| Airlift - A small hand-held dredge that works like a vacuum
cleaner, used to clear away the sand on the seabed.
Archaeologist - A scientist that studies artifacts to learn about
past human life and activities.
Artifact - A tool, ornament, or other object from a particular
time in the past.
Assayer - The person who analyzes and determines the purity of
a substance, in this case, silver.
Astrolabe - A navigational instrument used by a ship's pilot
in the seventeenth-century to calculate the position of the stars and sun.
Ballast - The heavy objects, such as stones, that balance
the ship in the water.
Bosun - Or boatswain. The officer who was in charge of the hull
and sails.
Cob - Crude coinage of silver or gold used in the Spanish Empire
from the 16th to 18th centuries.
Electrolysis - A method used to stabilize metals which have been
contaminated with salt.
Emerald - A bright green, transparent precious stone.
Escudo - Spanish for "shield"; also a term for a gold coin
used in the Spanish Empire from 1537-1833.
Flotilla - A small fleet of ships.
Galleon - A sailing vessel of the 15th to 17th centuries, usually
armed and having three to four decks.
Grid - A system of plastic pipes that look like a tic-tac-toe
board; it is set up over an excavation site.
Hull - The frame of a ship without its sails or mast.
Hurricane - A violent tropical cyclone with winds moving at 73
or more miles per hour, often accompanied by torrential rains.
Ingot - Precious metals such as gold, silver, or copper melted
into a block form for shipping.
Magnetometer - An instrument used to detect iron underwater;
invented by Fay Field.
Mailbox - An L-shaped steel tube invented by salvage hunter Mel
Fisher, which fits over a boat's propeller, forcing the water downward
while the boat is anchored with engines running.
Manifest - A list of all cargo loaded onto a ship.
Marine archeologist - a scientist who studies shipwrecks and
other remains in the sea to learn about past human life and activities.
Mint - A place where money is coined by authority of the government,
such as Potosi, Bolivia; Mexico City, Mexico; Santa Fe De Bogota, Columbia;
Lima, Peru.
Oxide - The results of a chemical change which causes silver
to turn black or copper to turn green.
Procesal - An old form of Spanish with little punctuation and
continuous running text.
Quinto - The twenty percent tax paid on bullion (silver and gold)
shipped from the New World to the King of Spain.
Rapier - A slender, two-edged sword with a large cup hilt.
Real - Spanish silver coin still used in some Spanish-American
countries.
Sterncastle - The living quarters for the rich passengers; the
raised structure at the rear of the ship.
Theodolite - Small platforms built on sticks filled with telescopic-like
instruments for observing the boat's position and path across the water.
People and Places
Archive of the Indies - a repository located in Seville, Spain
that documents the history of Spain in America.
Caribbean - a geographical area bordered by South America, Central
America, and the West Indies islands.
Field, Fay - an electronics expert who invented an instrument
for magnetically detecting metals.
Fisher, Mel - a famous treasure hunter who found the Atocha and
the Santa Margarita.
Havana - seaport and capital of Cuba.
Lyon, Eugene - a historian who helped Mel Fisher find the Atocha
by translating Spanish documents.
Melian, Francisco Nunez - a politician and adventurer from Havana
who salvaged the galleon Santa Margarita using his invention, the diving
bell.
New Spain - now known as Mexico.
Nuestra Senora de Atocha - Our Lady of Atocha, a Spanish
galleon.
Phillip II, III, IV - kings of Spain.
Potosi - mint in the central part of Bolivia which was a major
source of silver coins in the seventeenth century.
Santa Margarita - sister ship to the Atocha and partially
salvaged by both Melian and Fisher.
Seville - city and port in southwestern Spain where the Spanish
ships docked with their treasures.
Tierra Firma - now known as South America. |
