1715 Fleet On July 31, the 1715 Treasure Fleet encountered a hurricane, driving the ships towards the Florida Coast. The ships wrecked close to shore and in deeper water. The only ship to make it was the French ship Grifón. Once the Spanish found out about the Hurricane and what had happened to their Treasure Fleet, they sent a salvage operation. The Spanish salvage of the 1715 treasure fleet lasted several years until 1718. It is believed that they recovered approximately half of the lost treasure. The Modern salvage on the 1715 Fleet began in 1960s, Kip Wagner found a treasure coin on the beach and wanted to know where it came from. He asked some of the locals about the coin and they told him that they washed ashore often after big storms. This would peak his interest and thus began the modern salvage of the 1715 treasure fleet. Eventually he formed the Real Eight Company, the company that salvaged the 1715 treasure fleet.

1733 Fleet On July 13, 1733, the 1733 Treasure Fleet, left Havana harbor. The 1733 Fleet had an estimated 12 million pesos in gold and silver in registered treasure. On these Fleets many people would smuggle other treasure and coinage unregistered, so the lost treasure is often a lot more. Only one ship survived the Hurricane, the rest wrecked on the reefs of the Florida Keys. In the late 1930's, Art McKee, started to find wrecks he heard about through boat captains. Thus began McKee's treasure hunting career. McKee would recover the treasure from the 1733 plate fleet. All the ships from the 1733 fleet were recovered except for two of the ships. Modern day treasure hunting began with Art McKee. Today the 1733 Fleet is part of the National Register of Historic Places.