Wendy Tucker was here when we all wish we were, when Key West was still an acquired taste — rugged and unrefined, disheveled and defiant.
As a local news reporter in Key West from 1971 to 1989, Tucker wrote local news that made national history. She shot the last photo of Bum Farto and the first photos of Mel Fisher, when, in 1985, his crew found the $400 million mother lode of treasure from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Tucker, now 80, was on the boat with Fisher the next day — July 21, 1985 — when he went out to the dive site and saw for himself the “reef of silver bars” that he had sought for 16 years. She knew Fisher better than most.
So who better to write his official biography? This month marks the 400th anniversary of the sinking of the Atocha — and the release of Tucker’s long-awaited biography of the legendary treasure hunter whose “Today’s the Day” mantra proved true in 1985.
It’s also the title of the biography: “Today’s the Day! – The Mel Fisher Story” by Wendy Tucker with Mel Fisher.
“Wendy … conducted and transcribed more than 100 hours of interviews with Mel Fisher, now collected in this book and using the late adventurer’s own words. Tucker worked closely with the Fisher family to provide in-depth color to his life and their collective experience,” states a press release about the book, which will be released at three autograph sessions Sept. 3-5.
Tucker “brings to the page the fully realized life story of Mel Fisher,” author Lorian Hemingway writes of the book. “‘Today’s the Day!’ is Mel Fisher’s memoir, in his own straightforward and unfailingly fair and optimistic words. … It is a headlong plunge into a world where the magical and unforeseen are a given. And the quest is not just for any treasure, but for one so immense in its historical value alone, and so seemingly out of reach, that only someone who had truly felt and heard its faint, but still clear, heartbeat across the centuries could heed and honor as his life’s work.”
“Wendy’s gifts as a storyteller make it impossible to put the book down as she gives the reader an unforgettable narrative of the day-to-day salvage operations from the Key West office and out on the sites 40 miles at sea — much of which is described in Mel’s own words. It’s a great read for divers, history buffs and all those who want to know something about the cultural legacy of the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet rescued through the recovery of priceless artifacts from the seabed,” writes R. Duncan Mathewson III, a marine archaeologist and author who worked with Fisher.
Meet-the-author events:
Saturday, Sept. 3: 4 to 9 p.m. at Schooner Wharf Bar
Sunday Sept. 4: noon to 5 p.m. at Marriott Beachside Hotel
Monday, Sept. 5: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Mel Fisher’s Shipwreck Treasures, 613 Duval St.
For more information call Taffi Abt 772-473-6093 or visit melfisherdays.com.
