In this weeks episode of KeysDiveGuide, visit the last two shipwrecks of the 1733 Fleet that have intact ballast mounds. Skip over to Long Key Channel and relocate LAS ANGUSTIAS, a 326 ton merchant Nao that carried bouillon, specie, worked silver, Chinese porcelain and a trove of organic cargo from the New World. Nicknamed EL CHARANGUERO GRANDE (Large Coastal Trader), Shes situated in 9 of murky water, 800 yards seaward from the Long Key Viaduct (bridge) near the middle of Long Key Channel. Learn how to use shore bearings to put yourself right on top of the wreck with the same accuracy as using GPS Coordinates!This is a huge ballast mound that must be visited at high tide to avoid the dangerous tidal currents that sometimes rip over the wreck at 3 knots, causing this site to be a difficult, potentially dangerous dive. Then, blast about 2 miles to the WSW to visit EL SUECO DE ARIZON, a smallish merchant Nao displacing 200 tons, hard aground in 9 of water, about one mile east of Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key. EL SUECO carried 4 and 8 Reales coins dated from 1720 to 1733 and a few of the newly minted Pillar Dollars, the first coins made in a screw press in the New World. Her stern separated from the rest of the ship, scattering treasure for miles out to the Channel Keys in the Gulf of Mexico!
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 12:49:42 +0000
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