Florida Shipwrecks and Underwater Archaeological Sites

Florida's twelve Underwater Archaeological Preserves, the nine-ship NOAA trail in the Florida Keys sanctuary and the six-wreck trail in Biscayne National Park are the shipwreck sites set up for public diving and snorkeling.

In 1987, Florida began to develop a statewide system of underwater parks featuring shipwrecks and other historic sites, and the parks are open to the public year round, free of charge (Florida Division of Historical Resources). Each site is interpreted by an underwater plaque, and a brochure and laminated underwater guides are available from local dive shops; the state counts twelve parks at present and several others under development.

The twelve Florida preserves are USS Massachusetts, SS Tarpon, Vamar, City of Hawkinsville, USS Narcissus, Regina, San Pedro, Half Moon, SS Copenhagen, Lofthus, Georges Valentine and Urca de Lima (Florida Museums in the Sea). That site lists the Florida Public Archaeology Network as its publisher, and DHR says each preserve there has underwater video of the wreck and its marine life and a video about the vessel's history.

The federal trails add more. The nine ships along the Florida Keys Shipwreck Trail range from easy shallow dives to dives of 100 feet or more where swift currents may run, and NOAA publishes an underwater guide with mooring buoy positions for each (NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary). In Biscayne National Park, six wrecks spanning nearly a century have been mapped with brochures and mooring buoys, and access to the sites on the trail is by boat only (National Park Service).

The Urca de Lima, a storeship of the 1715 Spanish fleet wrecked near present day Fort Pierce, was mapped by state archaeologists in 1985 and became the first Florida preserve when the system began in 1987.

Two Spanish convoys left Havana in the summer of 1715, and within days of leaving Cuba these 11 vessels were struck by a fierce hurricane (Florida Museums in the Sea, Urca de Lima). The Urca de Lima was a 305-ton, Dutch-built storeship that grounded near Fort Pierce and provided survivors from the other wrecked ships with provisions from its stores until supplies arrived from Havana thirty-one days later.

The wreck lay under sand until 1928, when the City of Fort Pierce paid for a search and 16 cannons and 4 anchors were raised for display around the city. After the 1985 mapping requested by the St. Lucie County Historical Commission, Urca de Lima became the first preserve, and in 2001 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Florida Museums in the Sea).

The dive notes direct visitors north on Highway A1A from the Fort Pierce Inlet to Pepper Park, then a walk northward along the beach approximately 1,000 yards from the park boundary; the wreck site lies on the first offshore reef, approximately 200 yards from shore, in 10 to 15 feet of water, and divers are asked to use mooring buoys to avoid anchor damage (Urca de Lima dive notes).

The other Spanish preserve sits in the Keys. San Pedro sailed with the New Spain fleet that left Havana on July 13, 1733, and it now rests in 18 feet of water about 1.25 nautical miles south of Indian Key, and divers are asked to use mooring buoys to avoid anchor damage to the wreck and living corals (Florida Museums in the Sea, San Pedro). NOAA's Shipwreck Trail page instead places it in 18 feet of water 1 mile south of Indian Key and calls it the oldest wreck on that trail (NOAA Shipwreck Trail).

No: removing or disturbing objects from archaeological or historical sites on Florida state lands or submerged bottomlands requires written authorization from the Division of Historical Resources, and intentional excavation without it is a third degree felony.

The state's rule for divers is that no shipwreck under state jurisdiction is off limits to visitors, but disturbance or removal of objects without written authorization is prohibited (Florida Division of Historical Resources, laws). State-owned underwater lands run offshore in the Gulf of Mexico out to 9 miles and in the Atlantic out to 3 miles, plus the bottoms of navigable rivers, lakes and bays.

Title comes from federal law. On 28 April 1988 the Abandoned Shipwreck Act was signed, and this law gives title to shipwrecks in Florida waters to the people of the State of Florida (Division of Historical Resources). Chapter 267, Florida Statutes, and rules 1A-31 and 1A-32 of the Florida Administrative Code set how those resources are used.

The penalties are in section 267.13. Removing, defacing or altering an archaeological site or specimen on state land without a permit is a misdemeanor of the first degree; doing so by excavation is a felony of the third degree, and finds, records and any vehicle or equipment used can be forfeited to the state (Florida Statutes, s. 267.13).

Legal recovery runs through two permit types. Archaeological Research Permits let scientific and educational institutions such as museums, universities and colleges survey and excavate in Florida state waters, and Exploration and Recovery Permits let individuals or companies survey and recover submerged cultural resources in state waters under state supervision; after conservation a portion may be awarded to the permittee, and the state keeps the remainder for research and display (Division of Historical Resources).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Division of Historical Resources website.

Florida's submerged record reaches far beyond shipwrecks: rising seas after the last Ice Age flooded places where Native Americans lived, camped, made tools and buried their dead, along the coasts and on ancient river banks, lake shores and sinkholes of Florida.

Little Salt Spring, a natural limestone well in Sarasota County, has produced evidence of a Paleo-Indian site from 12,000 years before present and an Archaic village with a cemetery about 8,000 years old, and nearby Warm Mineral Springs is another site where important prehistoric remains have been preserved and excavated (Florida Division of Historical Resources, drowned sites). Sport divers have reported and recorded sites in the Aucilla, Wakulla, St. Marks and Chipola rivers, and sport divers working with state and university scientists have found drowned prehistoric remains in the Aucilla, Ichetucknee, Oklawaha and Wacissa rivers.

Florida's wet ground also keeps boats. Among the oldest vessels are the more than one hundred dugout canoes found preserved in Florida's wet environments, and at least five European nations left behind colonial warships and merchantmen before statehood in 1845 (Division of Historical Resources, wrecked vessels).

The official count of known places sits in Tallahassee. The Florida Master Site File, the state's official inventory of historical and cultural resources, currently holds information on more than 261,000 cultural resources and copies of over 29,000 manuscripts (figures read October 15, 2026), and its staff answer at 850.245.6440 (Florida Master Site File).

The Florida rule is to leave the find in place, photograph it and report it to the Bureau of Archaeological Research in Tallahassee, which can tell whether the site is already recorded.

The Bureau is at the B. Calvin Jones Center for Archaeology, 1001 de Soto Park Drive, Tallahassee, FL 32301, phone 850.245.6444 (Florida Division of Historical Resources FAQ). Historic cannon and anchors are often spotted in Florida waters, and many have been documented and either left in place or replaced with replicas to preserve Florida's archaeological sites and dive locations.

Metal detecting on State land is generally prohibited with few exceptions, though many public beaches allow metal detecting between the high tide line and the toe of the dune; beaches in state and federal parks, preserves, sanctuaries and military installations have specific rules, and DHR advises consulting the park or property manager (Division of Historical Resources FAQ). State public lands include the submerged river bottom, so removing artifacts from Florida rivers is prohibited by section 267.13.

Fossils follow a separate rule. All vertebrate fossils found on state-owned lands belong to the state with title vested in the Florida Museum of Natural History, but a permit is not required for casual retrieval of vertebrate fossils or for invertebrate fossils and fossil shark teeth (Division of Historical Resources FAQ).

In the Keys sanctuary the federal rule is the same in spirit: disturbance and removal of artifacts is prohibited, and NOAA asks divers to control buoyancy because wreck structure can be as fragile as the marine life on it (NOAA).

The Florida preserve list is at twelve, with the Division of Historical Resources saying several others are under development and inviting divers to nominate new sites through its questionnaire.

A Florida candidate preserve needs public access, favorable diving conditions and interesting cultural and natural features, and designation comes through a cooperative project between government and the public (Division of Historical Resources). The same page names California, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina and Vermont as states with similar programs and says other states are likely to follow.

Florida Museums in the Sea asks anyone who has visited a preserve recently to send feedback on the condition of the site through its online form (Florida Museums in the Sea).

The Biscayne trail grew by one stop that is not a wreck: Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, built in 1878, is the newest addition, with snorkeling around its base but no public access to the structure; the park page was last updated May 30, 2023 (National Park Service).

Older wrecks keep teaching. Georges Valentine, an iron ship built in 1869 in Liverpool, broke apart in an October 1904 gale near the House of Refuge at Gilbert's Bar, and the wreck lies about 100 yards offshore of Stuart, where the keeper helped save seven of its twelve crew (Florida Museums in the Sea, Georges Valentine). USS Massachusetts, the oldest existing American battleship, was towed to Pensacola in January 1921 as an artillery target and later became state property after a court fight over salvage (Florida Museums in the Sea, USS Massachusetts).