Monday, May 5, 2014

5/5/14 Report - Grapeshot(?) Find, Free Civil War Ordnance Book and 1850 World Currency Values


Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Possible Grapeshot Found in Area of Jensen Beaches.
Find and Photo by Christopher P.
 

This rusted object was found by Christopher P. in the Jensen Beach area.  He thought it could possibly be a grapeshot and wondered if any one else had found a grapeshot in the area.

The area does have some good old history.  There are accounts of numerous Spanish gold coins found after a big storm in that area way back before detectors were being used.

I haven't seen that written about in treasure magazines or any of the treasure literature, but I have seen accounts of that.  The author who wrote the fiction book, Treasure Coast Gold.   has shown old photos and documents relating to that.


There is a table that gives data on round iron civil war shot.  Here is the link.

http://www.civilwarartillery.com/shottables.htm

That table shows the allowable diameter for a 6 pounder being 1.14-1.17 inches and weight being 0.21 pounds.

The amount of corrosion on the dug item makes it difficult to measure precisely, but it seems to be a touch under that.

A great google ebook that you can access free on the internet is the following.  The Ordnance Manual for the Use of the Officers of the United States Army, 1861.

If you are interested in US military weapons, you'll love this book.  It has everything.  A very good research book.

Here is the link.

https://archive.org/details/ordnancemanualfo00unit

And the following table came from the same book.



If you want to identify weapons from the Civil War period or any of their parts down to the number of screws or bolts, you'll find it all in that book.


Here are the results of the most recent poll that just concluded.

1. On an ocean beach                    52(46%)
2. In the ocean                               21(18%)
3. Along inland waterway                9(8%)
4. In inland water                              8(7%)
5. Dry land                                       47(42%)
6. Did not detect this month             35(31%)

The first thing I wanted to see is how many people were detecting only one type of area.  There were 111 people who voted and 173 choices.  That means that on average respondents were detecting just over 1.5 of the places listed.  Put another way, about half the people were detecting one type of site, and about half two or more sites.  I know I need to ask more questions to make that more precise, but I think it is a fair rough approximation.  A lot of people seem to be detecting only one of the types of sites listed but about as many are detecting more than one. 

I often warn about the possibility of getting in a rut and recommend trying some different types of sites.  You will probably learn something new if you try another type of detecting.

The most detected place according to the results of this survey is the ocean beach.  That isn't surprising.  It is easy to detect ocean beaches and much of the Treasure Coast is off-limits because of salvage and exploratory leases.  However, I know from previous polls that many of the people who read this blog are not from the Treasure Coast and many live far from the ocean.

Less than half the number of respondents who detect on an ocean beach detect in the ocean.  Again, on the Treasure Coast a lot of the ocean is off-limits.

In some ways it is easier to detect on the beach, especially when the water is rough.  You also need a waterproof detector to detect anything but the most shallow water in the ocean.  That means more expense too.  However if you detect a busy tourist beach where gold jewelry is common, you will find much more gold in the water.

I'm going to end there for today and pick up with this tomorrow.

Locally we have about a two foot surf today and an East wind.  Not promising.

Let me know what you think about Chistopher's find or if you have found a grape shot or anything similar in the same area.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net