Mel Fisher Maritime Museum

Visit the only fully accredited museum in the Florida Keys and discover a museum rich in history! We have amazing treasure in our 1622 Fleet exhibit of the Spanish galleons discovered by Mel Fisher and his crew. You can even take a lab tour to see how history is revealed through excavation and conservation of shipwrecks. Make plans to visit. We’re open seven days a week!

Exhibits

In the summer of 1700, the English merchant-slaver Henrietta Marie sank in unknown circumstances thirty-five miles west of Key West, Florida. Shortly before this mishap, she had sold a shipment of 190 captive Africans in Jamaica.

On September 4, 1622 the Tierra Firme flota of twenty-eight ships left Havana bound for Spain. With it was carried the wealth of an empire; Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society and Museum in Key West, Florida Ceramic Jar SiteSilver from Peru and Mexico, gold and emeralds from Colombia, pearls from Venezuela. Each ship carried its crew, soldiers, passengers, and all the necessary materials and provisions for a successful voyage. The following day, the fleet found itself being overtaken by a hurricane as it entered the Florida straits. By the morning of September 6th, eight of these vessels lay broken on the ocean floor, scattered from the Marquesas Keys to the Dry Tortugas. In them were the treasures of the Americas, and the untold stories of scores of Spanish sailors, soldiers, noblemen, and clergy.

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