Sherry Culpepper is one of 600 to split $100 million booty from ship

17 Oct 1986
Atlanta Journal; Page A/06

Key West, FL - Sherry Culpepper said she never dreamed she would someday own part of the 350-year-old treasure she has been showing tourists who come to the gift shop at Mel Fisher's Treasure Salvors Inc.

"This is incredible, a dream come true," she said. "After all this time working for peanuts, I just can't believe I'm taking some of this home."

Ms. Culpepper was one of 600 investors and employees who got a share Thursday of the $100 million booty from a 17th-century Spanish galleon for which Fisher had searched 16 years.

"They are going to get a return beyond their wildest dream," said Bleth McHaley, vice president of Treasure Salvors. She estimated the average return at 20-to-1.

The ancient treasure was totaled and distributed via a new-fangled method - computer.

The computer on Thursday completed 2 1/2 days of calculations and displayed the message, "Division Complete, Congratulations Treasure Salvors," said Ms. McHaley.

As soon as the computer stopped printing and flashed its message, she said, "about 25 or 30 champagne corks popped... people moved out of the computer room, and they just went bananas."

Many of the investors began splitting up the bounty in a warehouse at the company's Key West headquarters.

"Oh my God, I'm rich," Ms. Culpepper screamed, then began hugging friends, co-workers and reporters. Her share included three silver bars weighing a total of almost 250 pounds, a 6-carat emerald and a rare coin.

"I bought a dream, and I always knew it was there. It's a dream come true," exclaimed Leah Miguel, a curator with Treasure Salvors, who received a gold bar and two emeralds.

The division of gold, silver, emeralds and artifacts to investors was another milestone for Fisher, who overcame legal and financial troubles and personal tragedy during his hunt for the treasure of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. His divers found the wreck in 1985.

A spokeswoman said Fisher, who got 4 percent, or about $4 million, of the haul, was out of town.

Not all of the investors were happy. Some have been waiting more than 20 year s for their investment to pay off.

Bernice Feild, of Del Mar, Calif., was skeptical because she remembers other divisions of booty that yielded her very little.

"We've gotten practically nothing," she said in a phone interview from her home Thursday. "I got my stock in 1964, and we've gotten almost nothing over that time."

The Atocha left Havana on Sept. 5, 1622, as part of a fleet of 27 ships bound for Spain with treasure from the New World.

Less than a day out of port, a hurricane hit ships in the Florida Straits, sinking the Atocha and seven other vessels.

Fisher fought a long legal battle with the state of Florida over who had the rights to salvaged booty. He's also fought other salvors and solicited investors for cash for the research.

In 1975, his son and daughter-in-law died while looking for the Atocha.

Mel Fisher, Fabled Treasure Hunter, Dies At 76

'Mel was my hero,' said treasure seller Sherry Culpepper

By Ben Iannotta
12 Feb 1999

KEY WEST, Fla. (Reuters) - Treasure hunter Mel Fisher, a one-time chicken farmer whose discovery of sunken Spanish galleons made him a millionaire, died Saturday, a spokesman said Sunday. He was 76.

The spokesman, Pat Clyne, said Fisher died of bladder cancer at his home in Key West at the southern tip of Florida.

Pat Clyne said Fisher's ashes would be scattered over the waters near Key West where he made his greatest treasure find. Admirers gathered Sunday at his Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum, a business he built into a leading tourist attraction.

'What Mel lived on was that American dream and being able to actually fulfill it. He let nothing stand in his way,' Clyne said at Fisher's treasure shop at the museum in old tow n Key West.

Fisher was a former California chicken farmer and dive shop owner who came to the Florida Keys in the early 1960s in search of Spanish treasures.

Fisher's greatest triumph came in 1985 when his son, Kane, discovered the wreck of Nuestra Senora de Atocha. The Spanish galleon sank in September 1622 off the Marquesas, small islands west of Key West.

'Throw away the charts,' Kane reportedly said over the marine radio, indicating that the mother lode had been found.

The find contained an estimated $400 million worth of gold and silver bars, coins and emeralds. Fisher instantly became a legend in Key West and around the world.

Riches from the Atocha and other Fisher discoveries are now sold from Key West to Asia.

Yet Fisher's treasure hunting did not come without a high price. In 1975, his son, Dirk, drowned inside a treasure hunting ship just days after discovering the first signs of the Atocha wreck. It would take the Fisher clan another decade to find the 'mother lode' of gold and silver in the Atocha cargo.

The elder Fisher also spent a substantial amount of time in court, fending off efforts by the state and federal governments to 'take his treasure,' as he often put it.

In 1997, the federal government sued Fisher for damaging sea grasses in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and won a $600,000 judgement that was being appealed at the time of the death.

Last month, Fisher's company pleaded no contest to charges it sold fraudulent Spanish coins at its Key West shop. The company agreed to pay nearly $70,000 to 12 victims and maintain a $50,000 restitution account for three years.

However, Fisher's company said in court papers that it was deceived by the supplier of the coins.

Even in his later years, Fisher was a fixture in Key West. He could often be found in the evening talking with friends at a favorite dockside bar wearing a trademark gold doubloon around his neck. His supporters and admirers were undaunted by the controv ersies.

'Mel was my hero,' said treasure seller Sherry Culpepper, who met Fisher 27 years ago while on spring break in Key West.

'He gave kids the belief that it was okay to have a dream,' said long-time associate Geoff Chapman.

Fisher was born in Hobart, Indiana, in 1922. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Dolores, known as Deo; his sons Kane, Kim and Terry; and his daughter, Taffi.

Culpepper Ancestry: Sherry Culpepper is the wife of Frederick Eugene Culpepper,  son of John William Culpepper, son of Marion Arthur Culpepper (1896-1956, AR), son of Edward Brown Culpepper (1856-1925, MS/AR), son of Civil War soldier John Abb Culpepper (1824-1863, MS, died at Battle of Vicksburg), son of John William Culpepper (1791-1860, GA/MS), son of John Culpepper Jr. (1766-1837, NC/GA/MS son of John Culpepper (1703-1808, NC/GA, son of Joseph Culpepper (1698-1745, VA/NC, son of Robert Culpepper (1664-1742, VA).