Captain Carl “Fizz” Fismer

Spanish naval ships of the 1600s and 1700s transported gold and silver from the New World to Spain, taking on cargo from several ports in the Caribbean before sailing in convoys across the Atlantic.

In 1622, the Tierra Firma fleet, 28 ships in all, left Havana bound for Spain. Eight of the vessels, including the Santa Margarita and the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, sank two days later in a hurricane, along with a fortune in gold, silver, emeralds and pearls. The Spanish tried to recover some of the treasure, but the two ships lay abandoned for more than 350 years. After a 16-year search, Mel Fisher and his treasure hunters discovered them in the 1980s.

More than one billion dollars in treasure has been recovered from these two wrecks.