In 1870 a German immigrant named Homer Ludwig jumped ship at Key West. For 20 years he worked as the town’s handyman scraping out a living by doing odd jobs for people. Most of his spare time was spent studying the history of Key West.
In 1890 Homer bought a small boat. He explained, to those who asked, the reason for the boat was that he wanted to go treasure hunting He claimed to have learned the location of a chest containing gold coins. It was said that the chest had belonged to the captain of a doomed ship. The captain, trying to save the treasure, had brought it ashore and buried it in the sand intending to return for it later, but he never did.
Homer set sail in his small boat and was not seen for some years until one day he was sighted at Key Largo. He had built a small shack out of drift wood and palm fronds. The old man had been living on Key Largo for five years before anyone figured out how he was getting his money. As it turns out Homer had been selling gold and silver coins, a few at a time, to a coin dealer in Miami in order to buy the things that he needed.
One day in 1909 Homer decided to make another trip to Miami so he got into his boat and readied it for the journey. Some fishermen who noticed that he was making ready to sail told Homer of an impending storm. Homer was undaunted and sailed on anyway. The last time his boat was seen he was heading north towards Miami, but he never made it. The storm came in and the old man was never seen again.
Somewhere on Key Largo the rest of the Spanish treasure is waiting for someone to find and claim it again.