Sorry about that title -- I've just wanted an excuse to use the word "booty" on the site.

But the related story is fascinating.

Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls Friday in a small, lead box they said they found while searching for the wreckage of the 17th-century Spanish galleon Santa Margarita.

Divers from Blue Water Ventures of Key West said they found the sealed box, measuring 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, along with a gold bar, eight gold chains and hundreds of other artifacts earlier this week.

They were apparently buried beneath the ocean floor in approximately 18 feet of water about 40 miles west of Key West.

``There are several thousand pearls starting from an eighth of an inch to three-quarters of an inch,'' said Duncan Mathewson, marine archaeologist and partner in Blue Water Ventures.

James Sinclair, archaeologist and conservator consulting with Mel Fisher's Treasures, Blue Water's joint-venture partners, said the pearls are very rare because of their antiquity and condition.

Sinclair said pearls don't normally survive the ocean water once they are out of the oyster that makes them.

``In this instance, we had a lead box and the silt that had sifted into the box from the site of the Margarita, which preserved the pearls in a fairly pristine state,'' he said.

Four century old pearls preserved on the sea bed. That is amazing. And to find them loose, not in a setting, is even more amazing.

And to think they were found in a box smaller than a Kleenex box -- that is just stunning.

I wonder how much they will go for on the open market when the company starts selling to collectors?

Posted by: Greg at 12:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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