Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum in Key West Travel Blog
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
I was down in Key West when I saw this cool looking Maritime Museum. I was on vacation with my family, and we were looking for something educational to do.
The entrance of the Museum alone provides a few interesting things to look at. The willow trees are impressive. There is also a chicken family hiding inside one of the bushes.
You can hear the sound of the little chicks chirping. It is really cute. I took a photograph of the current admission costs.
You can pay with a credit card, which is ideal for people who live off points. Outside the museum, there was a display of a makeshift boat that Cubans used to make it to the US.
A lot of Cubans drown on their 80-mile trip to the US. I am surprised that it made it to shore. I ranted enough about that makeshift boat.
Just look at all the holes it has.
The other exterior item on display is a stone with this quote “Today’s the Day”. This was the personal motto of Mel Fisher. Fisher was a chicken farmer.
Together with his family he went treasure Hunting in the Florida Keys. It took him decades to find the Nuestra Senora de Antocha treasure.
The cargo he recovered was worth 450 million bucks. Part of this treasure is on display in this Museum. He also found other shipwrecks in South Florida.
Even till this day, the Museum is still analyzing artifacts that are recovered in the Florida coast. This brings me back to the actual Museum and the items that were on display today.
The museum opens to a room that has a documentary running.
It tells you everything you need to know of how Mel Fisher found his treasure.
The first items I saw where the cannons, gold coins and plates.
They were all made of real gold. The gold necklace on display had most of the gemstones removed.
They were probably swept away by the ocean tides. You can tell that it is quality gold, because it still looks brand new.
I took a photo of some silver bars on display. All of them were marked by the Spaniards.
Another cool item on display was a golden cross, decorated with emeralds.
On the opposite side of the cross, it features an unknown saint.
The archeologist think might be Saint Anthony of Pauda.
Another display that I liked was the one that featured the rapiers.
It is fun to admire the small hands that wielded those deadly weapons.
Spaniards back then must have been really small.
You can’t tell because of the photograph, but the handle of the swords is actually quite short.
From the swords, you can admire the barrels of muskets. Only the barrels survived because they were made of iron.
Wood tends to corrode really fast underwater. We saw a few anchors, swords and canons.
On the second floor, there was a museum exhibit of the 1950s. It focused on the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
If featured articles, and photographs taken at the time.
We didn’t linger too much in this exhibit because it reminded us of modern problems.
The last thing we want to think about is the ends of days.
All in all, it was an amusing and educational exhibit.
The price was fair for all the stuff we saw in the Museum.
The Museum has an elevator, and it had handicap accessible staircases.
So, if you are down in the Florida Keys, do visit Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum.
This is Teresita Blanco, the Artsy Sister. Bye, bye and God bless.
