Meet America's greatest modern treasure hunters
Daniel Coughlin
11 July 2022
You won't believe the riches these fortune seekers have found
Real-life Indiana Joneses, America's most successful treasure hunters have discovered hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of lost gold, jewels and other precious artifacts, thanks to a mix of passion, ingenuity and dogged perseverance, with plenty of luck thrown in of course. Read on as we reveal the most fortunate of all time and tally up their lucrative finds.
E. Lee Spence, total value of treasure found: $100 million
As a child, E. Lee Spence was obsessed with tales of lost shipwrecks and pirate booty. A sign of things to come, the treasure hunter extraordinaire assembled his own diving gear when he was in elementary school and discovered his first shipwreck in 1959 at just 12 years of age.
E. Lee Spence, total value of treasure found: $100 million
Spence spent his teen years studying and searching for lost treasure. He was 23 when he made his first major discovery – the Civil War submarine Hunley, which vanished in 1864. Spence mapped the location just off the coast of South Carolina and alerted the grateful authorities.
E. Lee Spence, total value of treasure found: $100 million
Valued at $40 million, the sub and its contents have been described as one of the most significant and valuable contributions ever made to the state of South Carolina. While the Hunley is Spence's most impressive find, the shipwreck expert has discovered numerous other lost vessels.
E. Lee Spence, total value of treasure found: $100 million
Besides the Hunley, Spence was instrumental in locating the Civil War-era ships Housatonic, Constance and Minho, as well the SS Ozama, a steamer that was wrecked off Cape Romain in 1896. All in all, Spence has found $100 million-worth of artifacts.
Tommy Gregory Thompson, total value of treasure found: $150 million
Tommy Gregory Thompson became the toast of the treasure hunting world in 1988 after locating the fabled SS Central America, one of America's greatest lost ships. The ocean engineer from Ohio had spent years analyzing the route of the vessel and developing the technology to seek it out.
Tommy Gregory Thompson, total value of treasure found: $150 million
The ship, which went down in 1857, was loaded with gold worth $150 million in today's money and its loss contributed to the Panic of 1857, which is considered the first real global economic crisis.
Tommy Gregory Thompson, total value of treasure found: $150 million
Thompson had persuaded investors to part with $12.5 million to finance the extensive search and salvage operation. From 1988 to 1991, the ocean expert recovered hundreds of gold bars, coins and other precious artifacts worth tens of millions of dollars.
Tommy Gregory Thompson, total value of treasure found: $150 million
In 2000, Thompson sold $50 million-worth of treasure he'd salvaged but failed to pay back investors. They sued in 2005, won the case and Thompson ended up going on the run. Out of luck, the fugitive treasure hunter was arrested in a Florida hotel room in 2016 and thrown in jail, where he remains.
Brenton Easter, total value of treasure found: $250 million
A very different kind of treasure hunter, Special Agent Brenton Easter is the Feds' very own Indiana Jones. The FBI sleuth, who has been a lifelong fan of the Indy movies, specializes in tracking down and recovering stolen art and antiquities.
Brenton Easter, total value of treasure found: $250 million
Easter has intercepted thousands of artifacts worth some $250 million during his illustrious career. The top agent has single-handedly dented the black market for smuggled treasures and his shrewd detective work has led to the arrest of countless smugglers.
Brenton Easter, total value of treasure found: $250 million
The most notorious criminals caught by Easter include New York gallery owner Subhash Kapoor, who had looted more than 2,600 artifacts with a combined value of $100 million, mainly from temples and shrines in India.
Brenton Easter, total value of treasure found: $250 million
Ever able and willing in his mission to destroy the black market for art and antiquities, Easter is currently engaged in Operation Fertile Crescent, which is seeking to recover the thousands of precious artifacts that were plundered by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Barry Clifford, total value of treasure found: $400 million
Underwater explorer Barry Clifford lucked out big-time in 1984 when he discovered the wreck of Samuel Bellamy's pirate ship Whydah, which met its end in a violent storm off Cape Cod back in 1717. Unlike the other treasure hunters in our round-up, Clifford got to keep 100% of the booty.
Barry Clifford, total value of treasure found: $400 million
In 1988, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the entire pirate ship belonged to Clifford, effectively gifting him the vessel and its vast cargo of gold and silver worth an eye-opening $400 million.
Barry Clifford, total value of treasure found: $400 million
Yet instead of selling the ship's 200,000 recovered artifacts to the highest bidder, Clifford created a museum in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts to display his finds, and donated a selection of artifacts to an international touring exhibition called Real Pirates.
Barry Clifford, total value of treasure found: $400 million
Lauded for his efforts to preserve the ship and its valuable contents, Clifford has been honored with prestigious accolades such as the Lowell Thomas Award for underwater archaeology, and was named 'Explorer-in-Residence' by New York's American Museum of Natural History in 2006.
Mel Fisher, total value of treasure found: $500 million
The late Mel Fisher will go down in history as one of America's most noteworthy treasure hunters. A former chicken farmer with a talent for finding things, Fisher got into diving in the 1950s and combined his detective and deep-sea diving skills to hunt for the world's lost wrecks.
Mel Fisher, total value of treasure found: $500 million
Tragedy struck in 1975 when Fisher lost his son, daughter-in-law and a friend during a treasure hunting expedition, but he vowed to continue. Money was tight but Fisher persisted, often telling himself “today's the day”.
Mel Fisher, total value of treasure found: $500 million
In 1985, Fisher made the find of his career when he discovered the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. In total, an incredible $450 million-worth of treasure was recovered, including 40 tons of gold and silver, and some of the finest emeralds ever mined.
Mel Fisher, total value of treasure found: $500 million
Fisher, who died in 1998, also discovered the Atocha's sister ship, the Santa Margarita, as well as the wreck of a slave ship called the Henrietta Marie. His eponymous company, which is headed by grandson Sean Fisher, carries on the late treasure hunter's good work.
Greg Stemm, total value of treasure found: $1.4 billion
As head honcho of leading salvage company Odyssey Marine Exploration and the defunct Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology, Greg Stemm has discovered a staggering $1.4 billion-worth of lost treasure.
Greg Stemm, total value of treasure found: $1.4 billion
In 2007, the shipwreck hunter and his firm located the Spanish frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, which was sunk off the coast of Portugal in 1804 carrying colossal amounts of gold and silver coins.
Greg Stemm, total value of treasure found: $1.4 billion
Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered gold and silver coins worth $500 million but, after protracted legal proceedings, was forced to hand them over to the Spanish government, which put a claim on the treasure. The coins are now on display at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid.
Greg Stemm, total value of treasure found: $1.4 billion
Fortunately, the company has been able to profit from the discovery of numerous other shipwrecks, including HMS Victory, the predecessor to English Admiral Lord Nelson's namesake ship, which yielded $655 million in treasure, not to mention a cut from finding and salvaging the SS Gairsoppa and Buen Jesús y Nuestra Señoradel Rosario.
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