Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com
Occasionally I get an email asking if a find might be a meteorite. That is something I don't know much about. Fortunately I know a person that hunts meteorites and can give some good information on the subject. I'm talking about SuperRick
SuperRick recently sent me a link to a web site that has a good finds database including everything from coins and buttons to clay pipes and pottery. You might find it helpful.
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Below you'll find a story by Steve in Sebastian about shipwreck diving in the Great Lakes. I put the title on the article. The rest is by Steve.
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Making Memories Diving Shipwrecks 160 Feet Down In The Great Lakes
My friend Ken is over in England on a Metal Detecting Holiday. He has found some wonderful old Roman hammered coins already.
But I also reminded him that no matter how good he was... no matter how fertile the ground under his feet... that he would never, ever beat my oldest coin that I found! My 200-400 BC Roman Silver Denarius! Ok...I cheated a bit...it was rolling by inside a cuff link...definitely adding to my ability to spot it. Otherwise on its own... probably too tiny to spot in the dull gray silver color. Unless the tiny coin had the glint of gold! You get an eye for the glint of gold down there, in your very bright lights. You see the "little guys" the $1 U.S. Gold Pieces... tumble on past you! Then you have to turn around, and go chase them down... most of the time you find them!!!
Better yet I reminded him that I got my Denarius coin --with my naked eye- in 160 feet of water, as I laid on the deck of a passenger and freight steamship from 1865, up in the Great Lakes...watching a 2 foot deep vertical cut wall of debris, breaking up for the 1st time in over a century, in a cloud of rotting, organic detritus that swirled on by me...as I fanned the leading edge of the pile. My light held up high in my left hand, angled down on the debris pile, and a modified ping pong paddle fanning the leading edge of the pile in the right hand.
It took many years, more correctly decades, to have the intestinal fortitude to hit the deep in 160 feet of water...in total darkness, and sometimes 38-40 degree water, bleed the air out of your dry suit, and "settle in heavy" on the deck. Literally laying out on the deck, resting on your knees and your fins flat on the deck, to hold position. And do this for 20 minutes, but with the decompression needed to arrive on the surface without the bends, stops were required at 20 and then 10 feet, having a total dive time of 52 minutes. Then 4 hours out to bleed off some nitrogen, relax, warm up, eat lunch, and then back down for the afternoon dive of 15 minutes, with the same 52 minute profile. Day after day after day...weather permitting. When the wind blew and the waves rose...you did shopping, laundry, and maintenance on a huge amount of diving equipment
Honest, hard, dirty, grueling work... NOTHING IS FOR FREE....that is what made a professional salvage diver different than a sport diver who just swam around "sight seeing" and looking over the ship.
I did this for over 30 years in 4 of the 5 Great Lakes on over 100 different shipwrecks of all types. My diving in Central and South America, and the Philippines we'll talk about another time... if The "Boss" here so wishes.
I recall one year when I got up there awful early in the beginning of June, and the water was just a few degrees above freezing, 20 miles offshore. June is summer, right??? I had the finest of regulators made for the cold and deep water, but they would still freeze up by the time I hit the deck in 160 feet. So do I sit around down there waiting to see what my regulator was going to do, or do I get down to work? __Time was as precious as the gold I sought__. You were always careful to never take a breath while adding air to your suit. We all know the physics of how air cools or freezes as pressure is released. But even with the best of care, on very cold water days...I would hit the deck with a very slow but steady free flow...just a "blub, blub, blub...about 1 "blub" every 5 seconds. But the -next- breath would be... twice as fast... and on and on. Within 30 seconds you would have had a totally -life threatening- massive free flow, the air roaring out your regulator, quickly emptying your tank!!!
So there I am... setting up to start my work, and first... I had to switch out my regulator for my "pony tank" regulator! Yup...on the deck at 160 feet, I would pull the regulator out of my mouth, and replace it with my spare. Just another day on the job! But the little "pony tank" (for emergencies) held only 12 cubic feet of air. Only a few minutes at that depth. But never the less... I got down to work in the swirling mud, using the pony tank, wait a couple minutes for the main regulator to defrost, and then stop my fanning, and put the main regulator back into my mouth!!!
Sounds insane...almost to me after all these years later...but it was just what you --needed to do--. Period. There was no alternative. And so you did....
Once while down on the deck at 160' with very cold water, I felt a ball of ice in my mouth. I thought..."Oh boy, this ain't good" the regulator shot me out a lump of ice from in its frozen 1st stage. One mistake and I will gag on the ice chunk that I could feel was way bigger than a pea, almost a marble size.
So I stopped what I was doing, and very carefully worked the ice ball around in my mouth, to the exact point I thought I could best swallow it. (Kind of like when you need to swallow a big medicine pill). It had to go, and evidently the cold air passing by was not melting it! I knew if I failed at swallowing the ice chunk, I would involuntarily -Gag- and -Gasp- and Spit out my Regulator!!! This was no laughing matter!!! This could be easily...life or death at that depth.
So when I had it just perfect in my mouth, I gulped it down. All went well, and man...was I ever relieved! But when I got up on deck after the dive... I came to realize that it was not ice, --but that I had bit off one of the two "tangs" inside the regulator mouth piece that you bite down on--!!! So far worse than ice... I swallowed down a big lump of rough ripped off rubber!!! Another of my "nine lives" gone!!!
So I stopped what I was doing, and very carefully worked the ice ball around in my mouth, to the exact point I thought I could best swallow it. (Kind of like when you need to swallow a big medicine pill). It had to go, and evidently the cold air passing by was not melting it! I knew if I failed at swallowing the ice chunk, I would involuntarily -Gag- and -Gasp- and Spit out my Regulator!!! This was no laughing matter!!! This could be easily...life or death at that depth.
So when I had it just perfect in my mouth, I gulped it down. All went well, and man...was I ever relieved! But when I got up on deck after the dive... I came to realize that it was not ice, --but that I had bit off one of the two "tangs" inside the regulator mouth piece that you bite down on--!!! So far worse than ice... I swallowed down a big lump of rough ripped off rubber!!! Another of my "nine lives" gone!!!
Stay warm in your beds....it's a lot safer there... but you will surely die of boredom. Live...take risks...calculated risks, enjoy life, take the trip you think is a little risky, or that you cannot afford to.... and know this...you will never, ever look back on your life and say..."Oh, I wish I had not taken this vacation or that adventure." •You will love and cherish each and every memory•. Because when you are old... those memories might be all you have to sustain you. God Bless.
Steve in Sebastian
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An increase in the surf is predicted for next week.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
