ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to become an underwater treasure hunter

Updated on May 29, 2011
Treasure Map
Treasure Map | Source

So you want to become a treasure hunter

Lucrative. This is the one word that I think of when I think of treasure hunting. You can make a whole bunch of money if you find a loaded hull. I will soon give you some tips and ideas that could allow you to become a legal and legit treasure hunter. There are steps involved however, and you cannot just jump into the ocean and expect to land the cheddar.

Think about the costs and time dedication you will need to make

There are many costs that are involved with treasure hunting and none of them come cheap. You will need a boat or many boats, depending on the size of your venture. You will need a crew, dive gear, sophisticated GPS, equipment to find and excavate any treasure you may come across, lawyers, fuel, food, places to dock and dry dock your boat, and much more.

You will also need to dedicate much of your life to your adventure. You don't just find treasure. You need to know where to look. In order to do this, you need to research and read many books and logs. There are hundreds of shipwrecks out there in international waters just waiting to be found, but you need to know where to start looking. This takes time.

Learn the tricks of the trade

You need to learn how to drive a boat or at least hire someone who already knows. This is important because if your boat doesn't leave shore, you will never find a hull. Also, you should learn to dive. I suggest taking a look at PADI. This is the standard for divers worldwide. Diving is essential in underwater excavation as you might have guessed.

You need to learn to use all of the tools at your disposal. One of the most important and quickest ways to find things on the bottom of the sea is to use "mailboxes". These are giant tubes that lower over your propellers to redirect the current generated by your propellers to the bottom to blow away sand and junk. It is a quick and efficient way to clear the way for you to go down and take a look at what was below the sands and silt. You should also learn how to use lifts and different pulley mechanisms. If your budget allows, you can get some really nice sophisticated computer equipment using sonar and other things that give you an edge. Again, it requires another learning curve.

Get a lawyer who knows the laws of salvaging

There are many laws in place about salvaging and you should make sure that you have someone who knows them and is good in the courts. If you find a hull with $600,000,000 worth of gold and silver bars and coins, you better know that whatever country owned that ship before is going to come knocking on your doors laying claim. This happened to Odyssey in a court case with spain.

So in short, a lawyer with good knowledge of the underwater salvage laws will come in handy.

Largest Shipwreck Treasure Find Ever

In a nutshell...

That is the basics for becoming a new underwater treasure hunter. If you are not afraid of the start-up costs, learning to dive, risking a lot of money, and fighting with other countries for claim, then this may be the career for you. Once you find treasure though, make sure you know a way to monetize it. Museums and private sales are a good way to start.

There are other great treasure hunters out there that have become very successful. If you are interested, I suggest you read about famous people such as Mel Fisher who found the lost treasure ship " Nuestra Señora de Atocha". He was an inspiring man.

I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)