Sunday, September 21, 2014

9/21/14 Report - Mystery Object. Wreck Of The Civil War Blockade Runner Mary Celestia. More On Missing Treasure Hunter.


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




Anybody have an ideas what this is.  I haven't posted many mystery items lately.  This one has no metal in it.   I don't know if it is naturally formed or was made.

 It is made of compressed bits of shell or conglomerate.  There are no signs of rust or anything like that.

As it is, it would make a decent candle holder.

Here are two pictures.  Below is a close-up.

What do you think?   Any ideas appreciated.









The Mary Celestia was a Civil War iron-hulled sidewheel steamship that sank near Bermuda. It was a blockade runner.

Bermuda is surrounded by more than 150 shipwrecks.

It was discovered in 1505 by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermudez.

It wasn’t until Hurricane Bill in 2009 that Mary Celestia would reveal more of its secrets. On August 22, 2009, Hurricane Bill passed 80 miles off Bermuda, with 75-mileper- hour winds that knocked out power and sent massive waves crashing into the south shore. As surges washed over the reefs and around Mary Celestia, tons of sand, close to eight feet deep on the wreck and packed into the tight spaces inside the bow, were removed, along with the 12 sandbags Rouja placed there in 2006. Revealed were a single corked and still full bottle of wine, the corner of what appeared to be a wooden case, and also the entire starboard side of the stern of the ship—something Rouja had never seen in all his years of diving the site. Rouja photographed the site, retrieved the bottle of wine for analysis, and placed fresh sandbags in the bow. (Excerpt from the article linked immediately below.)

This is a good article about the history and partial excavation of the Mary Celestia.

http://archive.archaeology.org/1111/letter/mary_celestia_bermuda_civil_war_noaa.html


Close-up View Looking Into the Hole
Of The Mystery Object.


I've talked about using magnets or other items to remove iron from junky sites before detecting.  Some sites without a lot of iron have a lot of aluminum near the surface.  Older items can be beneath that.   Instead of using the types of tools that I've described for removing iron junk, I've found a pole with a sharp nail on the end helpful for removing aluminum junk.   Save the aluminum for recycling.






Here is another article on missing Tommy Thompson, the missing Treasure Hunter.   He is the fellow that who discovered the SS Central America and was last seen in Vero.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/13/mystery-missing-discoverer-gold-shipwreck-tommy-thompson-ss-central-America


Right now there is no indication of any tropical storms forming that could affect the Treasure Coast in the near future.

We are getting close to the time when we normally get our first good Fall storm -  normally October or November.

The Treasure Coast surf will be down around one or two feet for at least a couple of days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net