The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum tells the story of Mel Fisher who discovered the wreck of "Senora Nuestra de Atocha", a Spanish Galleon that sank 40 miles off Key West during a 1622 hurricane. The museum displays numerous artifacts from this wreck and others, including a 77.76 carat emerald and several other gold and silver religious and functional items. There are also exhibits on underwater archaeology, films and hands-on demonstrations. Address: 200 Greene Street, Key West, FL 33040-6516, United States Official site: http://www.melfisher.orgThe Mel Fisher Maritime Museum tells the story of Mel Fisher who discovered the wreck of "Senora Nuestra de Atocha", a Spanish Galleon that sank 40 miles off Key West during a 1622 hurricane. The museum displays numerous artifacts from this wreck and others, including a 77.76 carat emerald and several other gold and silver religious and functional items. There are also exhibits on underwater archaeology, films and hands-on demonstrations.Address: 200 Greene Street, Key West, FL 33040-6516, United States Official site: http://www.melfisher.org

See 17th century artifacts acquired from wrecks of galleons, slave ships, and plundered pirate vessels at Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum. Among a plethora of rescued pieces, you'll find gold and silver items, navigational instruments, iron shackles that were used to punish sailors, elephant teeth, cannons, olive jars, Aztec ceramics, old coins, and even seeds and insects. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the conservation lab and learn how 150-200 artifacts per year are cleaned, stabilized against deterioration, and preserved upon excavation. The gift shop showcases and sells recreated and authentic shipwreck treasures. Use our Key West trip itinerary tool to visit Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum on your trip to Key West, and learn what else travelers and our writers recommend seeing nearby. On the web: http://www.melfisher.org/ Facebook

No coastal city would be complete without its own shipwreck legends, and Key West is no exception. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum allows you to explore artifacts from some of the most famous ships that went down in the Florida Keys. The shipwrecks are mostly from merchant and slave ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. The artifacts on board serve as a window to the past, revealing a great deal about trade, colonization, slavery, and even daily life from the time period. One of the most famous ships to run aground in the Keys, the Henrietta Marie, is believed to be the world’s largest source of tangible objects from the early years of the slave trade. A visit to the museum lets you view historical artifacts in an new way, as the shipwreck legacy casts an eerie and exciting feeling over the objects.

Mel Fisher, a longtime resident who died in 1998, led efforts to recover approximately $450 million in gold and silver from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a 17th-century Spanish galleon that sank 35 miles southwest of Key West. Fisher, who spent 16 years searching for the shipwreck, established the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, where visitors can view and learn about the riches of the Atocha and other area shipwrecks, including the galleon Santa Margarita.

Let out your inner treasure hunter at the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Museum. Fisher is famous for finding the 1622 wreck of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha in 1985 with an estimated $450 million cache of gold, silver, emeralds and more. Rather than a flashy show, this is a real-deal museum with a collection that holds over 100,000 pieces of jewelry, coins, glassware, tools, cannons, iron shackles, and anchors that were all found on sunken ships. All of these items translate into human stories of how they were lost and found. Take your time to peruse the exhibits and soak up the air conditioning. The Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society is a non-profit organization that works to preserve archaeological artifacts and educates visitors on maritime history. A number of educational programs are also available including children's camps to study marine life and the environment, plus a night at the museum.

If you love pirate stories and are an imaginary sailor at heart- albeit a real one, the museum is sure to keep you awestruck for days with its exquisite artifacts and shipwreck articles. To add to the charm, the museum also holds antique precious silver and gold articles! Learn about sailing in the old times when GPS system was a star in the sky and bounty hunters fought with their blood to acquire gold and gemstones of the finest kinds.