Timeline

Soon after Christopher Columbus discovered the new world, Spain began to send fleets of ships to the new world to pick up and bring back amazing amounts of treasure. Starting in the 1550s, Spain established a port in Havana Cuba where they could repair their ships and fortify their provisions for their non-stop trip back to Seville, Spain. Columbus had established trade routes which included sailing north with the Gulf Stream up the east coast of Florida. Earlier treasure ships carried riches from the Incas, the Mayans, and the Aztecs, while later ships carried mined treasure. The ships in these fleets averaged in size from 100 tons for a small ship, to 800 tons for a large ship. With no way to forecast the weather, hundreds of ships were caught in storms, and in some cases, entire fleets would sink.

Following the War of Succession (May 15th, 1702 – September 7th, 1714) the King of Spain (King Philip V) sent nine ships to the new world to retrieve his treasure which the Spanish had been stockpiling. The fleet picked up two prizes (two additional ships) during their voyage and also used them to carry treasure back. The Spanish also rented a twelfth ship called the Le Griffon, a French slave ship. The Spanish spread the massive amount of treasure among the 12 ships and, fully loaded, the flotilla set sail for Seville, Spain on July 24th, 1715.

Le Griffon, the French slave ship, sailed much faster that the Spanish ships. With a lead far out in front of the rest of the fleet, the French ship was unaware of a hurricane forming along present day Florida. The French ship, returned to Spain announcing that the other ships were to arrive soon. The rest of the fleet, moving slower, were caught in the hurricane. In a desperate attempt to save ships and their precious cargo, the captains were able to run six of the ships into shore. This desperate move gave the Spanish the ability to salvage them for nearly two years. Once they were able to recover as much as they could, the ships were then burned down to water line, then salvaged further by local tribes. Five of the remaining Spanish ships were unable to make it to shore and until modern day, were considered lost forever.

Close to the shore near Fort Pierce, Florida, William J. Beach discovered one of the ships in this fleet known as The Urca de Lima.

The first permit for a salvage operation was issued for Urca de Lima.

Florida issued its’ last permit for Urca de Lima as the results of the salvage operations were rather meager, only recovering one silver bullion, two silver wedges and a few cannons determining that the Spanish salvaged most of this ship’s cargo in 1715.

In the end of 2006 a man named Judd Laird approached a broker-dealer founded by Kyle Kennedy to finance the recovery of what he claimed to be a multi-billion dollar wreck. After months of due diligence, Mr. Kennedy agreed to a partnership arrangement with Tulco Resources. Mr. Kennedy had a simple plan to raise the necessary money, take the Company public, recover the treasure, and make all of the shareholders wealthy. So called “industry experts” stated the value of the wreck at JUNO BEACH to be into the billions. Having previously found Ming dynasty porcelain at the wreck site, it was believed the wreck would contain a tremendous amount of gold and silver contraband.

Kyle Kennedy founded Seafarer Exploration

Kyle Kennedy raised $750,000 amongst himself, family, and friends for the recovery of the JUNO BEACH shipwreck.

Kyle Kennedy subsequently purchased the Iron Maiden and recovery equipment with cash to deliver Seafarer’s working vessel.

Kyle Kennedy hired a crew of treasure hunters to assist in the recovery of the JUNO BEACH shipwreck.

Kyle Kennedy did a reverse merger to take Seafarer public on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB) and the excitement in the market saw the price as high as $0.16 per share by June 30th.

After raising the money, purchasing the ship, equipment, and taking the Company public through a reverse merger as Seafarer, the Company learned their 50/50 partner, Tulco Resources, did in fact not have, nor could not acquire the necessary recovery permit for the JUNO BEACH site. Mr. Kennedy then learned the State of Florida had not given out a new recovery permit in over 20 years. Thus began a difficult and expensive journey.

In 2008 Seafarer received a recovery permit from the State of Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research. This permit expired in August 2008. Seafarer then attempted to renew their recovery permit. However, the Bureau Chief had undisclosed plans to prevent Seafarer from obtaining their recovery permit renewal. After lengthy delays and tremendous expense, Seafarer was able to depose the then Bureau Chief and other State employees in November 2010. While under oath, the Bureau Chief admitted to wrongdoing toward Seafarer and ultimately their shareholders, by admitting to fabricating and hiding documents, lying to Seafarer, libeling Seafarer and other nefarious acts in order to stop Seafarer from receiving their lawful recovery permit renewal. Fortunately for Seafarer and its shareholders, the then State of Florida Attorney General became involved and came to know about the actions that had occurred. As a result, Governor Charlie Crist contacted Seafarer and a settlement was immediately reached. On April 25th, 2011, Seafarer received a 1A-31 Recovery Permit for a three-year duration.

Seafarer begins their transition from working with local treasure hunters to industry leading professionals, from ex-military divers to world-renowned archeologists, with a deep passion for sensitive and environmentally friendly recovery. When Seafarer began modifying their business model incorporating these industry professionals, archeologist and academia, this simple although crucial change, officially shifted the paradigm of this industry. This began the industry and professional respect for what heretofore was disdain for the typical treasure hunter. Seafarer set the standard for the digging and recovery of historical relics.

Nearly two years after attempting to obtain JUNO BEACH permits, and the documented interference of then Florida’s Chief of the Bureau of Archaeological Research, Charlie Christ, the former Governor of Florida, offers Seafarer a settlement. As part of the settlement Seafarer received their 1A-31 Recovery Permit in April 25th, 2011.

After two years of being attacked by an internet antagonist, a judge awarded a $5,080,000 verdict to Seafarer. Seafarer still hasn’t received payment reflecting a dry judgement. Fortunately the detractor has been silenced. To this date, his comments of libel and defamation unfortunately still exist on the Internet.

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After nearly three years of delays, the state of Florida awarded Seafarer their first 1A-31 recovery permit for JUNO BEACH. This is the first recovery permit issued by the state in over 20 years. To date, Seafarer is the only new entity to receive a recovery permit in over 30 years. This was said to be impossible by most industry insiders. Work immediately began on the JUNO BEACH site.

Seafarer made their first trip to Cuba for a week to research their archives and to gain introductions to archaeologists, conservationists and military Generals, thus developing relationships for future business, post embargo. Seafarer’s relationship got off to a good start and has continued to grow.

Kyle Kennedy met with a treasure hunter who claimed to have seen Spanish coins dated 1694 and 1695 off the Lantana beach. The coins were found within 200 ft of a buried ship structure. Based on the coins proximity to the buried structure, there was a great deal of speculation that the buried ship would have been from 1695. With that speculation, Seafarer pursued obtaining a 1A-31 permit to explore and identify the wreck.

Seafarer by this time had been getting consistent industry attention which lead to another treasure hunter seeking the assistance of Seafarer for the MELBOURNE BEACH site. Upon permitting, their offer was to share the site. Seafarer seized the opportunity after correlating found artifacts indicated it is one of the five ships from the 1715 fleet that was never found.

Dr. John de Bry a leading historical Phd specializing in research and underwater archeology, was able to gain access to the archives in France. He brought Kyle Kennedy along to Dieppe, France, for the first time, to meet with local archaeologists and conservationists at the repository. There they researched the archives concerning the French Le Griffon ship and the 1715 fleet.

Seafarer received their second permit on the Lantana site, investigating it by removing the overburden. Unfortunately it turned out to be an 1890’s composite ship with no value. This set precedence since, to Seafarer’s knowledge, no entity has ever held two permits simultaneously;  one being a 1A-31 full recovery permit,. SFRX stock briefly rallied from about ½ a penny to 4.4 cents.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection had granted Seafarer a two-year extension to the environmental permit for the JUNO BEACH site.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) had granted Seafarer a two-year extension to the Corps Permit for the JUNO BEACH site.

The Board of Trustees of the State of Florida had granted a 5 year Sovereignty Submerged Lands Cultural Resource Recovery Easement for excavation of a shipwreck site located at JUNO BEACH. This important announcement completes the fourth and final requirement for Seafarer to continue its testing, exploration, and recovery work of the very promising shipwreck at the JUNO BEACH site.

Seafarer discovered a large area of the magnetometer survey was missing. JUNO BEACH shipwreck recovery continued during the investigation of the missing targets.

Seafarer was given the entire JUNO BEACH site when judgement entered against the former JUNO BEACH 50/50 partner, Tulco Resources, when it was determined a major section of the magnetometer survey was maliciously deleted to keep Seafarer from being able to successfully identify the shipwreck targets.

While in London introductions were made to various industry contacts which the company believes will be beneficial in the future. While in Dublin, Kyle Kennedy discussed the possibility of salvaging two old Viking shipwrecks.

Seafarer received their third permit (first for MELBOURNE BEACH) from the Florida Bureau of Archaeology Research, which allowed work to begin immediately at the new MELBOURNE BEACH site for the third shipwreck.

A great deal of research was conducted at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France concerning the 1715 fleet, Le Griffon, and any other relevant information on shipwrecks in Florida waters.

Divers extracted what appears to be a colonial era cannon measuring 2.46 meters long and 40 centimeters at its widest point that would have been used to protect the ship and its contents. In addition some wood, spikes, and other encrusted objects have already been found.

A second boat and crew was added  to increase search and recovery capacity. The second boat and additional crew will assist Seafarer in its expanded operations at its new recently permitted underwater site and prior sites. All crew members are independent contractors with backgrounds which complement the dive and operational services required. Two of the recent contractors retained are retired from the U.S. Navy with the rank of E-9,  with top secret security clearances. They have excellent diving skills and tremendous knowledge as to ship maintenance. Other recent contractors providing services to Seafarer have Navy backgrounds combined with service to NASA in MELBOURNE BEACH, as well as U.S. Marine and FBI backgrounds.

Receiving surprising information about not being given the complete magnetometer survey, Seafarer again determined they were working in the wrong area, this time at the MELBOURNE BEACH location. Having obtained this information Seafarer then proceeded to obtain permitting for what is now known as Area 1. After an extensive amount of effort over two years, Seafarer received the Area 1 permit on July 6th, 2016.

Kyle Kennedy and Dr. John de Bry went to Seville, Spain for the first time to research the archives and to meet their top archaeologists and conservationists. While in Spain, Seafarer met with some key legal counsel in Madrid to gain their trust and approval for their future working relationships on Spanish shipwrecks.

The National Foundation for Marine Sciences announced that it awarded the Seafarer Marine Scholarship for 2015. The Scholarships have been awarded to graduating high school science students who will be pursuing careers in marine science and related fields. This year’s recipients are from New York and Florida. Seafarer has provided the majority of the funding, making the scholarships possible.The National Foundation for Marine Sciences is a non-profit organization dedicated to the education, exploration, research and preservation of marine habitats, life, culture and archeology.

Seafarer went to Cuba for four days with Josh Gates and the Travel Channel to film a show entitled “ Expedition Unknown,”  that aired in June 2017 and featured Seafarer’s archaeologist John de Bry.

Finding Seafarer again in an unfortunate partnership, the company defended and won a major case against a former business partner, resulting in the return of 32,300,000 shares of company stock.

Seafarer received their fourth (second for MELBOURNE BEACH) and single most important permit from the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, a three-year 1A-31 exploration permit with a dig and Identify modification for the southernmost area (Area 1) of the MELBOURNE BEACH site. Due to weather, work on the site has been infrequent until June 2017, in which this site is now the company’s main focus.

Kyle Kennedy attended the UNESCO conference in Paris, where he met with the head of NOAA and the Secretariat General of UNESCO,  to continue to expand Seafarer’s relationships with the academic world. Mr. Kennedy also met and established relationships with SEARCH and LAMP, as well as several foreign countries’ lead archeologists.

Federal judge accepted Seafarer’s motion to arrest obtaining a Federal Admiralty Claim in perpetuity, becoming custodian of the JUNO BEACH site.

Seafarer has been granted, through the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a final judgment for its federal admiralty claim on the JUNO BEACH site.

Kyle Kennedy, CEO of Seafarer, stated, “I am very pleased to have this leg of the journey complete after 2 years of detailed legal work as requested by the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research. While we now will file for a renewal of our recovery permit with the Bureau, the history of the continuous admiralty claims for the site gives us certain rights under Federal law. It will be exciting to receive our recovery permit and investigate the vastly undiscovered and approximately one-square-mile area in the deepest part of the site which was previously deleted from the magnetometer survey.”