Who Owns 1715 Fleet Treasure? — Sebastian, Florida

The short legal answer is the State of Florida. The 1715 Fleet went down along the barrier island south of Sebastian Inlet, and anything from those wrecks lying on state land or the state's sovereignty submerged lands falls under Florida Statutes section 267.061. That section declares it state policy that all treasure trove, artifacts and similar objects of historical or archaeological value abandoned on state-owned lands or state-owned sovereignty submerged lands shall belong to the state with the title thereto vested in the Division of Historical Resources, part of the Florida Department of State.

That rule is why 1715 Fleet salvage off Sebastian, Wabasso and the rest of the Indian River County coast runs on permits rather than finders keeping what they find. The state does not dive the wrecks itself; it licenses private salvors, keeps a share of what they raise, and holds the remaining artifacts to account through a court-supervised division. The sections below lay out the statutes, the administrative rules, the federal overlay, and the separate question of coins that wash up on the sand near Sebastian Inlet.

Chapter 267, the Florida Historical Resources Act, assigns the job to the Division of Historical Resources. Under section 267.031, the division is responsible to protect and administer historical resources abandoned on state-owned lands or on state-owned sovereignty submerged lands, the category that covers the 1715 wreck sites off the Treasure Coast. The same paragraph lets the division issue permits for survey and exploration, for excavation and salvage, and for archaeological excavation for scientific or educational purposes.

One sentence in section 267.031 is written for operations like the 1715 Fleet leases: the division may also issue permits for exploration and salvage of historic shipwreck sites by commercial salvors on state-owned sovereignty submerged lands. The statute then directs the division to adopt rules to administer the transfer of objects recovered by commercial salvors under permit in exchange for recovery services provided to the state. In other words, a salvor working the wrecks south of Sebastian Inlet is paid in artifacts for recovering state property, not granted ownership of the site.

Once objects reach state custody, section 267.115 provides that objects acquired under that section belong to the state, with title vested in the division, and requires an annual inventory each July 1 of objects valued at $1,000 or more. The division may loan, exchange or transfer objects it no longer needs, so 1715 Fleet objects taken into state custody can move between state collections and other institutions under division rules.

The detailed procedures sit in Florida Administrative Code chapter 1A-31, titled Procedures for Conducting Exploration and Salvage of Historic Shipwreck Sites. The chapter includes rules on diving on historic shipwreck sites, types of permit, duration of permit, permit area, project archaeologist qualifications and responsibilities, recovery permit requirements, and a rule titled Transfer of Archaeological Materials, Title to Archaeological Materials Conveyed. Most of those rules carry an effective date of 7/20/2009, so the current framework for the 1715 sites dates from that 2009 revision.

The division of finds is the part most often reported. On October 2, 2025, the Associated Press reported that 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC had announced the recovery of more than 1,000 silver and gold coins, estimated at $1 million, from the 1715 wrecks that summer. The AP described the arrangement: the law requires that roughly 20% of the recovered archaeological materials be retained by the state for research collections or public display, and Florida officials select up to 20% of the items to keep for the public, in a negotiation process that is ultimately approved by a federal court. The remaining artifacts are split among the salvage company and its subcontractors, according to the company.

Permitted salvage on these wrecks is older than the current rules. Smithsonian Magazine reported in 2020 that the first modern salvage expedition to the 1715 fleet took place in 1928, and that between 1932 and 1964 Florida issued more than 50 salvage licenses, including one granted to treasure hunter Kip Wagner, whose team's discoveries were recounted in National Geographic in January 1965.

The beach question turns on where the state's land begins. Article X, Section 11 of the Florida Constitution provides that title to lands under navigable waters, including beaches below mean high water lines, is held by the state, by virtue of its sovereignty, in trust for all the people. Section 267.061 applies to state-owned lands and sovereignty submerged lands, the category the Constitution describes, which is why the mean high water line matters on the Indian River County beaches around Sebastian Inlet.

Reporting on storm finds from the 1715 Fleet, Smithsonian Magazine noted in March 2020 (citing USA Today) that Florida law requires recovery permits for those who hope to explore or recover artifacts on state-owned lands underwater, but that this stipulation does not extend to public beaches. Smithsonian described coins that washed up on the Treasure Coast after a February 2020 storm, when heavy surf moved sand and exposed 1715 material in shallow water by the beach.

Florida has no general program that hands ownership of individual finds to the finder. The only such provision in chapter 267, section 267.115(9), lets the division run a program for finds of isolated historic artifacts from state-owned river bottoms, transferring ownership in exchange for information about the discovery. Beaches and ocean bottom off Sebastian, Wabasso and Vero Beach are not river bottoms, so that program does not reach 1715 Fleet material. The Division of Historical Resources is the agency that interprets these lines.

Section 267.13 sets the penalties for disturbing archaeological sites on land owned or controlled by the state, which includes the sovereignty submerged lands holding the 1715 wrecks off the Treasure Coast. Removing or attempting to remove an archaeological specimen by means other than excavation, without a permit, is a misdemeanor of the first degree, with forfeiture to the state of all specimens collected. Doing the same by means of excavation, except under a permit granted by the division, commits a felony of the third degree, and vehicles or equipment used may be forfeited.

The statute adds a civil route. The division may impose an administrative fine of not more than $500 a day on any person or business organization that, without written permission of the division, explores for, salvages, or excavates treasure trove, artifacts, sunken or abandoned ships or other objects of historical value on state land, including state sovereignty submerged land. Selling or exchanging objects known to have been taken in violation of the act is also a third degree felony. Under section 267.031, all law enforcement agencies are directed to assist the division, which applies along the Indian River County coast as anywhere else in Florida.

Federal law reinforces the state's position. According to the National Park Service, the Abandoned Shipwreck Act (ASA) was signed into law on April 28, 1988, and establishes federal government ownership over most abandoned shipwrecks in the ocean to a distance of three miles from shore. Upon asserting title, the United States transferred it to the government entity that owned the submerged lands, so state governments have title to shipwrecks located on state lands. Nearshore 1715 wreck sites south of Sebastian Inlet that lie within three miles of the beach fall within that band.

Some 1715 sites are managed for public visiting rather than salvage. The National Park Service notes that the remains of the Urca de Lima from the 1715 fleet are protected as a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve, one of the two Spanish treasure fleet wrecks in that program, so the same body of 1715 Fleet material that drives permitted salvage near Sebastian is also preserved in place farther south.

The question of who controls the treasure is as old as the wrecks. The state historical marker at the Survivors' and Salvagers' Camp south of Sebastian Inlet records that while Spanish salvors were recovering the cargo, Henry Jennings, an English pirate, sailed to the site, drove off the guards and seized a large quantity of the recovered coins, though the great majority of the treasure was regained and moved to Havana. The 1715 dispute over title has been settled in law since then, by Spanish salvors working from the camp in 1715 and by Florida and federal statute today.