The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum (Key West)

As promised in my post about our trip to Key West, here is a sub-post on the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, also referred to as the treasure museum!

We arrived just a few minutes before they opened, so I had time to take a few photos outside.

(BTW, I took a bunch of photos, but I would be the first to admit, they're pretty random, based on what caught my eye. For actual info, if you're curious beyond the "After years of searching, they found a sunken Spanish ship full of treasure," see their website.)

This sign reminds me of a t-shirt I had as a teenager, that said "We have brass nipples." The story behind it isn't really as much fun as speculating about it!

Cannon, head-on.

What a lot of scissors.

Recipe for making ink.

I didn't see that any of the labels in this case explained this unusual piece.

Can you imagine wearing that heavy chain on the left? I get wanting to display one's wealth (see below), but ow.

Look at it!

And what are those, you ask?

Bezoars, of course. Hello, Harry Potter.

Much of the treasure was really what one thinks of as treasure.

Mammoth silver bricks, essentially.

This anchor caught my eye.

As well as the exhibits relating to Mel Fisher and the treasure, there were exhibits on sailing, piracy, slavery, and other related things.

I especially loved Ann God Wills It's story here.

There were unexpected details in corners and half-hidden spots.

Aka the Dread Pirate Roberts? Or at least maybe an inspiration to William Goldman.

I kind of like the individuality of the coins.

In the section on slave trade, there was a long list of supplies. I like that there was soap, salt water soap, and castile soap.

And yarn!

Well, as I said, random photos. I did enjoy the museum, Next stop, cats!