Thursday, July 30, 2015

7/30/15 Report - Amazing 1715 Fleet Artifact Found In 1994. July 2015 1715 Fleet Finds by Trez. Steamship George L. Olson.


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


Remains Of Steamship George L. Olson
Source: see scribol.com link.
The Steamship George L. Olson, launched in 1917, collided with another ship and was thrown off course and onto the rocks in 1944. Nobody was injured and the vessel later pulled into the harbour to salvage whatever possible. Some of the ship’s load – lumber – built the Baptist Church in Charleston. Though grounded in late 1944, the George L. Olson had a tendency to pop up over the decades. Storms moved sand off it and uncovered the ship in the ‘60s but once covered again, it was quickly forgotten. When it surfaced again in February 2008, though, it attracted quite a bit of attention.

http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/25-objects-devoured-by-sand

This Olson is a part of a list of 25 items devoured by sand.  There are other shipwrecks.  You might enjoy looking at it.

---

Aritfact Picture From July 5 Treasure Coast Newspapers.

















Yesterday I showed some recent finds made on the Treasure Coast.   On July 5 the Treasure Coast newspapers did an article on the 1715 Fleet and why the Treasure Coast is named the Treasure Coast.  In that article they showed pictures of a few finds, including the "vessel" shown above.

Above is the description the newspaper gave with the item.

 I think you can see it on display at the Mel Fisher Museum in Sebastian.

---

You won't want to miss the treasure I'll post tomorrow.

---

I've been doing this blog for about seven years now.  That is hard to believe.  When I started, there weren't many others.  Now there are tons of others.

I started with the intention of letting people know when beach conditions were good for finding old shipwreck coins on the Treasure Coast beaches.

I thought that would be helpful, because I used to live down in South Florida and when I got interested in the Treasure Coast shipwrecks, I had to drive up here and the first times I did that I had absolutely no luck.  I thought people would like to know when they had a decent chance of finding cobs and when the chances were poor.

I haven't been posting my conditions ratings very often lately because the conditions have not changed or months and it gets boring posting the same rating day after day after day.

When I started I didn't imagine that so many people would read the blog, but it became popular right away.  I was really surprised.  I had tried a blog on a completely different topic and never got more than a handful of readers, so the success of this blog, blew me away.

I've never done any promotion.  I have no facebook page, twitter, ads or anything to promote the blog.  It has all been done by the readers of this blog via word of mouth.  (Thanks to all of you.)

After a short while I began to post more than my conditions ratings.  And as you know, the blog contains a lot more than the condition ratings, which lately have faded into the background.

Briefly, my Treasure Coast Beach Metal Conditions Rating Scale, as some of you will know, is a five point scale, with 1 indicating poor detecting conditions for finding old shipwreck coins, and 5 indicating excellent conditions.

Just to make it clear, my rating is for beach detecting, not salvage efforts with blowers that produces the kind of thing I posted in my last post.

I haven't had a five rating that I can remember in the seven years, maybe I did have one or two, but a five rating would be something like what you get after a hurricane, which we haven't had for ten years now.

I used to often repeat that I started the five-point scale with a 1 instead of a 0 because there is always some chance, even if it is very small.

Well, Trez proved proved this month that there is always some chance.  His high level of skill and local knowledge increased the chances though.  That is always the case.

Before I get into that, let me thank Trez for correcting an error that I made in my last post,  He pointed out that Potosi did not mint gold coins during the period that would be included in the group of coins that were recently found and that I posted in a photo.  I did see some Lima mint marks.

Here is what Trez said to me in an email.

So far my count for the month 3-1 reales, 5 pieces of lead sheathing w burlap imprint, 1 pot shard w some glaze, 1 small porcelain frag. (my 1715 celebration hunt will cont until the end of the month.) Hope to see you out there sometime. I have always believed and still do, no storm is needed to find 1715 material. It takes 40 plus days of this weather and you will find it, if you are patient.

Again, there is always some chance no matter how poor conditions are.  The chances though, can be very slim.  If you don't have the knowledge, skill and, as Trez points out, patience, you'll be out there for days and scan miles and miles without success.

He has a couple more days of the month to add to his finds too.

I always say those who hunt the most find the most.  Even when pickings are slim, if you stick at it long enough, you'll find something, and you can't tell what it might be.

Trez knows a lot about how to improve his chances.  That is the definition of skill.

Even though old things can be found anytime, even when overall conditions are poor, if beach conditions were better, you would have a much better chance.  To find anything like that now, local knowledge helps a lot.  There are also some things that have been going on lately that open up unique opportunities.  Sometimes those special opportunities have nothing to do with the general beach conditions.

Congratulations Trez, great finds!  A tip of the hat to your skill and patience.

---

Talking about the unexpected, my first escudo find was made in the eighties in Dade County.

---

Tomorrow I'll talk about "classification" or the sifting and sorting of targets.

---

One day remaining on the blog poll.  Your responses are appreciated.

---

The surf on the Treasure Coast will be increasing by about a foot for the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net