Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
Toy Lead Cannon in Sedwick Auction.It is from a mid-1800s shipwreck The reason it caught my attention is that I once found a similar lead item. For a long time I thought it was a finial, but now I am pretty much convinced that it is probably a soldier-art cannon.
The one I found was found near an 18th century cannon emplacement on Pigeon Island.
Carved 18th Century Soldier-Art Cannon?It is always fun to metal detect new places when you travel. It was a lot easier to travel with a metal detector before the 911 tragedy.
I would take my detector with me as carry-on luggage. Security would look at it, ask me what it was, I'd tell them, they'd scratch their heads and I'd walk on the plane with it.
St. Lucia is one island I visited a few times. On a couple of occasions I explored Pigeon Island, which is now connected to St. Lucia by a causeway.
There was a lot of history on the ground to see. There were a lot of historic ruins, and shards all over the place. I even eye-balled a grapeshot at the base of tree.
I left the grapeshot where it was. If it was taken on the plane and considered an explosive device, which I suppose would have been the case, the fine at the time, if I remember correctly, would have been something like $250,000. I wasn't going to chance anything like that.
Here is a little of the history of the Pigeon Island.
Pigeon Island was first occupied by the Amerindians, mainly Caribs. The island was later occupied by pirates whose leader was a Norman Captain called Francois Le Clerc. He had a wooden leg and was known to the French as Jambe de Bois. The French who owned the island in 1778 declared war on the British, who retaliated by attacking them in Saint Lucia and capturing the island. The British then built a Naval Base at Gros-Islet Bay, heavily fortifying Pigeon Island. From there they were able to monitor the French fleet in Martinique which resulted in the defeat of the French at the Battle of the Saints in 1782. Pigeon Island was therefore a key factor in the Battles between the British and the French. In 1909 a whaling station was established at Pigeon Island.
That came from the following web site.
http://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=st+lucia+pigeon+island+le+clerc&s_it=tb50-ie-aolmail-ab-en-us
If you look at the photos of the island, I think you will see that it is an interesting looking place.
The latest Sedwick Coins auction will be closing LIVE on April 10-11 (Tuesday-Wednesday). You can bid now online if you are registered.
Here is another article on the Odyssey Marine treasure of the Mercedes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46544785/ns/technology_and_science-science/
The article says that Spain will now set about classifying and restoring the 594,000 coins and other artifacts involved before it figures out how to display them for the public.
They say, It will thus be a fairly complex job and is going to take some time.
At least while Spain goes broke, a few archaeologists will have something to do.
So i guess we might expect to see a display in something like 2099, by which time some of the coins will have gone missing, or the entire lot will be lost in some dusty basement. Or am I being too pessimistic?
The article points out that at the time of their discovery, the coins were estimated to be worth as much as $500 million to collectors, but then the article says, These coins are not money. They are archaeological pieces.
From a number of articles recently written by archaeologists I would conclude that they actually have no archaeological value because they have been removed from their context.
If you ever listen to WPSL, a guy was advertising this morning for a high-end metal detector.
If you want to buy or sell some equipment, let me know. I might be able to post it.
The Treasure Coast beaches are accumulating more and more sand. The flat beach that I showed a few days ago is not longer flat. It now has sand piled up on the front beach.
The weather is still beautiful and there are still a lot of snow birds in the area.
The big news here is that around Sunday, the seas will be increasing to about 7 or 8 feet. I hope that prediction turns out to be right.
It's been quite a while since we had anything like that to stir things up. It's still a bit in the future. We'll have to wait a few days to see what happens.
Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
