...............The Wreck of the Capitana
                                              24.63 LT   78.20 LN

 
    Between  1500 and 1800, Spain shipped over 8 billion  dollars 
in   gold  and  silver  bars  and  coins  through   the   Florida 
straits--the  conquered  wealth  of America.   In  May  of  1733, 
General Rodrigo de Torres y Morales sailed from Veracruz,  Mexico 
aboard  his Capitana, Rub! Segundo, with two other  galleons  and 
eighteen  naos (ships identical in construction to  galleons  but 
with fewer guns) and smaller ships.  They were joined in Cuba  by 
a fourth galleon, and on July 13, the New Spain armada sailed out 
of  the  harbor  at Havana bound for Spain by  way  of  the  Gulf 
Stream.
 
    The  following day the winds shifted abruptly to a gale  from 
the east, and sensing danger, Don Rodrigo ordered his captains to 
change  course and return to Cuba.  The order was too  late.   By 
the  next  morning,  the winds increased  to  a  full  hurricane, 
scattering the fleet and leaving many of the ships wrecked  along 
the  Florida keys and the General's Capitana grounded in 18  feet 
of  water off Key Largo.  The crew and passengers  reached  shore 
and walked to Upper Matecumbe Key, where they found water and met 
other survivors.
 
    Some of the ships were refloated and saved; others were swept 
to Cuba and wrecked there.  The remaining sixteen ships were left 
disintegrating along the Keys in the outer reefs in water 8 to 40 
feet  deep.   All  told,  over  sixty-eight  million  dollars  in 
treasure went to the ocean bottom.
 
    The  following  year, the Spanish sent a  salvage  fleet  and 
managed  to recover 12,000,000 pesos in silver money and  ingots, 
but  had to abandon the project after storms  completed  smashing 
the  ships.  About $6,000,000 in cobs and ingots, in addition  to 
unknown quantities of jewelry and religious artifacts, were  left 
scattered over the reefs and sand and buried in the wreckage.
 
In  1948,  Arthur  McKee, Jr., a  professional  deep  sea  diver, 
located  the  remains  of a sunken ship off  the  Florida  reefs.  
Among  the  rubble he found ancient cannons and  ballasts  and  a 
number  of silver coins dated 1732.  The cannons and  cannonballs 
were marked with a Spanish insignia, and after extensive research 
he  received,  through the Archives of the Indies in  Spain,  the 
account of the wreck of the New Spain armada in 1733.
  
    McKee and his crew of divers went to work on the wrecked ship 
searching  for  the remaining treasure.  They found  hundreds  of 
silver  coins called "pieces of eight", gold doubloons,  jewelry, 
Church  artifacts, and three silver bars weighing 60, 70, and  75 
pounds  that made McKee famous and gave him the nickname  "Silver 
Bar"  McKee.   One of the bars is on display at  the  Smithsonian 
Institution surrounded by pieces of eight and other objects  from 
Spanish  wrecks, and soon the accumulation of artifacts  grew  so 
great  that  McKee  and  some  interested  financiers  formed   a 
corporation  called McKee's Museum of Sunken Treasure, Inc.,  and 
built the famous Fortress of Sunken Treasure at Treasure  Harbor, 
Plantation Key.
 
    The state of Florida recognized Art McKee's work by  granting 
him,  in 1952, exclusive salvage rights to all wrecks in a  large 
area  along  the  coast.  But Mckee  wasn't  interested  only  in 
treasure.   Concerned  with  preserving  history,  he   recovered 
pottery and chinaware, glassware, flintlock pistols, muskets  and 
lead  bullets,  copper nails, nautical instruments,  cannons  and 
cannonballs--anything  to give visitors to his museum a feel  for 
era  of the Spanish galleons.  He even recovered some of the  old 
timbers  and  ribs from the Capitana wreck site and  rebuilt  the 
ship on land in the courtyard near the Fortress.
 
    Art  McKee has since passed away, but his contributions  live 
on.   His salvage of the Capitana (also called  McKee's  Galleon) 
ushered  in the age of treasure diving and submarine  archaeology 
in America.
 
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    Choosing this mission will let you relive Art McKee's galleon 
hunts.   Using your ship and the minisub, you can search for  and 
photograph  the  Capitana  in the Florida Keys,  and,  if  you're 
lucky,  find the San Jose and the Infante, other  galleons  which 
sunk in the same area.
