New Discoveries Inc.

The Dispatch

Issue No. 1 · August 2026 · Fort Pierce, Florida

Friends,

You are receiving this as part of the Treasure Experience family. New Discoveries is our nonprofit arm, a 501(c)(3) building the flagship shipwreck museum in Fort Pierce, and The Dispatch is its field report. It will arrive when there is something real to show you: progress on the museum, footage from the water, pages from the archive. No filler, no fundraising letter dressed up as news. When we have nothing to report, you will hear nothing, and that silence will mean we are working.

This month there is plenty to show you.

From the Museum

Walk through the museum before it exists

Our flagship museum in Fort Pierce is still ahead of us, but you no longer have to imagine it. We built a full 3D concept walkthrough you can explore in your browser: a restored banking hall with its original vault door standing open as the Treasure Vault, display cases you can click to inspect, and an immersion theater running real footage from the seafloor.

A new gallery opened this month inside the walkthrough: the Captain Fizz Room, honoring the legendary treasure diver Carl "Fizz" Fismer with a recovered cannon, the explorer's field glasses, and photographs from the water. In its corner stands the Haskins archive: the chart table, the library, and documents in the style of the Spanish archives where the research behind our collection was done. Every artifact on display is a real scan of a real object. Take the guided tour, or press Walk Freely and wander at your own pace.

From the Water

Aboard the Judge Perez

Our new Expeditions page puts you on the deck of the Judge Perez, the salvage vessel our partners at Treasure Experience work from, with real footage of the crew, the divers, and the descent to the bottom. It walks through how a discovery actually happens, from survey to conservation, and carries a live fleet status line so you always know whether the team is in port or on the water.

From the Archive

The 1715 fleet, mapped

Why is this stretch of Florida called the Treasure Coast? Our new history of the 1715 fleet tells the story in three parts: the combined fleets of Ubilla and Echeverz, the hurricane of July 31, 1715, and the twentieth-century rediscovery that gave the coast its name. It now ends with a chart of the seven traditional wreck sites, from the survivors' camp at McLarty to the Urca de Lima. Every site is protected under Florida law, and the map tells you that too.

For Our Donors

The Founders' Wall is waiting for its first names

Giving got a proper home this month. There are now five giving levels, from Friend at $25 to Charter Benefactor at $5,000, each with real benefits and each fully tax deductible. Donors at $1,000 join the Founding Circle: your name engraved on the physical Founders' Wall when the museum opens, and listed on the virtual wall in the walkthrough starting now. A new Honor Roll page recognizes donors at $500 and above, always with your permission and never without it.

The practical side is handled too: give by card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay, dedicate a gift in memory or in honor of someone, and manage everything yourself in the Donor Portal, including printable year-end tax statements. No passwords, no accounts to maintain.

That is the month. A museum you can walk through, a vessel you can stand on, and a coastline whose story is finally laid out the way it deserves. Thank you for being here at the beginning; it is the best time to be part of anything.

Michael Bomhoff
Executive Director, New Discoveries Inc.

New Discoveries Inc. · 100 Avenue A, Suite 2B, Fort Pierce, FL 34950
A 501(c)(3) public charity, IRS Tax ID 99-1824697. Donations are tax deductible.

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