EL INFANTE Plantation Key

The 60 gun galleon El Infante was originally named Nuestra Senora de Balvaneda. She was purchased in Genoa in 1724. The El Infante was one of the 22 ships sailing from Havana, Cuba, to Europe when a hurricane forced them into the reefs. The armada is currently referred to as the 1733 Fleet or Silver Plate Fleet. The Infante was carried into twelve feet of water by the storm. Her crew survived the ordeal and made it to shore safely. The Spanish immediately started to salvage the wreck and recovered over 6,000,000 pesos from the shallow site. Today only a ballast pile and some wood from her hull remain. 

Art McKee salvaged this wreck during the 1950's. He recovered all types of treasure and artifacts including Dos Mundos dollars. From time to time artifacts still turn up on this site, but most are found away from the main ballast pile, in the scatter. Carl Fismer, a noted Florida treasure hunter, informed us that the first milled edge coins, pillar dollars, minted in the New World were recovered from this wreck. They were from Peru and dated 1698. This wreck now sits in 25 feet of water. Divers will still see wood beams and a small ballast pile on the site.

Photo: Carl Fismer displays coins recovered after a day of metal detecting. Photo by Jozef Koppelman.

Basic shipwreck information and images for this section of this site was taken with permission from the book Florida Shipwrecks by Daniel Berg. You are invited to submit your shipwreck related articles, images and information. As long as the text, photographs, sketches etc are of professional quality we will showcase them. Full credit will be provided and a same page link to your web site can be arranged.