Sebastian Tutors

About Sebastian

In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships leaving Cuba and heading back to Spain were hit by a massive hurricane off the coast of Florida on the 20 mile stretch between modern-day Sebastian and Vero Beach. Originally comprised of twelve ships, eleven went down with the storm, and some estimates put the death toll at about 1,000 men lost or killed because of the hurricane. These ships were loaded with treasure—gold and silver—and by modern standards, worth more than 500 million dollars.

The efforts to salvage and recover the eleven sunken ships have been frequent and varied since the initial wreck. Pirates initially went in to salvage goods from the wreck, searching the shores of the beach for coins and other cargo to wash up. These pirates, in turn, were taken over by Henry Jennings, famed privateer. When word reached other ships engaged in the colonialist project, many flocked to the Florida coastline to see what they could salvage as well.

To this day, only a portion of the sunken treasure has been recovered. Treasure Hunter Kip Wagner, in the 1960s, famously explored the wreck and brought up thousands of pieces to display in Washington, D.C. He was subsequently featured on the cover of National Geographic. One of the boats, Urca de Lima, was also dredged up to go on display thanks to the archeological preserves of Florida and their hard work preserving the legend and images of the wreck. Most recently, 4.5 million dollars’ worth of gold coins were discovered off the coast, and still more remain entrenched in the sandy depths of the ocean. The turbulent tides of Florida’s Atlantic coast certainly stir them periodically, and the wreck itself has been subject of legend and pop culture references for many years since; movies and books have focused on the sunken fleet and the treasures it hides and yields for explorers who seek it.

Locals who live in the Sebastian and Vero Beach region are well-versed with the legend of the Spanish fleet. Metal detectors and visitors familiar with the tides are standard features of the stretch of beach that runs along this part of the coast. Amateurs and experts alike have found coins washed ashore, and there is a thriving market for precious metals that are salvaged from the wreck 300 years after it initially happened.

Finding sunken treasure, metaphorically, is also the task of Grade Potential tutors. Tutors plumb the intellectual and academic depths of their clients to draw out the best in them. They bring up and draw out the valuable attributes that contribute to academic success, and they leave buried the bad habits that lead to suffering grades in the first place. The learning process is largely a process of discovery—something residents of Sebastian are already quite familiar with.