OFF THE DEEP END is the story of John Brandon's life-long quest for the remains of sunken Spanish galleons found along Florida's Treasure Coast, the area of Key West and the Marquesas, and Grand Bahama Island, where he found what he was looking for... treasure His explorations, recoveries, and adventures are a captivating narrative replete with Gold Doubloons and Pieces of Eight, generously peppered with humor, danger and tragedy
As a youngster the author spent many days combing the beachfront, metal detector in hand, along the eastern shores of Central Florida where he perfected his methods, and sharpened his recall of shipwreck locations that produced many, many artifacts and coins for his own collection. In time he would become a key figure of the famed Treasure Salvors epic as a highly trusted ally of Mel Fisher. Within this volume, John describes his enduring fixation with the discovery of treasure from the instant where he held his first Spanish treasure coin at the age of ten, through adulthood into the year's of the early 1980s. The book begins with the Brandon family's connection to history, as they progressed from England, to the United States, and finally to Florida. This heritage stimulated the author's appreciation of treasure, as well as the historical context surrounding those lost ships of old, the remains of which have provided the author with unsurpassed adventure This first-person narrative is guaranteed to hold your attention throughout and it is liberally illustrated with previously unpublished photos.