A Florida family scavenging for sunken treasure on a shipwreck has found the missing piece of a 300-year- old gold filigree necklace sacred to Spanish priests, officials said yesterday.
Eric Schmitt, a professional salvager, was scavenging with his parents when he found the crumpled, square-shaped ornament on a leisure trip to hunt for artifacts in the wreckage of a convoy of 11 ships that sank in 1715 during a hurricane off central Florida’s east coast.
After the discovery last month, a team of Spanish historians realised the piece fits together with another artifact recovered 25 years ago. It formed an accessory called a pyx, worn on a chain around a high priest’s neck to carry the communion host. – (Reuters)