Small Chisel Found Years Ago On a 1715 Fleet Beach.I recently showed a photo of a large cleaned chisel found on a Treasure Coast beach. Here is another chisel that was found on a wreck beach. This one, as you can see, is much smaller than the other one that was found earlier this year.
Odyssey Marine made a 7 million dollar deal with Neptune Minerals to provide exploration services. After a big dive in the stock's price as a result of a new offering of four million shares, the stock price might be ready to bounce back a little. Yesterday saw some gains on a day when most stocks increased in value.
Here is the link if you want to read more about Odyssey's the deal with Neptune.
http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2011/06/13/odyssey-marine-strikes-7m-deal.html
Microscopic analysis reveals how Native Americans worked copper into artifacts six hundred years ago.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-06/nu-sea061311.php
You might remember the copper arrowhead and beads that I showed not too long ago.
I'm really tired of talking about crime and really don't want to do it, but here is what happened back on Memorial Day in Miami. You just need to be aware.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/30/2241990/police-gunmen-open-fire-on-south.html
And Treasure Coast officials, you don't need to even think about bringing any Hip Hop Urban Weekends up here. We have enough problems without that sort of thing.
The Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) is a society that you can join if you can trace your ancestry to an ancestor who fought for the colonies in the Revolutionary War.
The most recent SAR magazine (Spring, 2011) contains an article on privateers in the American Revolution. It presents a lot of interesting information.
Privateers were not pirates. Not technically anyhow. They were private contractors who were given a "Letter of Marque" to capture ships and cargoes of foreign nations during war. Pirates, on the other hand, acted entirely on their own.
One of the surprising things that I learned form the article is that the number of privateering vessels for the colonies during the Revolutionary War far outnumbered the number of vessels in the Continental Navy. The article says that "an estimated 70,000 plus men served aboard privateers" while the Continental Navy totaled 53 ships and 3400 men.
In the peak year of 1781 alone, 551 Letters of Marquee were issued for privateers for the colonies.
Another thing that I learned is how much more lucrative and attractive it was to be a privateer as compared to serving in the Continental Navy. For one example, in 1779... a 14-year-old cabin boy received the following for his share after one cruise: $700, 1 ton of sugar, 35 gallons of rum, 20 pounds of cotton, 20 pounds of ginger, 20 pounds of allspice and 20 pounds of logwood.
That cabin boy went away a rich man after one cruise. For comparison, a captain in the Continental Navy received a monthly salary of about $32. No comparison really!
One table in the same article shows that about 300 of the colonies' privateering vessels were ships, about 525 brigs and brigantines, 750 schooners and sloops, and 100 boats and galleys.
If you want to read more of the article, you can probably find a copy of the latest issue of the SAR Magazine at your local library.
After a review of all the evidence, archaeologists are now ready to declare that the wreck previously thought to be Blackbeard's ship that sunk in 1718, is indeed the Queen Anne's Revenge.
Here is a link to that story.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/10/3692152/its-official-ship-found-off-nc.html
If you are looking for information on the location of the wreck leases, check out yesterday's post.
I posted a new survey. It should provide some good information if we get enough responses.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
It sure is hot. We've been setting records. Yesterday Vero hit 99 degrees.
We finally got a little rain yesterday. I'll remind you that rain can be good for eye-balling.
The small thunder storms can also kick up enough wind and waves to cause a little erosion. Not much - but sometimes enough to help a little. Any little cuts occuring yesterday would be small and highly localized. Only worth checking if there is a spot where you think there are might be some targets just a little out of detector range. Sometimes it only takes a few inches of additional depth.
Despite whatever little effect the rain might have had, there are otherwise no significant changes to report. Certainly overall T. C. beach conditions remain substantially unchanged.
No increase in the surf is expected for several days.
In addition to working tourist beaches, or the shallow water, another idea would be to look check some of the lake or river banks. Water levels are really low.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net