Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Adventure begins with a dream.
And during Joe Shepherd's adventure, he's found gold, silver and much more.
"I spend time down in Florida, about three, four months out of the year. I've always been interested in treasure and Jesse James and all those types of things when I was younger. And I'm an auctioneer full-time, too. And this (a kit, "Spanish Treasure: How To Find A Fortune In Gold On Florida's Billion-Dollar Treasure Beaches") was actually in a place that we bought the contents out of. This kind of got me going down to Florida. It said where you can go to Florida after a hurricane and pick up gold and silver on the beach. I thought, 'I can do that,'" said Shepherd.
He started doing salvage work on the Capitana of the 1733 Spanish treasure fleet and the El Rubi Segundo, in the Florida Keys.
"It was 21 ships. And 20 of 21 went down. Category one or two hurricane. It kind of scattered things around. It was probably in 20-25 feet of water, off of Key Largo, where we started first. That was back in '96. This will be my seventh year of diving.
"(I had) just got certified. I knew the water was wet, salty and there were things in the ocean. But I hadn't spent much time at all. So my first dive day was a work day. I've never had a day where I just go out and have fun diving. It's always been a work day since 1996."
The first coin he found just happened to be the rarest coin ever made for the New World. It's a screw-pressed 1732 Pillar Dollar.
"I don't know if I made a lot of people happy or not because they look all their lives for that coin and here I am from Cornfield County and I find that coin. But I did get to keep it and it opened up a lot of doors."
Discovery Channel heard about his find and did a piece on him. He's also been featured in Treasure Quest, Swing, Lost Treasure, and White's Treasure magazines and on NewsCenter Channel 16.
"I had goals that I wanted to find - I couldn't find any rare silver coins - so I wanted to find my first gold. And I worked for a boat for two years and managed that boat. My dream was to have my own boat and crew. So we've had our own boat now for two years - it's called the Royal Fifth."
Shepherd worked for Mel Fisher, a famous treasure diver, working a lease he already had. Fisher died several years ago so now Shepherd works with Fisher's daughter, Taffi.
"They've really been good to me. They've opened up the whole museum for study and hundreds and hundreds of hours of research.
"After the 1733 season, I came up to Fort Pierce area on the 1715, where I'm at now. So I only spent one year on the 1733, but from the studies I knew I needed to be on the 1715.
"There were 12 ships coming back loaded with gold and silver in 1715 when they ran into a category five hurricane."
Eleven of the 12 ships went down, scattering the treasure everywhere.
Treasure hunting in the ocean requires a lot of time and work. When the treasure gets scattered, so as that from the 1715, more time and work is required.
The boats designed for treasure hunting are equipped with a blower, called a mailbox.
"It's actually a 90-degree elbow that's 2 feet in diameter that goes around the propeller. It swings down and has a cage around the propeller. We anchor the boat in three spots. We turn the engine on and the propeller moves water down through the elbow and blows a hole in the ocean floor. We only blow up to about 20 feet. Most of this 1715 is close to shore but there are five ships that have never been found and they are absolutely loaded."
The information about the sinkings sat in the archives for hundreds of years until people again began to research the information, translating it from Spanish to English.
"My goal has been to find something - a coin, I found a rare silver - now I wanted to find my first gold, which we did our first year, which was a 1707 Escundo, very rare because it was full dated. That was graded a one-plus-one, very rare."
That was found by a man in his crew. It's worth $6,000.
The next year, Shepherd found a 2 Escundo himself, accomplishing another goal. The coin's worth $3,000-$6,000.
Shepherd said, "My last goal is to find a virgin wreck. That hasn't been found. I can't say much more about that. Let's just say if I could go right now, I'd be gone. The water doesn't get clear until May, last of May, and stays clear until about the last of August. And then hurricanes come in and I usually stay for the first hurricane to see where it's going to hit. I walk the beach.
"People go out and get sun tans and lay on the beach and don't realize that underneath there's millions and millions of dollars in silver."
All of Shepherd's goals have been met, he said, except the last one of finding a virgin ship. He's "very excited" about the last goal, he said. But the excitement does come with dangers.
In recent years, the weather has been more dangerous. And there's been more sharks. There's also the danger of eels and barracuda. Shepherd was hit by lightning.
"It's probably the hardest work I've ever done in my life," he said. "... Lots of blood, sweat and tears. I mean figuratively, not literally."
It would be hard to fit all of Shepherd's adventures into one story. But he has turned his experiences into a program, "Diving for Spanish Treasure." The program is presented to elementary and secondary schools and encourages students to follow their dreams.
Cost for the program is $395 for one presentation, $695 for two back-to-back presentations. At the end of the program, a Spanish coin replica is given away.
He said the children are absolutely spellbound by his tales.
To contact Shepherd about scheduling the program, contact him by calling 267-3443 or e-mail treasure@kconline.com
