Talk:Mel Fisher

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WikiProject[edit]

Removal[edit]

I found (but i've replaced here the unacceptable "smart" quotes)

The treasure hunting activities by Fisher and other commercial enterprises lead to criticism from some underwater archaeologists, who stressed that underwater cultural material including ancient shipwrecks is not "treasure", but "cultural heritage".

Most of the vices of passive voice, scare quotes, "is" with the meaning "is in their view", etc. I tried to clean it up, but it's so short on factual claims that it dissolved in my hands. I'd say "treasure" and "cultural heritage" are both slogans, which have a place in an article if we can verify what testable claims their advocates are encapsulating in them, but that's not in the article.
--Jerzyt 04:50, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Enumerating the cargo[edit]

It's not obvious that the value of precious metals is known, since massive jewelry was made for the purpose of taking gold aboard tax-free by wearing it, and it's likely that there are few quantitative records for that.
I {{fact}}-tagged that sentence, tho, bcz it sounds like it counted the silver once by weight and once by count of bars in the same sentence, which is either confusing or misrepresentation.
--Jerzyt 04:50, 16 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks to Floridianed (talk · contribs)
    My apology for leaving, for several hours, my colleague's user page transcluded here, where i intended just their user info! --Jerzyt 10:35, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
for the fine refs next to this passage; they led me to read far more than i imagined i would be interested in, and mention of Islamorada brought back some memories. I can sort of see why one might use the language that risks concealing the overlap between the two enumerations, but i did reword to avoid it.
I put {{vague}} tags on the passages about
merging/merged private and public interests
and
hard times
not necessarily (nor at that point) to solicit refs, and in any case seeking more substantial rewording, to evoke the established knowledge as to those matters, rather than, well, vague descriptions -- terms that may be impossible to verify, bcz the underlying facts are not stated, but only PoVs that are effectively about their significance. I probably don't need to restore the "vague" tags to elicit that: "Hard times" might describe the four deaths (did i miss the first??) but i don't know whether the death Fisher saw in Europe made those a harder time than the cheer-leading, silent doubts, and/or deferral of gratification that were probably involved. Tell us what the "hard times" involved, and give an example or two of the merging of interests, or the kind of objective events that constituted it. (Helping the state spot the unique items might be an instance, but the terms are too vague to tell.)
Thanks again, and keep up the good work.
--Jerzyt 06:52 & 10:26 -:38, 17 September 2008 (UTC) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - While editing others' signed contribs is usually a serious error or worse, i accept and declare constructive user:Floridianed's 14:33, 17 September 2008 correction of the stupid climax of my horrible series of garblings, in versions of the above msg, each of or related to their username. Among other bad effects, i made them appear for several hours to be a freshly minted editor, which is not nearly the case. Floridianed's reaction was admirably gracious. Jerzyt 19:09, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • And depending on who said it, just his being called a pioneer in that merge thing may deserve mention, but the established knowledge is that it was said, not that he was, since being "pioneer" is a PoV matter (how original, how many followed him weigh in a subjective standard). So don't give up the word "pioneer" too easily.
    --Jerzyt 10:46 10:49, 17 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reverted to last good version[edit]

Old version here:[1]. If anything can be merged into the current version from this diff, then great, but the old version was an unformatted pile of crap. Viriditas (talk) 11:07, 27 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why nothing about his confessed counterfeit coins?[edit]

About one month prior to his death Fisher confessed that he had sold counterfeit coins. Why is there no mention about this in the article? NY Times Obit The omission makes it look biased. MagnoliaSouth (talk) 22:39, 30 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It can't go unmentioned that he was found guilty of selling artifical coins. That is a fact. And no matter how unpleasant, it must be part of this page. You can put it there, or I will put it there for you. Since you're trying to hide it, I'll give you every chance to put it there under whatever terms you'd like. But it is going in. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.81.220.136 (talk) 21:56, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Omissions make this Article misleading[edit]

The Article states:

He discovered the wreck July 20, 1985.

In fact, the "discovery" took place years earlier. By 1975 numerous artifacts linked the wreck to the Atocha. A source cited in the Nuestra Señora de Atocha Article states:

In 1975, his son Dirk found five bronze cannon whose markings would clinch identification with the Atocha. Only days later, Dirk and his wife Angel, with diver Rick Gage, were killed when one of the salvage boats capsized.

This entire Article appears to come from biased sources. Everything seems to be linked to the Mel Fisher side of the "business" interests. melfisher.org, melfisher.com, atochatreasure.com, really now? There are many other statements which are at the very least misleading if not completely false. There are numerous other sources for this information including official court records. Komowkwa (talk) 16:33, 25 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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