The Schmitt family from Sanford, Florida is known to go diving for treasures off of the coast of Fort Pierce. On Labor Day weekend, the owners of the Booty Salvage, a professional treasure hunting company, were just 1000 feet from the coast on their boat called “Aarrr Booty” when their metal detector went off and boat captain Eric Schmitt spotted something yellow and shiny just about 15 feet below the ocean floor in a hole blasted from an air jet on the ship. Initially, he assumed it would be a tin can as it usually ends up to be, but upon inspection, a gold coin, about the size of a dime popped out, and then the other 3 coins, 8 gold chains and a gold ring were spotted right afterwards.
According to appraisers, their treasure may be worth up to $300,000 and is thought to have come from a Spanish ship that sank in the year 1715 when a hurricane took out 11 Spanish ships and caused wreckage all along the coast. The Schmitt family is a family of subcontractors, but Brent Bisben is the owner of the 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels and holds the rights to dive in that area. He calls the artifacts “astonishing” as they are the first people to hold these items that are over 300 years old. The items seem to be in great condition and have been well preserved in their previous home under the sea. Gold does not corrode because it is a pure mineral.
The Schmitts or Bisben do not get to keep the whole treasure, unfortunately, up to 20 percent of the haul goes to the state of Florida and the rest will be split evenly between the Schmitts and Bisben’s company. The treasure hunters don’t plan on selling their portion of the treasure. They insist that they do what they do for the love of the ocean and for the love of history and the hunt. Eric Schmitt believed that eventually through all the times of finding junk and trash below the water’s surface, that he would eventually find something so special. Bisben believes that based on his ship manifests, there are most likely more items like these to be found on the floor of the ocean. He believes that there could be as much as $400 million in hidden treasures down below, and only a quarter of those artifacts have been found and accounted for.
The biggest discovery for the Schmitts in previous dives was a silver plate from Spain, priced between $30,000 and $40,000. Bisben claims that he has previously found statues, coins, musket balls, pottery and other artifacts from the ships. He says that last month, 51 gold coins worth $250,000 were brought up from the bottom of the ocean. He employs a total of 15 different subcontracting companies in addition to Booty Salvage. The process involves machines called mailboxes that hang from the boat and send air jets to the bottom of the ocean to dig holes in the floor.
The Schmitts claim that this is no longer a hobby for them, but has become a lifestyle. They claim that the pirate’s life might just indeed be for them.
