The Hillsborough River, which runs through the big population area of Tampa, is a popular site for leisure activities. Kevin McCarthy, author of more than 20 books about Florida, guides the reader and boater from the source of the Hillsborough River in the Green Swamp west of Tampa, through Hillsborough River State Park, then through the city of Tampa, to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico. Both a history and a guidebook, "Hillsborough River Guidebook" features information on the wildlife and culture along the river as well as travel tips, with recommendations of places to eat and stay. Includes photographs and maps. The other books available in the series are "Suwannee River Guidebook" and "St. Johns River Guidebook."

"After Spain's colonial American mints poured forth a flood of silver coins, some of that treasure ended up in wrecks off the Florida coast. Alan Craig's captivating study explains how those coins were made and what historians and numismatists can learn from them."--Kendall W. Brown, Brigham Young University "The State of Florida is indeed fortunate that its colonial coin inventory, Florida's shipwreck patrimony, could be studied by Alan Craig. This work enriches us all."--Eugene Lyon, author of The Enterprise of Florida: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Spanish Conquest of 1565-1568 and The Search for the Atocha The State of Florida owns a vast collection, nearly 23,000 specimens, of Spanish treasure coins salvaged from shipwrecks in Florida waters. It is the largest of its kind in existence. Alan Craig explains the circumstances behind their manufacture and describes the transporting of these unique hand-made coins, a complicated business full of intrigue and royal regulations. When freshly minted gold and silver left the Spanish colonial viceroyalties of Peru and Mexico aboard fleets of galleons headed to Spain, a number of ships sank off the coast of Florida. Counterfeiting was rife at the time, and Craig discusses a variety of mint scandals, especially those perpetrated by the notorious Francisco Gomez de la Rocha. Craig also analyzes coins from the mints of Mexico City, Potosi, Lima, and elsewhere. He follows the procedure of making coins, from mining the silver to refining it and ultimately converting it into coins of various sizes, and takes readers on a vivid "virtual" visit to a mint where they watch African slaves pour molten silver from furnaces into special molds and witness the days of constant hammering, annealing, die striking, blanching, weighing, and counting and recounting necessary to produce a sack of coins. Outstanding specimens from the Florida collection are depicted in numerous superb photographs, many enlarged to show elements of the engraving discussed in the text. In a final section Craig discusses the numismatic significance of the thousands of coins in the collection. As both an economic history and a numismatic study, this work will be a fascinating resource for historians, archaeologists, coin collectors, and general readers interested in maritime treasure. Alan K. Craig is professor emeritus of geography and geology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and coeditor of In Quest of Mineral Wealth.

"In real life-especially off the Florida coast-things can have fatal consequences. Fatal Treasure is a truly compelling read." -Aphrodite Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Sacrifice and All She Wanted In 1622, hundreds of people lost their lives to the curse of the Spanish galleon Atocha-and they would not be the last. Fatal Treasure combines the rousing adventure of Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea with the compelling characters and local color of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It tells the powerful true story of the relentless quest to find the Atocha and reclaim her priceless treasures from the sea. You'll follow Mel Fisher, his family, and their intrepid team of treasure hunters as they dive beneath the treacherous waters of the Florida Straits and scour the ocean floor in search of gold, silver, and emeralds. And you'll discover that nearly four centuries after the shipwreck, the curse of the Atocha is still a deadly force. "On this day, the sea once again relinquished its hold on the riches and glory of seventeenth-century Spain. And by the grace of God, I would share the moment of glory . . . . I was reaching for my eighth emerald, another big one, when the invisible hands squeezed my trachea. In desperation, I clutched at my throat to pry away the enemy's fingers. But no one had hold of me." -From the Prologue

ON July 24, 1715, a Spanish treasure fleet sailed from Havana, carrying a cargo of 14 million pesos in gold, silver and jewels. In the Florida Straits, near present-day Cape Canaveral, the fleet ran into a hurricane, with the disastrous loss of ten ships and 700 lives. Little was salvaged at the time. For more than two centuries, sand and sea held their secrets well. Occasionally, however, tides and storms tossed blackened silver coins up on the beaches, tempting would-be treasure hunters. Among the most successful was the Real Eight Company, contracted by the state of Florida to recover the valuable treasure and historical artifacts under the supervision of state underwater archaeologist Carl J. Clausen. Spurred by the unique finds on the ocean floor and curious about the full story behind the tragic event that had scattered this fabulous treasure along Florida's east coast, he and Robert F. Burgess determined to record the history of the ill-fated fleet. In writing their book, the authors needed the answers to hundreds of questions. What was it like to cross the Atlantic in the eighteenth century? What precautions were taken against pirates? What caused the delays that led to sailing at a particularly treacherous time of the year? What really happened the night of the hurricane? How much treasure was lost? How many people survived? The authors discovered that pieces of the historical jigsaw puzzle lay scattered all over the world. They examined hundreds of documents recovered from dusty archives: official statements, depositions, royal court orders, private and public letters, and ships' manifests. After ten years of research, the authors finally had all the facts, which enabled them to reconstruct the story. Florida's Golden Galleons is that stunning story, meticulously detailed and excitingly told, of the sinking of the great fleet and of the successful modern-day efforts to bring its treasure once more to the light of day.

The story of the search and discovery of the treasure wreck--Nuestra Senora de Atocha.