9/8/14 Report - Great Finds on the SS Central America. Odyssey Marine Reports. Gold Coins and Artifacts. More On Beach Dynamics.

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

A Few of the Gold Coins Salvaged From The
SS Central America July - Aug.
Source: See link below.

Odyssey Marine Explorations has been working on the SS Central America.  They have been recovering a lot of gold and artifacts and doing a lot of research.  They provide monthly reports on their web site, which I find both fascinating and informative. 

The reports show site maps with artifact distributions, photos of the site, items recovered, and even experiments conducted in the process, such as one experiment that studied how wood deteriorates on the ocean floor.

In the June/July report you will read about how they recovered loose gold that was lost in the wreck.  The gold was being returned from the gold fields when it was lost when the ship went down.  Now they are mining it for a second time, this time from the bottom of the sea.

I think it is interesting that they are using a dredge and a sluice, very much like the sluice that might have been used by the original miners.



I've mentioned before about the gold dust in the ocean off of Rio Mar.  At least one attempt was made to recover it, but it was very difficult and not very effective.



Source of photo: Odyssey report link.

I also find the idea of twice-found objects interesting.  I've mentioned an escudo that was mined and minted in Mexico, then lost in a shipwreck, then salvaged and put on another ship which sank, salvaged and sold, and then lost by whoever purchased it before I found it.  In other words, it was lost in the water and found three times.


Below is the link to the Odyssey Marine June16 to July 15 report.

Also below is the summary of finds for that period.

To the left you see a photo of the sluicing operation on board the salvage ship.

http://www.shipwreck.net/documents/OMECourtReport14-3_000.pdf

Summary of Finds From the June - July Odyssey Report.
Source: Odyssey report link above.

And here is the link to their July 16 - Aug. 15 report.

http://www.shipwreck.net/documents/OMECourtReport14-4.pdf



They found a lot of coins during that reporting period.

Below is a photo of a neat pin manufactured from a gold nugget found in the gold fields.\

The report and nugget pin are both from the July16 - Aug. 15 report.




As you know I've done a few posts giving the results of some observations I made on how objects sink at the beach. 

Here is what Bill F., our resident oceanography expert, sent via email concerning objects sinking.

Why do objects sink rapidly?  Look at our beaches..coarse material, or
in some cases, stuff from offshore pumped onto our beaches.  Both of
these materials create a relatively steep beach front.  The high
velocity incoming wave moves material toward the shore. and it drops
out of suspension as the water velocity drops, forming a steep beach.
Now, another aspect takes over.  The water soaks into the coarse
substrate, with very of the wave actually running back out.
Basically, the beach surface churns in place, and the water slowly
returns to a lower elevation.  You've probably seen it running out of
the upper beach at low tide, usually along a line of denser material.

I'm sure you've encountered this well packed shell layer under all
this loose top material.  That's where objects will settle to.

Wave action moves a tremendous amount of material.  If you draw a line
from the dunes to the water, sand will move north and south across it,
but the NET TRANSPORT will be as much as 400,000 cubic yards SOUTH in
our area.

Bill

Thanks Bill!


On the Treasure Coast we still have a very small surf.  We'll have that for at least a few more days.

At least the tides are getting little bigger.  I suspect the rain kept a lot of beach goers from going to the beach this weekend.

There isn't much to be concerned with in the Atlantic.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net