Sunday, May 7, 2017

5/7/17 Report - Fort Pierce Beach. John Brooks. 18th Century Ship Interiors. Silver Bar. Lead Pipe.


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

Fort Pierce Jetty  South
Beautiful Fort Pierce Beach is now a construction site.  Renourishment has begun.


This very course material was in a pile.  Most of the renourishment material was a fine grey powder.  I don't know if they are putting this course stuff on the bottom and then covering it up with the finer stuff or what.


Above is the narrow strip that can be accessed now.


John Brooks Beach Sunday Around Noon.
You could see the remains of an old cut.  In front of that was new mushy sand.

There were a lof of beach-goers out.  Most were now Florida residents.  Not nearly as many snow birds.

As I've been saying, the surf is small.  The weather is beautiful.  Not smoldering hot yet. 

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Here is a good thesis to read.  The title is Eighteenth-Century Merchant Ship Interiors.

The study looks at a number of ships that are being excavated in the York River where they remained in fairly good condition.  Of course, the study also looks at related literature.  It also talks about where things were typically located on such ships and a shows a number of artifacts.

Here is a brief excerpt.


Here is the link.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Renner-MA1987.pdf

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The red-coral rosary that I previously talked about sold in the recent Sedwick auction for $72,000, plus buyers premium.  Another item that brought in a lot of money was the 83 pound silver bar.  The winning bid for that bar was $55,220.  Below is the auction description.

Large silver bar #72, 83 lb 7.52 oz troy, Class Factor 1.0, dated "Po(tosi) 1622" in cartouche, foundry / assayer MEXIA in cartouche, five tax stamps (two different designs), fineness IIUCCCLXX (2370/2400 = 98.75% fine), manifest number DCCCCXXXII (932), silvermaster A, from the Atocha (1622). 13-3/4" x 4-3/4" x 3-3/4". Attractively marked "silver loaf" (typical shape) that is particularly interesting for the fact that it shows two kinds of tax stamps (three with lions and castles and two with monogram) and an "overdate" manifest number with the second C punched over a D (probably just a mistake), although the clarity of the assayer and date cartouches is remarkable as well. Most of tax stamps appear to be more complete than usual. The middle of the top of the bar contains the usual peanut-shaped assayer's "bite." At one end is what appears to be the letter V with an up-arrow to its left for the owner/shipper, who is/are apparently not listed on the manifest. The surface of this bar is relatively uncorroded, with a couple small pits on top that existed before sinking and mostly contain small pieces of coral now. From the Atocha (1622), with Fisher photo-certificate #S72.

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Hollow Log Sewer PipeSource: See the link below.
Water and sewer pipes were made of wood back in the 18th century.

Here is a link.

http://www.sewerhistory.org/photosgraphics/pipes-wood/

I found the above when I was trying to find out when lead pipes were used.

I found this piece of lead pipe.  Really heavy!

Piece of Lead Pipe.

I learned that most cities in the United States quit using lead pipes for water by the 1920s although lead pipes were approved by national plumbing codes into the 1980s.  Lead pipes were used centuries ago.  I have no idea how old this one might be.

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I'd like to see this beautiful weather go away.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net