Who Owns 1715 Fleet Treasure off Sebastian

The State of Florida owns 1715 Fleet treasure abandoned on state land or sovereignty submerged land off Sebastian, with title vested in the Division of Historical Resources (section 267.061, Florida Statutes).

The fleet went down along the barrier island south of Sebastian Inlet, and the statute's wording covers treasure trove, artifacts and other objects of historical or archaeological value abandoned there. The federal Abandoned Shipwreck Act, signed April 28, 1988, asserted United States title to most abandoned shipwrecks in the ocean out to three miles from shore and then passed that title to the government that owns the submerged lands, so states hold title to wrecks on state lands (National Park Service). Florida counts its state-owned underwater resources out to 3 miles in the Atlantic, so the 1715 sites off Indian River County fall under state law (Florida Department of State). Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the Florida Senate and Florida Department of State websites.

Salvors working the 1715 wrecks south of Sebastian Inlet need an exploration and recovery permit from the Division of Historical Resources, which state law allows it to issue to commercial salvors on sovereignty submerged lands (section 267.031).

The same statute directs the division to adopt rules for transferring recovered objects to commercial salvors in exchange for recovery services provided to the state. In practice the Indian River County salvor is paid in artifacts for recovering state property, not granted ownership of the seabed. The division describes exploration and recovery permits as permits to perform certain activities under state supervision, not leases of state lands, and says that after survey, excavation may be permitted under archaeological guidelines with every artifact recorded and conserved (Florida Department of State). Museums and universities apply for a separate archaeological research permit.

The procedures sit in Florida Administrative Code chapter 1A-31, Procedures for Conducting Exploration and Salvage of Historic Shipwreck Sites, whose rules on permit types, permit areas, diving on historic shipwreck sites and the transfer of archaeological materials carry a July 20, 2009 effective date and govern permits for the 1715 sites south of Sebastian Inlet.

Florida divides a season of 1715 Fleet finds after conservation: a portion of the recovered materials may be awarded to the permitted salvor, and the state retains the remainder for research collections and public display (Florida Department of State).

The legal basis for paying 1715 Fleet salvors off Sebastian in recovered objects is section 267.031, which directs the division to adopt rules for transferring objects recovered by commercial salvors under permit in exchange for recovery services provided to the state (section 267.031). Those rules sit in Florida Administrative Code chapter 1A-31, whose rule 1A-31.090 covers the transfer of archaeological materials and the title conveyed with them (Florida Administrative Code). Before anything is divided, the division requires that excavation follow archaeological guidelines and that every recovered artifact be recorded and conserved (Florida Department of State). The state's percentage is not stated on the division's laws page or in the statutes cited here; the practical step for anyone tracking a given season is to ask the division, which lists 850.245.6500 (Florida Department of State).

Objects that stay with the state are tracked. Section 267.115 requires a complete inventory each July 1 of state-held objects valued at $1,000 or more, and lets the division loan, exchange or transfer objects that no longer serve its research, exhibit or educational programs (section 267.115). That is how 1715 Fleet material recovered off Sebastian can end up on loan to museums rather than in a single vault.

Divers may visit 1715 wreck sites off Sebastian, but removing or disturbing anything on state-owned submerged land requires written authorization from the Division of Historical Resources (Florida Department of State).

The division states that no shipwreck under state jurisdiction is off-limits to divers, and asks them to take only photographs and to record and report what they find (Florida Department of State). The beach is less clear. The Florida Constitution places beaches below mean high water lines in state ownership, held in trust for all the people (Article X, Section 11), which ties wet sand at Sebastian Inlet State Park and the Indian River County beaches to the same sovereignty lands named in section 267.061. The statutes cited here do not separately address coins found loose on the ocean beach. The only finder program in chapter 267 covers isolated artifacts from state-owned river bottoms (section 267.115(9)), so it does not reach the ocean beach at Sebastian.

The practical step is a call before a coin leaves the beach. The Florida Department of State lists 850.245.6500 and the R.A. Gray Building, 500 South Bronough Street, Tallahassee, as its contact (Florida Department of State); a find on the shore near Sebastian Inlet can be reported there with photographs and a location.

Removing artifacts from state land off Sebastian without a permit is a first degree misdemeanor with forfeiture of the objects, and doing it by excavation is a third degree felony (section 267.13).

Section 267.13 also lets the state take any vehicle or equipment used in an excavation violation on the Indian River County wreck sites. Separately, the division may impose an administrative fine of not more than $500 a day on any person or business that explores for, salvages or excavates treasure trove or sunken ships on state land, including sovereignty submerged land, without written permission (section 267.13). The division's own summary repeats that intentional excavation of underwater sites without written authorization is treated as a third degree felony (Florida Department of State). All law enforcement agencies in Florida, including those along the Sebastian coast, are directed to assist the division (section 267.031).

Control of the 1715 treasure off Sebastian has been contested since the wreck itself, when the English pirate Henry Jennings drove off the guards at the Spanish salvage camp and carried coins away to Port Royal, Jamaica (Florida Division of Historical Resources).

The state historical marker for the Survivors' and Salvagers' Camp, erected in 1974 south of Sebastian Inlet, records that about 1,500 survivors camped near where the flagship sank and that most of the treasure was later regained (Florida historical marker).

The modern contest started with state leases. In 1949 Steadman Parker obtained an exclusive exploratory lease covering the offshore waters from Sebastian Inlet to Ambersand Beach Park; by late 1950 J. W. Prince of Naples was seeking his own lease from Melbourne to Jupiter Island, and Parker had his attorney ask the state for control of a specific wreck near Sebastian, probably the one later called the Cabin Wreck (1715 Fleet Society archive). The Real Eight Company, incorporated in 1961 with Kip Wagner among its eight members, went on to work those wrecks (1715 Fleet Society archive).

Not every 1715 site is open to salvage. The Urca de Lima, near Fort Pierce, is protected as a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve (National Park Service), so one wreck from the same fleet that drives permitted salvage off Sebastian and Wabasso is managed for visiting divers instead.