Sea Reaper Finds Gold and Silver!
The Sea Reaper left Key West on Saturday and arrived in Ft. Pierce Sunday morning to perform its first day of work for the 1715 season. By Tuesday, the third day on one of the famed Treasure Coast sites, divers recovered a gold coin and four silver coins
John Brandon, Rob Hill and Dan Porter with gold coin recovered from a 1715 wreck.
The day began with two divers in the water performing methodical metal detector surveys after excavations in a target area off of Ft. Pierce. John Brandon, who had led the Sea Reaper to the target area, was diving with MRR for the day and recovered the first treasure of MRR's 1715 season when he brought up a silver half reale. Then, around 1:00 PM, Dan Porter geared up to get in the water, and on his first dive he surfaced with a gold coin.
Pre-conservation documentation photo of the gold coin.
The excitement of the gold recovery was captured by a French film crew that was being hosted on the Sea Reaper by John Brandon and MRR for the day. Divers continued to methodically and thoroughly work the area through the day, and diver Rob Hill recovered three silver half reales.
MRR's target areas for this year's 1715 season have been carefully selected based on careful site data assessment, and the crew is ready to continue the hunt for more.