Academic historians – or at least one sub-species of them - display growing interest in underwater archaeology, but nearly all of these profess little but disdain for treasure salvors who dive for precious metals and jewels hidden in submerged shipwrecks. Even so, the academics sometimes rub elbows with the undersea hunters and I myself became involved with them in 1982 and again in 1995–1996. I might add that they contacted me - not the other way around. This article is designed to document my experience, and while it is not intended in any way to be an exposé, I think it might be useful to my profession and to my Brazilian friends to learn something of how the salvors operate.