The spanish treasure fleet or west indies fleet spanish flota de indias also called silver fleet or plate fleet from the spanish plata meaning silver was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the spanish empire from 1566 to 1790 which linked spain with its territories in the americas across the atlanticthe convoys were general purpose cargo fleets used for transporting a wide . Spanish treasure fleet from the 16th to the 18th century spanish convoy of ships transporting european goods to the spanish colonies in the americas and transporting colonial products especially gold and silver back to the mother country beginning in the 1560s shipping between spain and the. In 1715 and again in 1733 spains treasure fleets were devastated by hurricanes off the coast of florida although the spanish managed to recover some treasure much more remained on the ocean floor the sunken ships lay forgotten for more than 200 years until modern treasure hunters discovered several of them today the remains of two of the ships the. The spanish treasure fleet much of spains exploration of the americas centered on the desire to find gold and silver these precious metals were valuable because they were used to make coins