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I recently mentioned to someone that I would be leaving for Florida for a few weeks, and they asked just where I would be doing some fishing. I don't do much fishing nowadays; I like to spend my time golfing. But it does illustrate just how important water plays with people who live and visit in Florida. And it has been that way ever since the period Spanish adventurers started using the waterways all around the state. The number of ships which had been for one reason or another became sunk currently lay off the shoreline, and possibly number in the hundreds. The early 1500s prompted the golden period of Spanish discovery within Central and South America. Plenty of gold and silver was found, or taken from the Aztec and Inca people inhabiting these places. These valuable metals were then shipped back to Spain, making the country at that time the wealthiest in the world. Naturally these ships were a target with pirates, thus it had been typical for them to travel in a group having the safeguard of a warship and assemble in Havana, Cuba. After that they'd form large convoys, and beneath the protection of these warships sail back across the Atlantic. The course would be to head north past the Florida Keys, up the eastern Florida coastline before catching the prevailing winds for the voyage back to Spain. The time when the Spanish galleons eventually gathered had been in most cases the summer, which is prime hurricane time in Florida. Despite the fact a great number of ships managed to get back to Spain safe and sound, there were quite a few that had been caught in tropical storms, and they found themselves around the many rocks and shoals in the region. Pirate strikes also took a toll, and often their treasure was buried in some place that has been lost in the remote past. It is thought there might be 30 to 40 Spanish vessels from this point in time that went down around Florida, presumably with the goods still with them. For many years all these treasurers had there been for anybody who found them, but in 1988 President Reagan signed the Abandoned Shipwreck Act. This made these discoveries the public property belonging to the state in whose waters they're in. A private party may apply for a permit to explore historic shipwrecks, but they say the chances of permission being granted are very slim. Obviously there's still plenty of romance to those days of wealth on the high seas, nevertheless the time of making money quick appear to be long gone. Ft. Lauderdale is a vibrant place to be, and it is a part of the exciting Florida east coast. It has some of the finest beaches that you will find in the state of Florida. Jim O'Connell is an avid traveler and writer living in Chicago.
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Florida shipwrecks, Spanish treasure, Florida coastline,
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