally divided between joint venture partners Motivation, Inc., and Blue Water Ventures Key West. The booty, which totals more than $12 million in value, is the rewards of the 2007 Santa Margarita shipwreck search and recovery season, the most successful recovery season on the site of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha’s sister ship in more than two decades.
It is known from archival records that over 800 ounces of registered gold, 145 silver bars weighing between 80 and 100 pounds each, and close to 60,000 silver coins from the Santa Margarita still await discovery -- and that is just the registered treasure of the Santa Margarita. In keeping with the practices of the day, illegal contraband often exceeded the value of registered legal cargo. The recovery vessel Blue Water Rose and the Blue Water Ventures Key West crew continue to work near the Marqueses Keys in the Florida Straits, in an area where the ship is known to have been destroyed in the violent hurricane of 1622, taking down with her 143 passengers and crew.
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