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A fleet lost to a hurricane
On July 24, 1715, twelve Spanish ships departed Havana, Cuba, carrying silver, gold coins minted in Lima, Peru, and additional valuables bound for the Spanish crown. A severe hurricane struck the convoy off Florida’s eastern coast a week later, destroying eleven vessels and killing an estimated 1,500 sailors. Only a single accompanying French ship survived. The disaster left centuries of submerged artifacts along the region now known as Florida’s Treasure Coast.
A find that turned into a decade long crime
In 2015, members of the Schmitt family, working as contracted salvors for 1715 Fleet, Queens Jewels, LLC, recovered 101 gold coins off the coast of Vero Beach. The operators officially logged and legally processed 51 coins, but they concealed the remaining 50.
The theft went undiscovered until June 2024, when new evidence prompted a joint FWC and FBI investigation. Investigators linked salvage team member Eric Schmitt to the illicit sale of multiple unreported coins through private transactions between 2023 and 2024.
Investigators also determined that Schmitt planted three of the stolen coins back on the seabed in 2016. He then staged their rediscovery for investors funding Queens Jewels.
Tracking down the missing coins
Law enforcement officers executed search warrants across private residences, safe deposit boxes, and auction houses to locate the missing artifacts. Five stolen coins were seized from a Florida auction house that had unknowingly purchased them from Schmitt. Digital forensics provided key evidence, as metadata and geolocation tags extracted from a photograph taken at a Fort Pierce condominium found Schmitt in possession of the unreported gold.
State prosecutors in Florida’s 9th and 19th Judicial Circuits charged Schmitt with dealing in stolen property.
The FWC confirmed that the 37 recovered coins will return to designated state custodians pursuant to Florida law, though officials have not released a timeline for their transfer. Thirteen coins remain missing. While salvage operations on the 1715 fleet wreckage continue under state oversight, the majority of the fleet’s estimated $400 million cargo is still scattered across the ocean floor.
The post Stolen gold from legendary 1715 shipwreck recovered after million dollar heist appeared first on Futura-Sciences.
