The Santa Margarita was a Spanish ship that sank in a hurricane in the Florida Keys about 40 miles (64 km) west of the island of Key West in 1622.
Santa Margarita was a Spanish galleon of 600 tons, armed with twenty-five cannon. In 1622, as one of a fleet of 28 ships, she was voyaging to Spain with an enormous cargo of plundered New World treasures. In registered wealth, the Santa Margarita carried 166,574 silver “pieces of eight” treasure coins, more than 550 ingots of silver weighing some 10,000 pounds, and over 9,000 ounces of gold in the form of bars, discs and bits. Additionally, there was contraband — a fortune in “unregistered” treasure had been smuggled on board to avoid paying a 20 percent tax to the Spanish king. The Santa Margarita also carried riches in the form of copper, silverware, indigo, and personal possessions of officers, passengers, and crew, including medical tools, navigational instruments, gold coins, and precious jewelry.
Spain and her creditors awaited the arrival of the fleet anxiously; as its return would refresh the royal coffers, repay loans, and lessen the financial pressures that plagued the kingdom. But when news of the fleet arrived, it wasn't good. Subsequent to departing the island of Cuba on September 4, the fleet was overtaken by a rapidly developing storm. Within days, the Santa Margarita, along with five other ships in the fleet, were wrecked near the Marquesas Keys in the Florida Straits. Drowned were 550 passengers and crew, 142 from the Santa Margarita. Lost was a king's ransom in treasure, a serious setback for Spain, whose colonial power in the world was upheld by the wealth of the Indies. Margarita in Greek means pearl, and the first attempt to find and salvage the Santa Margarita and other fleet casualties was undertaken almost immediately by the Spanish mariner Captain Gaspar de Vargas, who, knowing of their skills, sent for pearl divers — from the island of Margarita — to aid in the search.
Then, in 1624, Havana politician Francisco Melian obtained a royal salvage contract for the fleet galleons. This inventive risk-taker manufactured a remarkable piece of equipment that allowed his divers to see and breathe while working underwater. It was a diving bell, and it was this invention that allowed an enslaved diver to locate the first treasure of the Santa Margarita and win his freedom.
Melian continued, with some success, to salvage treasure from the galleon for several years, though his efforts were frequently interrupted by weather and Dutch sea forces. Eventually, however, search and recovery became unfeasible, and ended, and a vast fortune was left buried in the deep shifting sands of the Florida Straits. In time, the Santa Margarita was forgotten, but not forever. Records of Melian's salvage efforts survived; in fragile worm chewed papers in Spain's archives.
Through extensive research conducted by historian Dr. Eugene Lyon on behalf of treasure hunter Mel Fisher and his company Treasure Salvors, a portion of the wreck of the Santa Margarita was discovered in 1980. Blue Water Ventures, a search and salvage company, reached out to Fisher to suggest a partnership in finding the artifacts of the wreck.
With a partnership agreed upon, Webb began to recruit a world-class lineup of professionals that today includes historian Lyon; archaeologist/conservator James Sinclair; and as Operations Manager, second-generation search and recovery specialist Dan Porter. Captain Porter and Gary Randolph, Blue Water's Chief Technical Advisor and MFT Vice President of Operations, immediately began digitizing old charts and coalescing the past with the present.
This aligning of knowledge, experience and skill, backed by resources, technology, and the requisite touch of luck has resulted in the most successful series of discoveries on the site in more than 20 years. The value of the treasure recovered from the Santa Margarita by the Blue Water Ventures team has well exceeded $16 million to date. The search and recovery is funded by investors who share in the discoveries, receiving their portions each year following a formal legal adjudication and division procedure.
The Santa Margarita broke apart and was scattered in a series of storms. Over time the wood disintegrated and the ship's remains and cargo became buried in deep sand and mud. By mapping and recording all finds, the team was able to identify scatter patterns, which eventually serve as pointers to substantial deposits. Working further north than previous searches, the crew of the company's primary search vessel, Blue Water Rose, made discoveries of elaborate gold artifacts, chains and jewelry, gold bars, rare silver coins, a gold and rock crystal religious reliquary, a solid gold combination toothpick/earwax removal spoon, a solid gold chalice, and one of Santa Margarita's most serendipitous hidden treasures: a lead box containing 16,184 rare and valuable natural pearls, not listed on the ship's manifest-now believed to have originated from the pearl island of Margarita. Artifacts from the ship are currently on display at the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum in Key West.[1]