Photo of Cannon Being Raised.Photo from Jacksonville.com.
I just noticed yesterday that my hit counter just blew through 200,000 the other day. That seemed fast.
The big news for me today is the cannons that were recovered from an area within sight of the St. Augustine Beach pier. It seems the wreck is from the late 18th century, possibly between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Here is the link for more of the story and a video.
http://m.jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-06-28/story/shipwreck-yields-cannon-st-augustine-coast
Or,
http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-06-29/story/cannons-retrieved-mystery-ship-st-augustine-begin-long-restoration
The thesis I talked about yesterday is interesting for a number of reasons. One is that it is based upon a reevaluation of artifacts that were in a collection for some time just gathering dust. As the author points out, good information can be obtained from going back to old artifacts and taking another look. I recommend that you do that with your own finds. It is often surprising what insights you'll get at a later date that never occurred to you at first.
You might also want to look through the thesis at the maps and artifacts, including the spikes and pot shards.
I just got a lot of good information about the medallion that I posted way back on 8/23/09. Quite a story goes with it. I'll have to get into that more some other time. Maybe tomorrow.
It seems that a lot of the public has a negative opinion about detectorists. I know that some archaeologists portray detectorists as grave robbers or worse, but I know what their motives are. It is the regular man on the street who has never tried detecting and doesn't have a clue, that I wonder about. A lot of the negativity is just ignorance I guess. And detectorists don't do the best job of informing the public about their contributions. They don't tell how many coins are returned to circulation, how many eye glasses and car keys found, the number of rings returned, and all of the businesses built around metal detecting.
People sometimes ask me about the Florida West Coast. I've spent some time over there and know of some treasure beaches on the west coast, but I don't know the west coast area nearly as well as the Treasure Coast and South Florida.
Anyhow, here is one sunken shipwreck story from the Tampa Bay area from back in January. Not much is known about the source of the artifacts yet. Just supposition.
http://www.tbnweekly.com/pubs/belleair_bee/content_articles/012611_bee-04.txt
Coinshooting and beach hunting are different in a variety of ways. One way is that on beaches, items are frequently moved when the waves move the sand. That is a big difference and requires learning to read a beach.
ON a beach you don't have to pin-point the target so precisely. Digging a coin on dry land requires accurate pin-pointing and removing a plug without damaging the coin. On a beach, you just scoop and sift. Of course on a beach you can still damage coins if your scoop hits the coin or object, so learning to pinpoint more accurately can help on a beach too, but it is not usually so critical. That is why I recommend what I call cross-training. If you hunt different ways and places, you'll always learn something that you can apply elsewhere.
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
The wind is still out of the south and the seas calm. You probably know that we have been having rain all week. Rain doesn't bother me, but lightening does. You'll sometimes hear lightening crackling in your ear phones when it is still far away.
The wind is still out of the south and the sea is calm. It doesn't look like that will change anytime soon. You'll be dealing with sanded in beaches, as has been the case for at least a few weeks now.
Low tide is now around 1 or 2 o'clock.
There is one named tropical storm now. Arlene. Arlene is down by Mexico and bringing us some of the moisture we've been having. I don't think the Treasure Coast will be affected much by Arlene otherwise.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
