Hunt Begins For Lost 1715 Treasure Ship

Treasure hunters are searching for what they hope might be a ship from a gold-filled fleet that gave the Treasure Coast its name. The four-person crew of a lift boat named the Polly-L are looking for historical artifacts related to a shipwreck possibly from the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet. Officials with the Amelia Island-based Amelia Research and Recovery team first surveyed the shallow waters off Hutchinson Island four years ago for a stack of cannons that a local surfer discovered almost 30 years ago. Polly-LDoug Pope, the president of Amelia Research and Recovery, captained a four-story-high boat down the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Pierce. Two men worked with the state to secure necessary permits to dig out and identify 42 targets they found during a 2005 survey about 200 yards from the beach.