The Nuestra Señora de Atocha was the almiranta of the fleet departing Havana on Sept. 6, 1622. The almiranta provided flank support to transport fleets laden with New World treasures.
When the convoy’s 28 ships were caught in a hurricane, the Atocha was pushed over the reef and pounded in the shallows about 25 miles southwest of Key West near the Marquesa Keys.
On Oct. 5, a second hurricane formed and scattered what remained of the wrecked galleon armed with 20 bronze cannons. The Atocha was lost to time.
Mel Fisher began his storied search for the ship in 1969. It was a family effort. For 16 years, he woke up and said, “Today’s the day.” On June 20, 1985, Kane Fisher, Mel’s son, announced, “Put away your charts; we’ve found the main pile.”
In the 1980s alone, the crew recovered $450 million in treasure from the shipwreck. The figure did not include the value of artifacts found at the site. The story of the Fishers and the Atocha is not just told but displayed at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West. In all likelihood, it will not be the last great treasure hunting story to surface in the Keys. If rumors and social media teases are any indicator, an excellent candidate might finally be bubbling up from beneath the shallows of the Atlantic Ocean. After all, between today and when the Atocha was discovered in 1985, a treasure hunter or two have combed the waters, hoping today’s the day.
One of those groups is the Bronze Cannon Corporation.
In 1563, a treasure fleet left Havana for Spain. While attempting to navigate the treacherous Straits of Florida, the fleet encountered a hurricane. The capitana, La Concepcion, the galleon escorting the fleet, was commanded by Juan Menendez, the son of the legendary Pedro Menendez, remembered as the man who founded the oldest continually occupied city in North America, Saint Augustine. It was reported lost on Sept. 10 and never seen again.
The disposition of several of the fleet’s ships has been a mystery for more than 450 years. Treasure hunters, archaeologists and historians have searched and debated about what happened to the lost ships. Perhaps for one or two of them, not for much longer.
The story began anew in the 1950s, when Billy Moore, a local commercial fisherman, stepped into Summerland Key’s Captain Eddie’s Fish Basket (now Mangrove Mama’s) after a long day on the water to wash the salty Atlantic out of his mouth with cold beer. Sitting around one of the old wooden tables was the Coast Guard crew stationed at American Shoal Lighthouse.
Moore overheard them talking about a small bronze cannon they had hoisted up to the lighthouse’s maintenance deck. The crew handed the cannon over to their superiors, but not before a local salvage hunter named Ernie Rickman saw the prize. Rickman had been a World War II Navy frogman and part of the rescue team at Pearl Harbor.
After the war, he came to the Keys and made his living working salvage operations and collecting seashells. In the course of his day-to-day work, Rickman learned the locations of dozens of shipwrecks in the Lower Keys. Perhaps because no one knew much about the wrecks scattered along the Florida reef in the 1950s, Rickman paid little attention to the sites beyond showing them to tourists on sightseeing adventures.
He introduced several of the area’s shipwrecks to two young diving enthusiasts, Whitey Keevan and Bill Robinson. Keevan moved to the Keys in the late 1940s and worked as a marine archaeologist; he was the owner of Frank Keevan and Son, a land development company that also served as a government contractor for the Navy bases on Key West and Boca Chica.
Robinson was an avid adventurer and diver who worked on land development and road building projects for Charley Toppino and Sons. In 1963, Keevan and Robinson began searching the Atlantic floor for evidence of shipwrecks, including the Bronze Cannon Wreck near the American Shoal Lighthouse. They formed the Bronze Cannon Corporation. Between 1963 and 1975, their search proved fruitless.
In 1975, Jim Russell told the partners that he and a friend had seen what appeared to be two cannons at American Shoal. He took Whitey and Bill to the site, and though it had been only a few days, the cannons were gone, and all that remained was disturbed Atlantic bottom. However, before Whitey and Bill left, they discovered two additional cannons.
Over the years, other artifacts have been discovered, and the Bronze Cannon Corporation has identified the Bronze Cannon Wreck as what they believe is the Angel Bueno, one of the ships of the 1563 fleet lost in the hurricane. Two bronze cannons thought to have belonged to the Angel Bueno are on display in the Keys, one at the Mel Fisher Museum in Key West and one at Islamorada’s Keys History & Discovery Center.
The Bronze Cannon Corporation has been actively searching for the Angel Bueno for more than five decades. In previous conversations with Paul and Bubba Robinson, Bill’s sons, who took over the search for the lost ship, they said they believe the shipwreck could be worth up to 25 times that of the Atocha. David Shealy, spokesman for the treasure hunting group, has been hinting that “big news” is on the horizon. Meetings are taking place and non-disclosure agreements have been signed.
The Bronze Cannon Corporation and the Robinson family have spent a lifetime searching for the Angel Bueno. Only one of the Robinson boys who have been carrying on their father’s legacy will see their search come to fruition. Sadly, Paul passed away from cancer a few years ago. When today is finally the day, and the shipwreck is announced to the world, Bubba will be celebrating for the entire family.
