It’s a story that could equal any Indiana Jones script. Except that it’s true.

In 1699, the French frigate Maurepas sinks off the coast of an uninhabited part of Panama, taking with it a load full of gold, silver and jewels gifted from Charles II of Spain to King Louis XIV of France. The treasure was payment to fight their common British enemy. After the vessel sinks, the captain and crew try to find their haul, to no success. For centuries, the wreck becomes the stuff of legends, with only the remote indigenous Guna Yala tribe privy to its exact location. They have every intention to keep it hidden.

More than 300 years later, the Guna Yala in Panama’s San Blas archipelago have decided to reveal the whereabouts of the wreck. But here’s the Indiana Jones twist. In 2011, Ocean X divers Peter Lindberg and Dennis Åberg uncovered what is now known as the “The Baltic Sea Anomaly” in the waters of Northern Europe—a still-unidentified object 300 feet below sea level. Some said the odd murky sonar image is an alien spaceship, others believe it’s the lost city of Atlantis. Still others say it’s just a glacial formation on the ocean floor.

Thousands of miles away, when the Guna Yala read about this discovery, they quickly came to believe that the Baltic Sea Anomaly is the vessel their ancestors descended from the skies in. And they became convinced that its discoverers, Lindberg and Åberg, were the ones that needed to bring their lost treasure back to the surface. They gave up the secret location to the two explorers.

The final plot twist that nobody could’ve guessed?

When Linberg and Åberg finally take the plunge in search of the Maurepas treasure in the next few months, yacht charter guests will be able to tag along for the adventure—and collect some of the proceeds of the treasure. “This is a phenomenal opportunity to be part of history,” Gayle Patterson, director of yachting at Pelorus Yachting, which is partnering with Ocean X on the hunt, tells Robb Report. 

Using yachts as vehicles to solve underwater mysteries is nothing new: in 2015, the legendary explorer yacht Octopus located the famous Musashi, a Japanese battleship sunk during World War II, off the coast of the Philippines, with the explorer’s first owner, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, on board. Allen, however, never would’ve considered chartering berths to strangers as he searched for wreck.

But the quest to find Maurepas, a unique and logistically challenging expedition, shows how expedition-yacht companies are moving towards experiences that blend one-off adventure, learning and responsible travel. And it’s not just treasure hunting. Other adventure travel firms are setting up charters that go beyond typical week-long visits to the Med or Caribbean.

In Panama, for instance, the charter guests will be much more than spectators. “They’ll be an integral part of the exploration team,” Patterson says. Besides diving with Linberg and Åberg, they will participate in briefs and debriefs with the dive team and meet with members of the Guna Yala, a closely guarded and deeply spiritual community

Guests will even claim a stake in a treasure chest valued at $24 million. The Guna Yala community will keep 70 percent of any eventual sales, and four charter guests will each be entitled to 4.94 percent of the remaining 30 percent, along with a payment of $25,000 for appearing in the documentary that Ocean X will film. If the guests uncover the trove, they won’t be walking away with gold doubloons in their bags, but will receive a check when the treasure is later auctioned off.

The charter is open to a maximum of four people from the same group, with the starting price for the adventure set at £139,000 (or about $186,200) per person for seven nights onboard the catamaran that will accommodate the dive team. The price may vary, says Patterson, since Pelorus can arrange a yacht charter if a larger party or extended family wants to come along and follow the adventure as well. 

Patterson points to two yachts in the Pelorus fleet based in the region available for charter: the 131-foot Kontiki Wayra, which can sleep up to 18 guests in nine staterooms and charters from $140,000 a week, and the 210-foot SuRi, with a glass-bottom viewing platform, helicopter and a toy chest full of jet skis and hoverboards. Chartering from $350,000 per week, the vessel can accommodate 12 people.

The Maurepas is known to be resting under layers of sediment about 50 feet below the waterline. “We started the project by scanning the ocean floor first with sub-bottom profilers to pinpoint a precise area where the ship is. Now we know its position, the charter guests can come out to be part of the diving and, hopefully, retrieval of artefacts up to the surface,” explains filmmaker Mikael Flodell of Deep Blue Explorers, the arm of Ocean X leading the search for the wreck. 

So far, the treasure hunters haven’t gotten any charter takers. “From December to March isn’t a good period to dive and we want it to be pleasant with crystal clear waters,” says Flodell. That means most likely the charter will happen in April but the pressure will be on, since some remnants of the French frigate have been recently uncovered, meaning the legend is real.

For other bucket-list charters, EYOS Expeditions, is also attempting to write new styles of charter adventure with the Solace Odyssey, a three-year global circumnavigation split into six chartering segments, with returning guests across each segment crafting the itinerary depending on their interests and timing.

“You can build an arc of connectivity around the experience you want to create,” EYOS’ co-founder Ben Lyons tells Robb Report. “If you want your family to learn how to scuba dive, you can train in the Caribbean this winter, then come back in six months when the yacht is in French Polynesia so the dive team can introduce you to their favorite spots. Next, you can meet them in Indonesia, before moving to more advanced, cold-weather diving when the yacht is in Greenland.” 

The yacht in question is the 187-foot Solace, built at Feadship in 2004 and having recently completed a 10-month refit that includes increased fuel capacity and an additional cabin behind the bridge to accommodate the experts needed on board. The idea to shake up the typical seven-day charter model came from the Solace’s new owner, who will also participate in the three-year odyssey. “He is keen to find a limited number of clients that see the added value you can have from being part of a program you can help shape,” Lyons says. 

Pelorus and EYOS appreciate that these styles of chartering aren’t for everyone. “But there is a strong market for people who have been looking for this,” says Lyons, adding that his firm is also seeing an increase in citizen-science yacht experiences. “We just organized a charter in Central America where the client brought researchers on board and paid for a support boat to allow them to undertake research alongside their trip,” he says.

Such is the demand that EYOS now has a full-time Manager of Technical, Science and Conservation Projects. “Of course, people want to be comfortable, but they also want more substance and less fluff,” Lyons says. “What better place than a yacht? There’s an intrinsic magic that happens on board. Once you’ve experienced it, it’s so much more appealing than sitting around a swimming pool in the south of France.”

Plus, anyone finding the Maurepas treasure would come home not only with the story of a lifetime, but full pockets.