The Motivational Story of Mel Fisher

    Hay dyudes, today we're going to discuss one of the greatest MELs out there, MEL Fisher. Now, MEL Fisher was just your ordinary kid growing up. He was a country-man in Glen Park, Indiana, born in 1922 with nothing unusual to his name besides some big dreams. MEL wanted to become a treasure hunter, just like he saw Jim Hawkins and others do in the books he looked to for inspiration. But alas, Indiana isn't known for its sunken treasures, or oceans at all for that matter. And so MEL had to wait. But he was destined to aMELiorate his own present situation of boredom and not belonging,  that was for sure.

    After graduating college, serving overseas as an Army Engineer, and moving from Indiana to Florida and California,  MEL still hadn't forgotten his dream of diving and finding sunken treasure. Soon, he took some lessons, opened a small scuba shop (first in the world) (in addition to a chicken ranch) (the chicken ranch wasn't a new thing, there were plenty of those around unlike the dive shop), and began diving off the coasts of California.

    Soon, MEL found love. He and his wife, Dolores Horton Fisher, continued diving around the world and building a family. Yep, just scuba and procreation, those were the two most important words in the Fisher household. Countless dives and 5 children later, MEL still had yet to find anything truly great. 

    Just then, MEL got a call from a fellow treasure hunter, inviting him and his gear to take a look at the wreck of a 1715 Spanish fleet carrying loads of silver. This could be his big break! MEL and a team decided to spend a year in Florida, trying to uncover the fleet. They tried as hard as they could, butt the clock was ticking. On the 360th day of their efforts, when any sane man would have gone into a MELtdown about the impending deadline and how they had not found anything, the men uncovered silver coins. Loads and loads of silver coins. They had found the wreck! Huzzah! Indeed, excavators and explorers would continue finding valuables in the area for years to come. But MEL's job was done.

    Everything seemed great for MEL at that time. He'd achieved sweet, sweet, caraMEL-tasting money and fame. And it would get even better. In 1973, MEL sighted some gold bars in the Florida Keys, part of a by-then almost 14-year project to discover the wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a ship that sank in 1622 while carrying New World riches bound for Spain. Eventually, he found cannons that could be traced back to the Atocha, making it his crowning achievement in the field of treasure hunting. He was now officially in the liMELight.

    But suddenly, tragedy struck. His eldest son, Dirk (and his wife), who was also into the diving scene, tragically died an untiMELy death, during a boat accident. This happened only days after MEL had found the cannons. MEL was distraught to say the least. How could he keep keeping on when he'd lost someone he loved? Well, MEL chose to persevere. Instead of having a MELtdown, he took on the personal motto "Today's the day", which meant something indeed.

    Despite the sadness inside, MEL chose to move forward. He built museums and foundations to protect his finds, and to educate others about them. In life, I'm sure that MEL Fisher was very MELlow, of course excepting when discussing his passion of treasure hunting. MEL's legacy is very rad indeed. The find of the Atocha was one of the greatest moments in modern treasure hunting, perhaps coming second only to finding King Tut's tomb. And that's not even me being MELodramatic. He even got a Wikipedia article. What a lad, and what a MEL.