An eight-year search by the Burntisland Heritage Trust and the Royal Navy began in 1991. The Trust intended to open a museum in Burntisland exhibiting any artefacts that could be salvaged from the Blessing. After finding 200 possible wreck sites within a two-mile area of the estuary, one wreck was closely inspected in 1993, and divers found pottery, shoe leather and bolts dating from the 1600s. The search ended in 1999 with HMS Roebuck discovering a wreck off the coast of Burntisland. Divers were sent below the waves to verify the computerised survey images, and the Secretary of State for Scotland gave the site legal protection to keep treasure hunters at bay.