1715 Fleet Wreck Sites Near Sebastian

The 1715 Fleet sites nearest Sebastian are the Cabin Wreck just south of Sebastian Inlet, the Cannon Wreck about 2.3 miles farther south and the Corrigan's Beach wreck about 6 miles south of the inlet, all off Indian River County (1715 Fleet Society).

The Society places the Cabin Wreck south of Sebastian Inlet (1715 Fleet Society) and the Cannon Wreck about 2.3 miles south of the Cabin Wreck (1715 Fleet Society glossary). They form the north end of a wreck field that runs past Vero Beach to Fort Pierce. NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory says three ships sank in deep water and the other eight were driven onto the coast from present-day Fort Pierce to Wabasso, north of Vero Beach, where they broke up on rocks and reefs; of 2,500 sailors and passengers, 1,000 died (NOAA AOML). The Florida Department of State counts eleven ships lost along what is now the Indian River and St. Lucie county coastline (Florida Department of State). Most site names come from shore landmarks or old landowners, and several ship identifications are still argued.

The 1715 survivors camped on the barrier island south of Sebastian Inlet, near where the fleet's flagship sank, on ground now occupied by the McLarty Treasure Museum (Florida State Parks).

A state historical marker erected in 1974 on Orchid Island, south of what was then Sebastian Inlet State Recreation Area, records that about 1,500 men, women and children who reached shore made their camp near the place where the flagship had sunk (Florida Division of Historical Resources). The flagship was the Capitana of Captain General Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla (Florida State Parks). The marker's park name is out of date; the site is now Sebastian Inlet State Park.

The camp is the one 1715 site on land that can be visited. The McLarty Treasure Museum sits at the south boundary of Sebastian Inlet State Park, opens Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and charges $2 a person on top of park entry (Florida State Parks).

The Cabin Wreck is the 1715 site just south of Sebastian Inlet (1715 Fleet Society), where Real Eight divers raised two treasure chests in the 1960s (1715 Fleet Society).

A Society history places the Cabin Wreck about 200 feet off shore, an easy swim from the beach (1715 Fleet Society). It is the only 1715 site where large copper plates were found, one weighing 64 pounds (1715 Fleet Society). Its identity is unsettled: it is thought to be either the Santo Cristo de San Roman or the Nuestra Senora de la Regla, and scholars are divided (1715 Fleet Society).

Some of the best known 1715 moments happened here. On July 24, 1965 Real Eight divers found a nearly intact treasure chest at the Cabin Wreck near Sebastian, the first of its kind on any 1715 site, and a second chest came up nearby in June 1967 (1715 Fleet Society). The site keeps producing: 1715 coins and artifacts recovered there on July 18, 2019 lay about 1000 feet offshore in 9 feet of water under 7 feet of overburden (1715 Fleet Society).

Between Sebastian Inlet and Vero Beach lie the Cannon Wreck and the Corrigan's Beach wreck, with the Rio Mar wreck off Vero Beach itself (1715 Fleet Society).

The Cannon Wreck, about 2.3 miles south of the Cabin Wreck, was named for cannons found there in 1991; in August 1992 a salvage crew found 39 gold coins dated 1697 to 1714 at the site (1715 Fleet Society glossary). Corrigan's Beach wreck is placed 5 miles north of the Vero Beach city limits and takes its name from former landowner Hugh Corrigan; it produced the Tri-Centennial Hoard of 2015 and is either Ubilla's capitana, the Regla, or his almiranta, the San Roman (1715 Fleet Society). A Society dispatch puts Corrigan's Beach 6 miles south of Sebastian Inlet (1715 Fleet Society).

Off Vero Beach, the Rio Mar wreck lies opposite the Rio Mar Golf Course. It is identified as the Nuestra Senora del Carmen, capitana of the Tierra Firme squadron and the largest of the eleven Spanish ships that left Havana in 1715, originally the English ship Hampton Court before French capture in 1707 (1715 Fleet Society). Because the Cabin Wreck and Corrigan's are both linked to Ubilla's two lead ships, the two sites nearest Sebastian may hold the fleet's flagship and its second in command.

The Urca de Lima near Fort Pierce is the 1715 wreck set aside for public diving: in the 1980s Florida stopped issuing salvage permits there and opened it as the state's first Underwater Archaeological Preserve (National Park Service).

The National Park Service places the Urca de Lima 200 yards offshore in 10 to 15 feet of water about 1,000 yards north of Pepper Beach Park, inside a Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve open year round and free of charge; divers use the mooring buoy instead of anchoring, and a laminated underwater guide is available from local dive shops (National Park Service). The 1715 Fleet Society files the same site as the Wedge Wreck, near Fort Pierce Inlet across from Pepper Park, named for silver wedges Kip Wagner found there (1715 Fleet Society). The Douglass Beach wreck, south of Fort Pierce Inlet, earned the nickname Gold Wreck in early Real Eight letters after about 3,376 gold coins came up in two months of the 1964 season (1715 Fleet Society).

Back at the Sebastian end, the sites are worked by permitted salvors: GIA describes one salvage company as licensed for an offshore area between Sebastian Inlet and Fort Pierce (GIA). State-owned underwater resources reach 3 miles out in the Atlantic, and disturbing or digging a publicly owned site without advance permission from the Division of Historical Resources is illegal; intentional excavation without written authorization is a third-degree felony (Florida Division of Historical Resources). Divers off Sebastian Inlet State Park and the Indian River County beaches can look and report but not dig.

Two named wrecks near Vero Beach, the Green Cabin Wreck and the Boiler Wreck, are not 1715 ships, even though they sit in the same stretch of coast south of Sebastian (1715 Fleet Society).

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 of the 1618 Honduran Fleet (1715 Fleet Society). The Boiler Wreck, directly off the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, is the S.S. Breckenshire, sunk April 30, 1894, and its boiler can be seen from shore at low tide (1715 Fleet Society), the easiest Indian River County shipwreck to see without a boat.

The list of 1715 sites also keeps growing. In 2026 the Florida Department of State announced that fifty-one silver objects found in 2021 at the Anchor Wreck, a site from the Spanish Plate Fleet, had been donated to the state's archaeological collections (Florida Department of State).