The San Miguel which sank in the 1551 off Santo Domingo is believed to be one of the richest treasure galleons ever lost at sea, with a cargo of Inca and Aztec treasures looted by Spanish conquistadors.
A fleet of nine ships left San Juan de Ulúa, Mexico, on March 15, 1551.
By April 29, the San Miguel had wrecked off the north coast of Santo Domingo, with no lives lost.
The search was mentioned in the final chapters of Robert Kurson's "Pirate Hunters" (2015), a New York Times Bestseller,[2] when John Chatterton and John Mattera, the divers who found the pirate ship Golden Fleece, were close on the trail of the San Miguel, after a decade of searching.
Chatterton and Mattera then spent the next years narrowing down the lost ship's location.