6/11/19 Report - Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch Trade Routes. Lost Treasures of the Florida West Coast Book. Valuable Pennies.

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

Spanish and Portuguese Trade Routes.

Yesterday I was talking about how to find good spots and how different things tend to be found in different places. The day before I mentioned trade routes as one factor.

Above are the Spanish and Portuguese trade routes, and below are the Dutch trade routes.

On the Treasure Coast the 1715 Fleet dominates much of our treasure talk, and for good reason, however other nations had significant trade routes, and they also have something to do with where treasure can be found.

Dutch Trade Routes.

As you can see, the main Dutch trade routes were significantly different than the Spanish and Portuguese.

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I discussed some of Frank Hudson's books not long ago. One that seems more detailed than some of the others is his Lost Treasures of Florida's West Coast book that was published in 1983.

Frank Hudson's Lost Treasures of Florida's West Coast. 

I did a quick count and it seems to mentions over 230 different lost treasures. There are a lot of pirate treasures.  Some have been found, and some are in locations that you won't be able to metal detect.  A lot has changed since 1983, but the book has a lot of information.  You might recall one reader saying that they found some of his tips to be very accurate.

I think most any treasure hunter would enjoy looking through that book.

He also discusses using a two-box detector and constructing an A-frame to extract large deep treasures.

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Here is an article that lists 20 pennies that would have a combined value of over $5.5 million.

Most Valuable Pennies.

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Happy hunting, TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/23/19 Report - Less Known Treasure Coast Wrecks. More Sand Coming. Bottle Finds.

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

Three Frank Hudson Books.

After looking for one book in particular, I found a few that I hadn't seen in quite a while.  Among those that I found are the three Frank Hudson books.  It was one of those I was originally looking for.  I thought I better do this while I have them out.

At one time I compiled my own list of Florida sunken and buried treasures from all the sources I could find at the time.  That was before the internet became the place to look.  I also found my computer printout that lists the treasure sites.  The printout is about twelve feet long.

Maybe you can remember the days when computer printouts came on long rolls of paper with holes along both sides that were used by the printer to move the paper along.  Now you usually get the regular 8.5 by 11 sheets. 

Anyhow, if you look at books like the ones shown above, you might find some surprising omissions, but you'll most likely find some you never heard of before and maybe some you forgot about.

If you hunt the Treasure Coast, you probably know about the 1715 Fleet sites, but there might be other wrecks that you don't know so much about.

Here are a few examples from Hudson's Florida Shipwreck Treasures book.  

The Bark Nantwich (1696) off of Fort Pierce with $10,000 in gold.  Almost nothing compared to the treasure galleons, yet would make a nice find.

Maybe you know about the three 1565 galleons.  Hudson lists those.

The San Pedro and Pedro Menendez (both 16th century) off Cape Canaveral.

And there are the British ships Barkentine and Burrough listed as being around Jupiter Inlet.

Those are just a few examples of the many wrecks that are out there.  Of course Hudson's books do not give precise coordinates, so there is a lot left to do, however it never hurts to be familiar with what might be out there.  The point is that if you do your research you might find some new sites that you'll enjoy.  I did.

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I received an email from DJ about the recent plans for more sand for the Vero Beaches.  He provided a link to an article from VeroNews that begins as follows:  The City of Vero Beach's eroded shoreline will be getting a major infusion og sand this fall - from the Tracking Station Park all the way to Castaway Cove - partially paid for by funds included in the $91.1 billion budget approved last week by the Florida Legislature.

See:  http://veronews.com/2019/05/16/veros-beaches-to-finally-get-infusion-of-sand/

DJ offered his opinions, which you migth well agree with. Here is what he said.

I have never been more aware of beach sand than the last two years while treasure hunting and studying the beaches as they erode then sand in.

I cannot remember a beach where I thought there was a lack of sand that negatively impacted the tourists and locals. Certainly not now.

I think this sand ‘crisis’ has been fabricated. Also interesting is the last several attempts were squashed by the feds and the Vero charter prohibits ‘using it’s own money for sand unless for emergency work’.

Just because an elected official says it is imperative and makes the beach better for tourism, business and world peace does not make it so. (The Emperor's new clothes) 

And the timing to miss sea turtle nesting (Which I support) will be just in time for the winter nor’easters to remove it all.

Maybe the feds will cut it out once again, or the Guv will veto it.

Anyway my unsolicited 2 cents. 

I'm sure you a lot of people will agree with you DJ.  Thanks!

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I decided to store away some of my bottle finds and started with some of the more common ink bottles.

A Variety of Ink Bottle Finds.

All but three in this group are screw-top bottles.

Besides the Waterman's bottles that I've already shown, this group includes Parkers and Sanford ink bottles.  Several do not have a mark indicating the manufacturer.

Sanford Ink Bottle

Parkers Ink Bottle.

I have some ink bottles that are older and more interesting, including some cone bottles.  I've sold some of those in the past.  They sell easily.  I'll show some cone bottles in the future.

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The surf will start increasing on the Treasure Coast today, reaching three to four feet by tomorrow, however the wind will still be from the south.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/22/19 Report - Pirates and Buried Treasure by Jack Beater. Metal Detecting A Frank Hudson Site. Mining Your Time.

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

Buried Treasure Books.

When I was looking for one of the Frank Hudson books for some reason the other day, I found some other "treasure" books that I had forgotten about.  One is by Jack Beater, who lived in the Fort Myers area, and wrote a book entitled Pirates and Buried Treasure, which was published in 1959.

Jack was a veteran of WW I and moved to Florida in 1920.  Stories of pirates and treasure fascinated him, so he started talking to every old timer or anyone who could tell him more about that.  I was given a copy of his book many years ago by someone who knew him.

Pirates and Buried Treasure is an entertaining easy read that also provides good information.  It focuses primarily on the West Coast of Florida and the Keys.  It talks about Gasparilla, Juan Gomez, Captiva, Charles Gibbs, Anne Bonny, Captain Rackam, Henri Caesar, Key Largo, Tarpon Springs, Useppa, Charlotte Harbor, Carla Pelau, and Estero Bay, Fort Myers Beach and others.   Of course, some of those places you can no longer metal detect.

Concerning Hudson's books, Bill P. detected one of the sites mentioned, and found the book to be accurate.

Here is what Bill said.

An old detecting friend and I hunted a location that Hudson mentioned in that book (I believe) on the gulf coast many years ago. He gave many details about this area that were actually fairly accurate. We hunted the area several times over a couple years and turned up some pretty cool items. The area had been hunted by Hudson and there were uncovered holes everywhere. There were a lot of indian artifacts too. Among the items we found were a broken, rusty end of bar shot that was fired from a cannon with the hopes of taking out the rigging of another ship. I found a Spanish, milled half reale that was holed, and dated 1784. That was cool. We also found what we believed to be a human bone...creepy to say the least. The most interesting thing that happened was, in between trips there someone else was apparently hunting there too. We found a freshly dug hole approximately 2 feet deep and in the bottom of the you could see where roots had grown around something square shaped around 2 feet square!. Disappointing for us but still exciting that someone actual found a box of......who knows. The worst part was the little black salt-marsh mosquitoes. Who knows what is still there? Bill 

Thanks Bill.  Fun times.

That reminds me of one time in the eighties, I think it was, I was in Tampa on a business trip and remember a construction project on the beach that unearthed a bunch of gold coins.  I remember taking my Aquanaut in its grey hard case with me on the plane.

If you go through Hudson's books, one thing you'll notice is several buried treasures around every inlet.  There might be an exception, but I don't think so.  It is important to remember that some of the inlets have moved.

If you combine the treasures in the Hudson and Beater books with those reported in various other sources, you'll notice that there are few coastal areas without sunken or buried treasure somewhere nearby.  Just those that I'm familiar with are numerous, extending from Key West all the way up the coast.  

This is the first I really looked at those books for many years.  When I first read them, I saw them very differently.  Each X marked a dream that could happen - if I hit it.

I look at things very differently now.   Now it seems to me more like, treasure is all around, so I don't wonder so much where the treasure is - instead I wonder what treasure is in the area where I stand.

Think of it.  You can start out in a place like Frederick Douglas, walk north to John Brooks, and a little more to the old picked over wreck near the Fort Pierce Jetty, then north to Pepper Park, and then past the Fort Capron payroll area, continue on to the Sandy Point Wreck and Rio Mar, and Turtle Trail, and Seagrape Trail, and Wabasso, Golden Sands and Treasure Shores and Ambersands, etc. etc.  And I am sure there are treasures in between of one kind or another.   There are wrecks along our coast that are less known and less hunted, yet very interesting.  And there are artifacts of various ages on the beach, and fossils and sea glass, not to mention the native American artifacts and the shiny things that are being lost daily.

I can look out my front window and see the spot where I picked up an inscribed Native American pot shard laying on the surface after a storm, and where I go walking to pick up old bottles and other things.   And not far from my back door is an area where workers in the early 20th century drank after work and discarded their bottles.  There is treasure all over the place.  That is how it seems to me now.

My goals changed over the years and decades too.   I've told before about how when I started metal detecting I tried to find as many coins as I could.  After I progressed some, I targeted gold and quit counting the coins.  That wasn't the end of the changes, but I'll skip over the rest.

Not too long ago I used the term alchemy in one of my post titles.  Poorly defined, alchemy attempts to turn base metals in to gold.  For me today it is more about mining or transforming the moment.

Through aging and a variety of other circumstances, I now see time and life as the most precious commodity.  Digging up gold is really nice, but the important thing is extracting the treasure from the moment in which I stand.  That can be done by digging up something good, but it can also be done without digging up anything.  The treasure is not so much in the gold, but what you bring to it.

For example, treasure hunting with the wrong attitude can leave you worse off, whether you find anything or not.  There was a time when I'd go out hunting with a very specific goal, and if I didn't find anything good I'd come back in a very bad mood.  I let it ruin the moment.  Likewise, making a good find can be poorly handled in a variety of ways.  You've probably heard of lotto winners who destroyed themselves and their families.

Life is precious.  Every moment is precious.  You can make of it what you will.

The moment, like gold, is there to be mined.  Mine it.

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Some of the salvage boats have been taking advantage of the small surf, but later today the surf will increase and we will have a couple days of bigger surf.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Make your moments count,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/21/19 Report - Buried Treasure, Pirate and Otherwise. Bernard Romans and Bleach Yard. Lost Payroll.

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

Source: Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, a Guinea Slaver (link below).

Yes Virginia, pirates did bury coins on the beach - at least that is what the book shows.  The book I'm talking about is Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, published by Lemuel Gulliver in Boston in 1834. You can read a free preview online by using the following link.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IQQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

In case you didn't recognize the "Yes Virginia" part, in 1897 a young girl wrote a letter to a newspaper asking if there is a Santa Clause, and that led to a very famous editorial response that included the much repeated, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

You will find the testimony describing the burying of treasure as illustrated above on page 16 of the ebook.  Testimony concerning distribution of the treasure along with other interesting events is also included. It is not easy to follow the testimony, but if you manage, I think you'll find it entertaining.

Here is a link if you want to read a very brief summary of the criminal acts leading to the trial of Don Pedro Gilbert and the other pirates of the Panda. The robbery and destruction of the Brig Mexican occurred off Stuart, Florida.  The web site presents a variety of additional information on pirates.

http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Pedro_Gilbert?View=embedded's,%20newfoundland%20and%20labrador

If Lemuel Gulliver rings a bell, it is also the name of the fictional character and narrator in Gulliver's Travels, which was written about a century earlier.  For a minute it made me wonder if the author's name on the pirate's trial book might be a pseudonym, but the same Lemuel also published a book on another trial that took place in Boston in 1834 as well as a number of other non-fiction titles, some being almanacs.

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Yesterday I referred to a Frank Hudson book entitled Lost Treasure's of Florida's East Coast and mentioned Hudson's poor reputation for accuracy.  I happened to find that book  (which turned out to be surprisingly easy) and inside found the following map of what is labeled as the St. Lucie Inlet area.  After opening the book and briefly scanning it, I was less than impressed by the contents.  Nonetheless, here is the map of what is presented as the St. Lucie Inlet, the same general area that I discussed yesterday.

Illustration Found in Frank Hudson's book,

Lost Treasures of Florida's East Coast.

I'm really not confident of much of anything shown on the map, but would not find it surprising if treasures were buried around the St. Lucie Inlet (which was located at a different locations at different times) or any other Florida East Coast inlet, for that matter.

Treasures 1 through 5 are described as (1) gold bars, (2) iron bound chest, (3) buried cannons, (4) iron bound chest, and (5) iron bound chest.

Number 6 is the most interesting as a possible lead.  Hudson says, in 1834 an army paymaster was moving $8000 in a dugout canoe up the river when it was lost in the river.  Hudson additionally wrote that if you send him a stamped envelope seeking additional details, his source, who did not want to named in the book, would provide additional details.

While I doubt the accuracy of much in that book, it could nevertheless lead to some real facts if anyone is moved to do some research.  I often start looking into one thing and find something else that was totally unexpected.

The Hudson book on buried treasures of the Florida East Coast was published in 1983.  

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Yesterday I also mentioned the "Bleach Yards" down by Gilbert's Bar and couldn't remember the map where I originally saw it.  Ron J. came to the rescue and pointed to my 9/6/15 report that discusses  Bernard Romans and provides a link to the Romans book, which contains the map.  Below is the link to that post.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/09/9615-report-bernard-romans-and-1715.html

You might enjoy looking at both the post and book.

Thanks Ron!

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I have a lot more to talk about, but that is about it for today.

The surf is still one to two feet but Thursday will start increasing, reaching three to four feet on Friday.

We are still getting some nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net