Patrice Mince Sets Her Eyes on Six Legendary Sunken Treasures

Scuba diver Patricia Mince has had a single dream ever since she was a child, and that is to search for treasure. Her parents used to give her treasure maps to find her Christmas and birthday presents, and she started scuba diving from a young age in the hopes of finding something amazing. She has now been all over the world, diving in some of the most remote places in the world, focusing particularly on sunken wrecks. She has now revealed that she has set her eyes on six legendary sunken treasures.

Patricia Mince says: "There's a little adventurer in every one of us, and a big one in me. I know treasures exist, and they're just waiting to be found. I want to be the one that finds them. I know it's not going to be easy, and maybe I will come back with nothing at all, but a fantastic adventure awaits me this year. I have planned a full year to search for six different treasures, and I'm just buzzing with excitement!"

Mince's first quest is for the sunken Spanish treasure fleet, believed to be somewhere on the Treasure Coast of Florida. Not long ago, a family found a gold cache of $300,000 while scuba diving just outside of the shore. History indicates that there is a lot more where that came from, however. Eleven galley- and galleon-class ships sailed in 1715, filled with treasure, in the middle of the hurricane season. All 11 ships sank, and the location of four of them is still unknown. The only clue is that silver plates and golden goblets sometimes wash up on the beach. "I'm going to start easy," adds Smith. "If I can just find the smallest thing here, I know it will give me the motivation for all the other treasures as well."

She will then travel to the Rocky Mountains, where Forrest Fenn is said to have buried a million-dollar treasure. He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1988, and decided to bury his wealth for a lucky finder to spot. "Fenn actually provided instructions in his memoirs! I know I can find it — although I have to admit that hundreds of people have said the same thing."

After the Rocky Mountains, Mince will head to California to find the desert-stranded pearly galleon. Mince says: "There are ships hidden in the deserts, because deserts weren't always deserts, and because they have often been seen as perfect hiding places. My scuba diving skills will come in handy here, not because I will actually be diving, but because I understand currents, and how the movements of a long ago sea could have influenced what things look like now." The pearly galleon is said to be hidden in Cahuilla, once a huge lake, where it was washed up in through a massive tidal wave in 1612. While the crew survived, they left the ship and its treasure behind.

After California, Mince will go to New Mexico, before finally leaving the country. In New Mexico, she will look for the dynamited treasure of Victorio Peak. Legend has it that Doc Noss, in 1937, found a mine shaft full of treasure. He decided to expand the entrance to the mine in order to be able to reach his findings. Unfortunately, what he actually did was close the mine off. Mince believes that an underground network of rivers may just be key to finding the treasure.

Her next stop will be Israel, where she aims to follow the clues left in the Dead Sea scrolls. She says: "The Dead Sea Scrolls contain 64 different spots in Israel that are supposed to be caches of silver and gold, and I aim to find at least one."

From Israel, Mince will head on to Vietnam in an effort to find Emperor Tu Duc's secret tomb, said to be filled with gold. He was a controversial emperor and said to have been buried with all his gold, but this tomb has never been found. Patricia Mince says: "I think it's in the water. Nobody has looked there yet. This is where my scuba diving skills will really come in handy."

Patricia Mince is looking forward to the coming year. Even if she finds nothing, she will have the opportunity to visit places in this country where she has never been to before, as well as to see some parts of the world. She has come to an agreement with a number of museums to help fund her travels. Should she find something, those museums will have priority in terms of display.

Source: Patrice Mince

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