5/10/20 Report - Eight-Reale Kicks Off 2020 Salvage Season. Old(?) Wood Handle Fork Find. 18th Century British Indiaman Wreck. Surf Building.

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

2020 started off as a good year for beach hunting.  A good number of reales were found on Treasure Coast beaches January through March, and then came the beach closures.

Now the 2020 salvage season has begun.  The calm surf allowed an early start to the salvage season and at least one eight-reale was found off of Douglass Beach already.  The 1715 Fleet find was made by Queens Jewels, Jason and Joey Gooch working on the M/V Blackwater salvage vessel.

Congratulations!

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Two Tine Fork or Skewer.

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to go back and look at some tableware that I found in the past and never researched much.

Here is a peculiar two-tined fork or skewer.  I believe it is probably a skewer rather than a fork simply because of size and feel.  It also shows very little wear, but it could have been repaired.  I'll show you why I think that might be the case.

There are no maker's marks or anything like that on this one.  It does not appear to be very well made.  There is some obvious asymmetrical grinding on the back near the base of one tine.

Wood Fork Handle With Wood Pins.

The rivets are not metal.  Wood pins hold the handle to the tang.  I haven't seen that on any other tableware that I've found.  Mostly they seem to have metal rivets.

The handle appears to be a relatively soft wood and very square - not nicely shaped for the hand.

Poorly Fitting Tang and Handle.

Notice how square the edges are and how poorly the tang fits into the handle.

My opinion is that the fork or skewer was either not made by a company that made tons of them or else it was repaired - maybe both.

I'd guess it is old, but don't know much of anything about this one.  It lacks any identifying marks.  The use of wood pins makes me think it is probably older, but it shows little wear as it is.

I don't think I'll ever find out much more about this one.

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I've found a lot of silverware over the years.  Some came from the beach.  Many of those were in very poor condition.  A good number also came from inland sites where some were dug and some were evidently secreted.  They were generally in better condition.  It is very common to find silverware at home sites.

I recently started researching some of my old silverware finds.  Yesterday I posted a photo of a spoon with a maker's mark I couldn't identify.  Mitch King said the mark is that of the AB&Co., England.  I don't have the dates on that company yet.

Thanks much Mitch!


Spoons have been around for thousands of years, but forks, which took over for knives and fingers, came later.

Forks were the last of the flatware tools to be added to this gastronomic arsenal. The early Greeks were known to use forks, and one was carried to Italy by a Greek princess in 1071. There is some disagreement about when tined instruments first appeared in inventories on the continent. Many credit Catherine de Medici with bringing them from Italy to France in 1553 upon her marriage to the future King Henry II, but gold and silver forks, used only for eating mulberries and other foods that stain the fingers, are listed in the inventory of Charles V of France (1338-1380).

Nevertheless, by the 1600s, fork usage had spread all the way to England, where a gentleman traveler by the name of George Coryat credits himself with the momentous introduction. This may have been a bit of a boast, as Queen Elizabeth I counted them in her inventory. Even so, forks were not readily adopted in England. The Church had frowned on them, ruling that they took glory from God who gave us fingers to eat with, and were seen as effeminate in many corners. However, King Charles I of England declared them “decent to use” in 1633, and the fork slowly but surely gained acceptance at the table...

You might find the following linked article on the history flatware interesting.  It is the source of the above excerpt.

https://rauantiques.com/blogs/canvases-carats-and-curiosities/flatware-history

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Here is the title and abstract of an article about an early 18th century British West Indiaman wrecked near Soldier Key.  If you know the area around Key Biscayne you'll be familiar with a lot of the history and shipwrecks in that area.  Actual treasure chests were recovered from Key Biscayne, not to mention many other treasures.  I spent a lot of time in that area when I lived down south.


A FINE WRECK IN SHALLOW WATER: INVESTIGATION INTO, AND CONSERVATION OF, A HEAVILY DISTURBED 18TH CENTURY BRITISH WEST INDIAMAN, THE SOLDIER KEY WRECK

Allen Donald Wilson

In the summer of 2012, a team of archaeologists excavated a known shipwreck site in the
submerged bottomlands in north Biscayne National Park. This site had been excavated
previously by John Hall, a professor from the University of Miami, in the early 1980s. Hall never
produced a report on the excavations and did not curate the artifacts recovered. The purpose of
this 2012 research was to document any remaining material culture, determine the best way to
preserve the site, and ultimately to use whatever remaining hull structure and portable artifacts
were available to determine the nationality, previous ports of call, and potentially the name of the

vessel as well as how the ship came to wreck in that location. 

The excavation revealed the midships to stern portion of a British West Indiaman that
dates to the early to mid 18th century. The sparse artifact assemblage suggests that the vessel
was coming from Jamaica en route to England when the ship succumbed to a hurricane.
However, a large number of ships wrecked in the region during the time period the Soldier Key
Wreck would have sailed. Unfortunately, no name could definitively be ascribed to the ship. 


Here is the link.

https://www.academia.edu/19559882/A_FINE_WRECK_IN_SHALLOW_WATER_INVESTIGATION_INTO_AND_CONSERVATION_OF_A_HEAVILY_DISTURBED_18TH_CENTURY_BRITISH_WEST_INDIAMAN_THE_SOLDIER_KEY_WRECK?email_work_card=view-paper

This one is in Biscayne National Park and I do not know of any treasure from the wreck being reported.  Still it is an interesting read.

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The past couple of days I posted links to some very good studies.  One was a major study on near-shore shipwrecks and another was on privateering.  You won't want to miss those.

It looks like the surf will be building for a few days and maybe get up to five or seven feet.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy Mother's Day,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/7/20 Report - Old Treasure Coast Coin Thought To Be From Unknown Wreck and 1715 Fleet Coin Ceritified. Some Beach Erosion.

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

Two-Reale Found by Terry S.

Photo by Terry S.

As you might recall, I previously showed and discussed this two-reale that was found by Terry S.  Terry had the coin cleaned by West Bay Trading Co. of Vero, who also issued a certificate of authenticity for the coin.

Other Side of Same Two-Reale

Find and photo by Terry S.

Here is the certificate of authenticity.

Certificate of Authenticity for Above Two-Reale

Photo by Terry S.

Terry believes the coin came from an early and previously unknown Treasure Coast shipwreck and is probably the oldest coin ever found on the Treasure Coast.  The COA indicates that the wreck is unknown and the coin is graded as grade 1.

Terry also had an eight-reale cleaned and certified by West Bay Trading Company.

Eight-Reale

Find and photo by Terry S.

Here is the other side of the same coin.

Undated Eight-Reale

Find and phot by Terry S.

And here is the COA for the eight-reale.

COA for Eight-Reale Found by Terry S.

Photo by Terry S.

As you can see, the eight-reale is certified as being from the 1715 Fleet and being grade 1.

Thanks for sharing Terry.

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7PM Update:  A front came thought this morning and there was some small erosion as early as noon today.


Looks like the surf will be building.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

I found a few little things yesterday on a local walk.  I haven't taken photos of them yet though.

I also have some other better finds that I'll be looking at.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/19/20 Report - Variety of Types of Shipwreck Items To Hunt. Tonala Ware and Mammoth Bones.

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

Illustrations Of Items Shown in Armstrong's 

Book On The Winter Beach Camp (p. 69)

Detectorists often look for coins.  Some call themselves coin-shooters.  But there is a lot more out there to be found than coins, and some types of things are not often found.  Sometimes those unfound objects remain unfound simply because we haven't set our mind on them.  Sometimes there are other reasons.

As I've said before, I'm a big fan of sifting, but it is not always the way to go.  But sometimes it is.

Detectorists tend to follow their detector.  Metal detecting is what they do.  Others hunt treasure - no matter if it is metal or not.  To me, metal detecting is one type or subset of treasure hunting, and coin shooting is a subset of metal detecting.

At the top of this post, you'll see an illustration from Douglas R. Armstrong's book, The Winter Beach Salvage Camp.  As you probably know, the Winter Beach salvage camp was a Spanish camp established to salvage one or more of the wrecks of the 1715 Fleet.  Along with another later British camp, it was located in the dunes above the wreck.

Notice the variety of objects left behind at the camp site.  There are metal items, but there are also other types of artifacts.  There are beads, shell inlay and even what is described as a Tonala ware toy turtle (bottom left in illustration).  Do we know of a child on the wreck?

According to rare-ceramics.com, Tonalá pottery was imported from Mexico into Spain via the ports of Cadiz and Seville from the 17th century. They were much prized for their attractive aroma when moist and for their alleged medicinal properties. They were greatly valued in the 17th and 18th century but when they fell from fashion they suffered neglect and are very rarely found today outside of historic collections.

Here is a good reference on historical ceramics from the Texas Historical Commission.

http://txhas.org/PDF/THC%20Reference/CERAMICSfinal2.pdf

I enjoyed going through that reference to see how many of the different types of examples I've found.

I very much enjoy finding things like that, but they don't often survive when lost in the rough surf.  Here is one I did find, although I don't know how old it might be.

Clay Turtle Figure With Missing Leg Find.

I often recommend keeping your eye's open while you detect, because there are a lot of things hidden in the sand that your metal detector won't tell you about.

Beads are not easy to find, especially in shelly sand.  I've only found a few.  Of course, it is difficult to say where they came from or how old they are.

I recently bent over to pick up what I'm pretty sure was a half button swashing around in the surf, but it crumbled between my fingers when I finally got it.

I wanted to remind you to look for non-metallic items as well as those that can be found with your metal detector.

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Around 25,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers used the bones from 60 mammoths to build a large circular structure in Russia. 

And no one knows why. 

Researchers have excavated the site in an attempt to understand it, but they don't know why the structure was built, according to a new study. 

This isn't the first "mammoth house" to be found in Russia, but it is the oldest and largest, measuring 41 feet across...

Here is that link.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/16/world/ice-age-mammoth-house-russia-scn/index.html

Speaking of non-metallic treasures, don't forget that fossilized mammoth bones have been found on the Treasure Coast.

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Not long ago, Mike S. mentioned diving with Roy Volker.  I only talked to Roy once, and that was by phone.  

I think I mentioned before the Treasure Coast treasure map Roy sold through some of the treasure magazines sometime back in the eighties.  It was only about a half dozen pages, but it pointed out most of the main wreck beaches.  I found it helpful because at that time I hadn't yet done much hunting on the Treasure Coast and didn't know for sure where the wreck beaches were.  Everybody has a lot of easy access to a lot more information these days.  

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Strange days these are.  At least it feels that way to me.

In my 2/3/20 post I said, "Wouldn't it be better if our heroes were maybe scientists, engineers, or saints or people that do good things, rather than athletes and entertainers?  Its a crazy world."  

I don't remember what was on my mind at the time or why I said that, but now it seems a little prophetic.  Here we are in this pandemic place where the athletes got sidelined and the doctors and scientists are on TV everyday and gaining celebrity status.

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The surf is running around 2 to 3 feet on the Treasure Coast.  The tides aren't big, and the wind is generally ESE.

There is some chance we'll get another decent chance before summer conditions really set in for good.  It seems to me that we often had a front or something come through around Easter.
Those probably stick out in my memory because of the association with Easter

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/12/20 Report - Found Silver Medallion. Winter Beach and British Camp. 60th Regiment of Foot.

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

Heavily Corroded Silver Medallion After Some Cleaning.

This silver medallion was heavily corroded, but after a lot of careful cleaning shows much of the detail.  The back is more heavily corroded than the front and unfortunately shows no marks or details.  

You can see the stub where the loop broke off at the top.

You can see some writing at the right side of the photo.  It says Apostle.

Silver Medallion Find After Some Cleaning.

It was found in an area with other items, including cobs, presumed to be from a 1715 wreck, but the spelling "apostle" is an English spelling.  "Apostol" would be the Spanish spelling, and "apostolus" the Latin spelling.  The conclusion might be that the medallion has nothing to do with the wreck or the cobs that were found nearby.  That conclusion could be correct, but it might not be either.

There are many ways that things from different countries or cultures and different wrecks can get intermingled.  Beach finds, in particular, get mixed around over the years and centuries, so items from different times and sources can end up in the same area.   But there are other possibilites.

Trade did take place despite attempts to prevent it.  When people are in need, they do what they have to, so trade is always a possibility.  But also remember that the wrecks were big events that drew native populations, pirates and others.  There are a variety of ways that items from various sources could end up together on a beach that has been churning for many years.

I said before that I was going to talk about the Winter Beach camp.  Douglas R. Armstrong wrote a book, The Winter Beach Salvage Camp (Signum Ops, 2012) in which explorations of the camp are decribed.  Here is a brief description from that book. "The campsite was found to run for nearly 125 meters along the beach dune line and extends westward into the woods for another 30 meters.  A second camp, slightly newer and apparently occupied by 18th cenetury British treasure hunters, is located some 90 meters to the south of the encampment area...."

The British camp was smaller and set back a bit farther from the beach.  It was created later - possibly somewhere around 1780.

The British camp contains items apparently salvaged from the 1715 wreck along with later items from the time of the British camp.  So you have items from at least two different times and sources or events intermingled.  That is not to mention earlier and subsequent native activities, and who knows how many more.  My conclusion is that the medallion could have been on the ship, although that appears less likely, or it could have come from the time of the British salvage effort or some other wreck-related events, but it could also have absolutely no relationship to the wreck at all.  The age and source is impossible to determine precisely, although judging from the amount of corrosion, it looks like it has been out there for quite a while.  Perhaps additional research will help narrow down the age or history of the item.

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60th Regiment of Foot buttons were found at the site of the British camp.  The 60th was stationed at St. Augustine around the time of the Revolutionary War.  The regiment was formed in 1757, so we can figure that the British camp dates to at least 42 years after the wrecking of the fleet and possibly as many as eighty or more years after.

The regiment was intended to combine the characteristics of a colonial corps with those of a foreign legion. Swiss and German forest fighting experts, American colonists and British volunteers from other British regiments were recruited. These men were Protestants, an important consideration for fighting against the predominantly Catholic French. The officers were also recruited from Europe – not from the American colonies – and consisted of English, Scots, Irish, Dutch, Swiss and Germans. It was the first time foreign officers were commissioned as British Army officers. The total regiment consisted of 101 officers, 240 non-commissioned officers and 4,160 enlisted men. The battalions were raised on Governors Island, New York. The regiment was renumbered the 60th (Royal American) Regiment in February 1757 when the 50th (Shirley’s) and 51st (Pepperel’s) foot regiments were removed from the British Army roll after their surrender at Fort Oswego.

Source of quote: https://www.revwartalk.com/60th-regiment-of-foot-king-s-royal-rifle-corps/

Now we know that the 60th Regiment of Foot included recruits and officers from many countries as well as the colonies, so that additionally expands the sources and types of items that might be intermingled around a wreck and camp site.

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Remember you can find Bill P's instructions for using Muriatic acid to clean silver items in my reference link list.  Also you will find instructions for tumbling items by using the same link.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

It looks like the surf will be in the 2 - 4 foot range for a few days.  We are getting big tides now though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/2/20 Report - Researching Bead Finds For Age and Origin. Other Shipwrecks Along the Treasure Coast.

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

Beads Found Along With Small Metallic Objects A Little Over A Week Ago.

I previously posted a variety of miscellaneous small metallic finds, including a few pieces of melted silver.  These beads were found the same day as some of those finds and in the same general vicinity.  I've been researching beads to see if I can find any evidence of their age.

I've found a lot of information about beads of the Spanish Colonial period as well as earlier and later periods.

Manifests show many beads, sometimes hundreds of thousands per shipment, being imported to the New World by the Spanish for a variety of purposes.  Deagan's book, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500 - 1600: Vol. 2, Portable Personal Possessions, shows that most of those beads were glass, but others were jet, aquamarine, pearls, wood, crystal, coral or amber, and some of silver.  Clay or terracotta was not mentioned in those listings.

It appears to me that these beads are clay or terracotta.

End of Bead Showing Clay Composition.

If I knew this bead was centuries old, the condition would make me think that it came from the dunes.
The other small items that I discussed yesterday seem like they could also be from recent dune erosion.

I once found a small gold bead on the same wreck beach.  I've told about that before. It wasn't easy to find after it was detected by the metal detector.  I had it along with some shell sand on my detector coil and could hear when it was moved, but still had a hard time seeing it.

In the process of trying to find evidence of the likely age of this bead, I found some good information and resources even if I didn't find any positive answers.

Below is a link to The History of Trade Beads on the Peach State Archaeological Society web site.

https://peachstatearchaeologicalsociety.org/index.php/13-beads/248-history-of-trade-beads

Here is the introductory paragraph.

October 12, 1492, Columbus recorded in his logbook the natives of San Salvador Island were given red caps and glass beads. This is the earliest written record of glass beads in the Americas. The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortéz landed on the coast of Mexico in the spring of 1519. His ships carried glass beads along with other European trade goods. The Spanish explorers Narváez in 1527 and De Soto in 1539 carried glass beads for trade with the native inhabitants of Florida.

Glass beads were by far the most common.  You will find a few from the Atocha listed in the MelFisher artifact database.

Here is detailed academic study of 16th century beads in South America.

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/33813391/FEINZIG-DOCUMENT-2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Among the beads of the native populations, stone and shell were common materials.

I thought that clay or terracotta beads would be among the most common, but that does not seem to be the case.  Many of the materials used to create beads have a symbolic significance, which is one reason that materials that are more difficult to work and form might be used more often than easily workable clay.

At this point I can't say if the beads are old or not.  I'm still looking for evidence that might point one way or the other.

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On the Treasure Coast the 1715 Fleet wrecks get the most attention, however there are many other wrecks, both known and unknown, along the Treasure Coast.

A quick survey of Shipwrecks In The Americas by Robert E. Marx, shows the following 16th century wrecks listed as wrecking near Fort Pierce.

1551. Nao San Nicolas, 200 tons, Captain Juan Christoval, was wrecked near Fort Pierce and the Indians recovered a great deal of what it carried....

1554. The ship of Farfan (probably its owner) sand near Fort Pierce, richly laden with gold and silver...

1564.  A Spanish historian briefly mentions the los of three ships of Don Juan Menendez on the Florida coast near Fort Pierce.

Sometime before 1570.  The ship Vizcayo, on which Don Anton Grandado was a passenger, wrecked richly laden near Fort Pierce inlet...

Sometime before 1570.  A Spanish privateer, El Mulato, wrecked, richly laden, near Fort Pierce….

That is only a small sample of the 16th century wrecks of Florida.  There are many other 16th century wrecks listed simply as wrecking along the coast of Florida, or near Cape Canaveral or in the Bahama channel.  In addition, there are many more wrecks from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

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The price of gold seems to be making a comeback this morning after falling last week.

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The surf predictions are beginning to look more encouraging for next weekend.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

2/27/20 Report - Cuts and Eroding Beaches That Expose Treasure. Photo Comparison. 1715 Fleet Silver Rings.

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

Seagrape Trail As It Looked Last Saturday

I distinctly remember watching Monday Night Football maybe thirty years ago when Howard Cosell commented to Dandy Don, "You have a tremendous grasp of the obvious."  It was meant as a humorous insult, but it strikes me now as something of a complement.  Advances in understanding are often made painfully slowly and often involve gaining a deeper appreciation of what was hiding in plain sight all along.

Were you ever metal detecting when a surprise wave hit you and almost knocked you off your feet?   It has happened to me numerous times over the years.   In fact I remember once actually getting knocked off my feet.  Inspiration can come with a sudden rush too.

I've talked a lot about the importance of what I call cuts.   If you looked at some of the beaches that were eroded last week, you might not have noticed any cuts, but there were cuts.  Those cuts were very high though.  The face of the dunes was cut.  At the bottom of the dunes you could see a layer of black sand over a layer of the old orangish sand exposed in some locations.

It is not often that we get a surf of over ten feet, but that happened on the Treasure Coast in both January and February.  And shipwreck treasures were found both times.

On the 22nd the high tide was bouncing off of the dunes, and the water was rushing with good force back down the slope carrying sand and other materials with it.  You can see from the photo above where probably two feet or more of sand was removed.  Old wooden posts that were previously buried were exposed, and stairs were left hanging two feet off the ground.

If you take a volume of sand two feet deep by maybe thirty by fifty yards, that is a volume of 3000 cubic yards of material being classified.  That can easily happen in one six hour tidal period, and that is undoubtedly a small part of what actually happened on the beaches that day.

So what is it about cuts that makes them so significant to the beach detectorists?  I mentioned it above.  When the water hits the face of a cut, or dune, the water rushes back down the hill with a lot of force.  If you get caught in it, you can feel how strong the flow is.  There are times when it can knock you off your feet.  That is obviously strong enough to carry sand - and other materials with it.

Yesterday I talked about the amount of water velocity required to suspend different kinds of particles and objects, and the amount of force required to transport those objects.  When the force decreases below the amount required to transport objects, they drop out and settle.

My main point today is that even though there weren't any obvious cuts on the slope of the beach last Saturday, there were cuts to the dunes at the top of the beach, and at high tide the water was bouncing off the face of the dunes and flowing down the slope, carrying sand and other objects until the flow slowed enough to drop whatever objects were being carried.

If you look at the photo above, the yellow line runs parallel to the beach.  There is something of a momentary dead spot.  The incoming water hits the water rushing back down the slope there.  But that is only momentary, as the next wave is already on the way.

Obviously that area will move as the tide comes in and goes out.  It proceeds up the hill towards the dunes during the incoming tide and then recedes down the slope and out as the tide recedes.

The red line shows how much sand has been removed from under the steps.

Compare these two photos.

It is always handy to have more than the most recent photo.   Old photos give you a base line.   You can compare different times and see what is happening.

If I know a beach is especially high, for example, then I know it will take more weather and erosion to make it productive.

The fluctuation on a beach is seldom two feet or more over a wide area.  Down at Turtle Trail, when the sand is low you can see a foot or so of the blue bags, but when the sand is high they are covered again.  There are posts down there that also appear and disappear.

Notice  the foot of the dunes and the slope right in front of the dunes in the last photo.

Thanks to DJ for those photos.

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Silver Finger Rings From the 1715 Fleet.

One of the most experienced Treasure Coast salvage divers said that no silver rings have been found on 1715 Fleet wrecks.  That is something that has interested me for a number of years, especially because of how commonly old silver rings are found on the wreck beaches.

I know of three examples of documented silver rings that have been correctly or incorrectly attributed to the 1715 Fleet.  That is such a small number that even if they are all correctly attributed, they are undoubtedly personal property rather than cargo.

Below are those I have seen listed as being from the 1715 Fleet.

1.  In Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500-1800, Vol. 2: Portable Personal Possessions, by Kathleen Deagan, a silver Claddagh ring shown on page 126 is attributed to the 1715 Fleet.

2.  In the Winter Beach Salvage Camp, by Doubglas R. Armstrong (2012 revision), on page 52 a gold plated silver ring is attributed to the 1715 Fleet.

3.  And just this year, VeroNews reported that West Bay Trading Company certified a silver ring found by Jeff Emlet on a Vero area beach as being from the 1715 Fleet.  See my 2/6/20 post, https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2020/02/2620-report-first-silver-ring-beach.html, for more information about that.

Without some type of specific markings and historical documentation, I do not know how you could tell that an isolated ring find would be from a particular fleet or wreck rather than from some other source, including, for example, contemporary salvage efforts.

In any case, I'd like to keep a list of silver rings attributed to the 1715 Fleet.   If you know  of any others, I'd like to add them to my list.  Please be specific about the source of information.

---

Despite the most recent cold front, we're supposed to have nothing higher than a two or three foot surf for the next week.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/10/20 Report - 1715 Fleet Beaches: Rings and Reales. Private Beaches. Big Surf Predicted.

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

Among other things, yesterday I posted some comments from Jammin Jack.  The following comments and photo album picture is from Jack.

Below is a page from Gary Daemer's salvaging during the 1990s. Billy Elam was involved and I think put the album together. You will see many rings been found, but no silver! Possibly, more fragile and did not survive the beating of the ocean or silversmiths did not make many because silver harder to work with. 

Jack continued saying, The rings in the above picture are all gold.  Most were low karat, except for one, which was about 14K, according to the text by the photo.

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It is accepted that very few, if any, silver rings have been found on 1715 Fleet wrecks. (Deagan shows at least one.)  And now we have a beach silver ring "certified" as being from the 1715 Fleet.  So the question is why silver rings are so rare on 1715 Fleet wrecks.  The archaeological record of Spanish colonial land sites does document a few, but again, not many.   It appears they were not the rage at the time.  

Some people have suggested that the scarcity of silver finger rings might be made more extreme by fact that they didn't survive well in a rough salt water environment.

Despite the fact that very few silver finger rings have been attributed to 1715 Fleet ships, a lot of old silver finger rings have been found on the wreck beaches.  Being isolated finds having no substantial context, it would be really difficult to attribute such a find to a particular source without definitive markings.

We can not forget that items of roughly the same time period could come from 18th century salvage efforts and other activities drawn to the beaches by the wrecks.  I wonder, for example, if some finds might be trade goods used to pay/reward indigenous divers and other workers after the wreck.

Another question that is possibly related is why are so many half reales found on the 1715 Fleet beaches while cobs salvaged from the submerged wreck sites include such a high proportion of higher denomination cobs relative to half reales.  Below are a few possibilities.

Could it be because the lighter half reales are more likely to get washed onto the beach?

Are the half reales more difficult to find in the water as compared to larger cobs?

Do small denomination reales corrode and disappear more quickly (as some have suggested of silver rings) in submerged salt water environments?

Did contemporary salvage efforts affect the pattern significantly?


I have my opinions, but since they are nothing more than opinions I'll leave those questions to you.

One huge difference appears obvious: half reales were carried on the fleet in great numbers while finger rings were very scarce.  Nonetheless, both natural and human actions could affect the distribution and finds of both half reales and silver rings.

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Private beaches for the wealthy paid for by taxpayers: that is the subject of the following article, which I am sure will stir up some people.  The same subject had people up in arms a few years ago.

https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/newswire/2020/02/03/privatization-coming-beach-near-you-opinion/4643308002/

You might want to be informed on that subject.  It is not a new one, but has not been settled.

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The tides are getting bigger, as is the surf.  We are now up to around 3 - 5 feet, but that isn't the best news.  Look out to next weekend.  The predictions are interesting.

The longer term predictions have been good recently - much improved over a couple years ago.

Source: MagicSeeWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

controversial article

2/8/20 Report - Beach Renourishment Projects and Conditions. Spanish Colonial Finger Rings and Other Subjects.

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

Rio Mar Still Closed
Photo by DJ

Beaches are being renourished around the Treasure Coast.  Rio Mar is still closed.

Ugly Sand at Vero South Beach
Photo by DJ

DJ sent in the following report.

Went to a few beaches starting with Riomar - STILL dumping sand. SO I went to South Beach and took that picture looking south toward Sandy Point. Decided to go north to Turtle Trail. There were 7 detectorists there. One told me they thought last nights’ front might have helped. I ran into Terry Shannon there as well, always a great guy! Had very good things to say about your work, results and dedication. Only down side today was a jerk that refused to fill his holes, I have seen this guy twice now over the last two months. Did not like my asking him to be a responsible detectorist. People like this guy will ruin what little freedom we all have left to detect on a public beach. As I was leaving, ran into three more detectorists arriving. 

Seagrape looked the same as Turtle; lower beach front, lots of small shells, so I did not take a picture. Headed up to Treasure Shores. Passed Golden Sands which is still closed for more sand dumping.  Three detectorists at Treasure Shores, I walked north towards the big curve. Beach front was lower and lots of small shells kicked up from the past days southerly winds. Mostly aluminum but plenty of sneaky targets, solid signals in two directions but the result was an aluminum can end (circular) or the top ring. 

Thanks DJ.

Anyone know where the sand is coming from?  I noticed a lot of trucks going back and forth from out west.

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There is a lot of discussion about the question of silver rings on the 1715 wrecks.  Just a couple of days ago I posted a link to an article about one beach find that was "certified" by one company to be 1715 Fleet.

The subject of silver rings and their apparent absence on 1715 Fleet wrecks has been mentioned in this blog several times in the past.  Cathleen Deagan, in her book, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500 - 1800, vol. 2: Portable Personal Possessions, published in 2002,  presents on page 126 an illustration showing several  1715 Fleet rings.  One of those rings is described as a silver Claddagh ring.  Claddagh rings have remained virtually unchanged in design for centuries.  If that illustration is correct, the ring I posted the other day may be the first certified silver 1715 Fleet ring, but it is not the first 1715 Fleet silver ring recovered.  Unfortunately Deagan does not give other details on where the ring was found.  Perhaps one of you salvage people can tell us.

We all know about the relatively common copper-alloy rings and gold rings, but you might be surprised to know that many rings made of other substances were brought to the New World but are very scarce among the salvage records.  Shipping records show (Deagan, 2002, p. 116 and 117) that among the many finger rings shipped to the New World between 1511 and 1613, many were made of glass, some of jet, and some of bufano wood.  Silver wasn't specifically mentioned, but examples have been recovered from Spanish colonial archaeological sites.   Shipping records presented in Deagan's book document several thousand glass rings shipped to the New World in 1590 and thousands more in 1592.  You can understand why those might not survive the ocean for hundreds of years.

I'll also point out the Deagan example ( p. 83) of a 17th century silver "sacred heart" finger ring from Santa Catalina de Guale (Georgia), so we know they were present on Spanish colonial sites but perhaps not common.

Well-informed readers and salvage divers provided some welcome comments on the subject.  A couple mentioned that silver rings might not survive very well in the ocean, and a couple also were surprised that the ring was certified.


Below are a few comments from Jammin Jack.

If any were found, most likely from an overlapping wreck from a later period. 

Certifying the ring was surprising to me, but I am sure Steve had reliable sources.

Also, most research material may include sites from the Gulf, Atlantic, Caribbean, etc. This can cause very controversial arguments, but silver rings on wrecks have always been rare - ANYWHERE! ...

Jammin Jack also told of an experience he had with electrolysis.

I found a (ear)ring back when Noah Wells was leaving the lab. Bill Moore took over the process. We all thought possibly silver with gold filigree and hoping 18th century. I wished I left it alone. After cleaning, it was silver, and very fragile. It was determined late 1800s, and had a small value. I still have the ring as a reminder that sometimes cleaning can ruin the historical value. The below picture is the day I found it. If I showed what it looks like now...well, we learn from our mistakes. 

Silver Earring Find Before Cleaning.

Photo by JaminJack

My first attempt at electrolysis also taught me a lesson. I ruined a buffalo nickel. Thankfully it wasn't any big deal, but I did learn that if I used electrolysis, the process should be carefully monitored, which is something I do with any cleaning method these days. I think it is one part caution and one part curiosity. I like to make sure nothing bad is happening and I'm too curious to wait long to find out how it is going.

When monitoring progress on any cleaning I'm doing, I now like to view the object under magnification.  I've recently learned that you can think an item is clean when there is still some encrustation, sand or shells attached.  I just feel like I get a better look at what is going on when I use magnification.

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The surf will begin to increase tomorrow, but only reach 3 -5 feet Monday, and then decrease again after that.

The tides are getting bigger.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net