1715 Fleet Wreck Sites Near Sebastian — Sebastian, Florida

The wreck sites closest to Sebastian are the northern end of a debris field that runs south past Vero Beach to Fort Pierce. Salvors name most of them after shore landmarks, such as a golf course or a former landowner, and several identifications with specific ships remain debated. Off the barrier island south of Sebastian Inlet, in Indian River County, lie the Cabin Wreck, the Cannon Wreck about 2.3 miles to its south, and Corrigan's Beach wreck about 6 miles south of the inlet. Farther south are the Rio Mar wreck off Vero Beach and, in St. Lucie County, the Douglass Beach and Wedge Wreck sites near Fort Pierce Inlet.

The pattern follows the storm. According to NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, three ships of the 1715 fleet were sunk in deep water, and the other eight were driven onto the Florida coast from present-day Fort Pierce to Wabasso, north of Vero Beach, where they wrecked upon rocks and reefs. The Florida Department of State summarized the same loss in March 2026: along what is now the coastline of Indian River and St. Lucie counties, eleven ships sank carrying cargo from Spain's American colonies.

The shore camp is the fixed point from which the offshore sites are measured. A Florida historical marker erected in 1974 south of Sebastian Inlet, recorded by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, states that about 1,500 men, women and children who survived the disaster made their camp along the barrier island near the place where the fleet's flagship had sunk. The same marker records that salvagers used the campsite while recovering cargo, and that the English pirate Henry Jennings drove off the guards and carried away a large quantity of recovered coins to Jamaica.

Florida State Parks identifies the flagship as the Capitana of Captain General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, which guarded a cargo of more than 3.5 million pesos in treasure, and states that the location of the camp is now the site of the McLarty Treasure Museum in Sebastian Inlet State Park. The 1715 Fleet Society links both the Cabin Wreck and Corrigan's Beach wreck, the two sites nearest the camp, to Ubilla's capitana and almiranta, though scholars disagree on which is which.

The Cabin Wreck is the 1715 site most closely tied to Sebastian. The 1715 Fleet Society places it south of Sebastian Inlet and notes that it is the only wreck where large copper plates were found; one plate weighs 64 pounds. A former owner of the beachfront there described it as lying about 200 feet off shore, an easy swim from the beach, in a Society history. Its identity is unsettled: the Society reports that it is thought to be either the Santo Cristo de San Roman or the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, as some scholars are divided on this issue.

The Cabin Wreck launched the modern salvage era. In January 1961 the Real Eight group recovered its first major silver there, in three fathoms, about 18 feet, of water, including clumps of fused coins. On July 24, 1965, Real Eight divers found a nearly intact treasure chest at the Cabin Wreck site near Sebastian, the first of its kind found on any 1715 Fleet wreck site, and a second chest came up nearby in June 1967, according to the 1715 Fleet Society. The site continues to yield finds: a Sebastian-based salvage crew reported to the Society that silver coins recovered on July 18, 2019 came from about 1000 feet offshore in 9 feet of water under 7 feet of overburden.

South of the Cabin Wreck, the Cannon Wreck lies about 2.3 miles south of the Cabin Wreck. The 1715 Fleet Society glossary records that it was named for cannons found there in 1991, and that in August 1992 a salvage crew found 39 gold coins dated 1697 to 1714 at the site, coins clearly from one of the 1715 ships or a salvage vessel.

Corrigan's Beach wreck is the richest of the Indian River County sites. The Society glossary describes it as a 1715 Fleet wreck site located 5 miles north of the Vero Beach city limits, named because the beach was once owned by Hugh Corrigan, and the site of the Tricentennial Hoard of 2015. A Society dispatch from 2011 locates Corrigan's Beach 6 miles south of Sebastian Inlet, and a 2017 report summarized in The E-Sylum describes the debris field as lying between Wabasso and Indian River Shores. The Society notes that the wreck is either Ubilla's capitana, the Nuestra Senora de Regla, or his almiranta, the Santo Cristo de San Roman, and that current research is divided.

Off Vero Beach itself, the Rio Mar wreck is located opposite the Rio Mar Golf Course. The Society identifies it as the Nuestra Senora del Carmen, capitana of the Tierra Firme squadron and the largest galleon of the eleven Spanish ships that left Havana in 1715. The Carmen had begun life as the English ship Hampton Court before French capture in 1707.

The southern sites lie roughly 30 miles from Sebastian. The Douglass Beach wreck, a few miles south of the Fort Pierce Inlet and formerly called Colored Beach, was known as the Gold Wreck in early Real Eight letters; some 3,376 gold coins were recovered there in the first two months of the 1964 season. The Society reports newer research suggesting it is not Ubilla's patache Nieves but his fragatilla, the Santa Rita y las Animas. The Wedge Wreck, near Fort Pierce Inlet across from Pepper Park, is also referred to as the Urca de Lima and takes its name from silver wedges Kip Wagner found there.

The Urca de Lima is the one 1715 site set aside for public diving. The National Park Service states that it lies 200 yards offshore in 10 to 15 feet of water, about 1,000 yards north of Pepper Beach Park near Fort Pierce, inside a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve that is open to the public year round, free of charge. The Indian River County sites near Sebastian, by contrast, are worked under exclusive salvage rights: Sebastian Daily reported in 2025 that 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels holds exclusive rights to the site granted by U.S. District Courts, and GIA describes the company as licensed to operate in an offshore area between Sebastian Inlet and Fort Pierce.

Not every named wreck between Sebastian Inlet and Vero Beach belongs to 1715. The Green Cabin Wreck, about 1,000 feet south of Disney's Vero Beach Ocean Resort, has been identified as the San Martin, a 300 ton galleon from the 1618 Honduran Fleet, nearly a century older than the 1715 losses. The Boiler Wreck, directly offshore from the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, is the steamship Breckenshire, sunk on April 30, 1894, whose boiler shows at low tide.

The list of 1715 sites is still growing. In March 2026 the Florida Department of State announced that 51 silver objects discovered in 2021 at the Anchor Wreck, which it describes as a shipwreck that was part of the Spanish Plate Fleet, had been donated to the state's archaeological collections. Sebastian Daily's 2025 report described the 1715 storm as driving the ships onto jagged reefs along what is now the Treasure Coast, from present-day Sebastian to Fort Pierce, a stretch where new targets are still logged each summer.