FOR USE WITH STORY SLUGGED LIFE SHIPWRECKS, 2001-04-05 (photo)

Attorney David Paul Horan of Key West, Florida, wears gold chains and holds gold bars in this photo taken April 5, 2001, that were recovered from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha that sank off the Florida Keys in 1622. The gold that Horan displays is just a tiny portion of the treasure found on the Atocha after a 16-year search by the late Mel Fisher, whose portrait hangs behind Horan. Horan is spearheading an effort to ask Congress for a blanket declaration that all vessels that sank before 1949 are presumed to be abandoned unless otherwise claimed. RCS