10/24/17 Report - More Post-Irma Finds. The Meaning and Derivation of Names Such as Nuestra Senora de las Nieves. Preserving Iron Artifacts.

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

Lead Shot and Half Reale
Finds and photo by DB

I've shown a number of Irma finds, including a lot of musket balls and a piece of gold.  Here is another post-Irma find.

With the photo I received the following email from DB.

Hello,

I started reading your blog not too long ago. I've learned a lot from them and always like to see cool finds from the area. I found my first Spanish coin and wanted to share with you. A half reale and little musket ball from a beach in IR County...

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Congratulations on your first Spanish cob DB!  Thanks for sharing.

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The shipwreck off of John Brooks is commonly thought to be the Nuestra Senora de las Nieves

Nieves is a Spanish surname and a female given name from the title of the Virgin Mary Nuestra Señora de las Nieves meaning "Our Lady of the Snows."

Many of the names of Spanish ships refer in Mother Mary in one say or another.  Here is an article about various names and references to Mary.

It begins, Mary has many names, or shall we call them titles? The Litany of Loreto refers to many different titles of Mary, but not all of them. Some of her titles refer to a city name corresponding to an apparition location, for example, Our Lady of Lourdes or Our Lady of Fatima. There are also devotional titles of Our Lady such as Our Lady, Undoer (or Untier) of Knots. And then there are many variations of titles which all have a unique history. One such devotion is to Mary under the title of Our Lady of Good Help...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://catholicexchange.com/our-lady-of-good-what

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In my previous post I showed an an old anchor find.  Here is another smaller one.  It isn't as old.

Anchor Find Before Conservation and Coating.

I showed this anchor before, but what I wanted to say about it today is how I finally coated it.  I used clear Rustoleum after getting it stabilized.  Since coating it with Rustoleum, which I did five or more years ago now, it has shown absolutely no signs of deterioration.  It is very important to get it stabilized first before putting on any coating.

I like the clear glossy finish for some items, but you can chose any finish you like.

Here is what it looks like after it was cleaned and coated.

Anchor Coated With Clear Glossy Rustoleum.

It can take a good while to stabilize iron, especially if it has been in salt water.  I've talked about that before, but will refer you to the TAMU web site for tips on how to conserve iron items.

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The Treasure Coast surf is calmer now.  It is only a couple of feet, which will give you a chance to get a little farther out at low tide.

We're supposed to get some nice cool air, which I like a lot better than the 90 degree summer stuff.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/5/15 Report - Salvage Boat At Work. Little Surf and Beaches Still Sanded. Gold Disc and Emerald Cross.

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

Salvage Boat Near The Nieves Wreck Site This Morning.

Just over a week ago, on the 27th to be exact, I posted about a bunch of treasure including a great 8-escudo royal recently found by a salvage crew on the Treasure Coast.  After seeing pictures of the finds, I thought I probably knew where they came from.  Well I was down that way today and took a look.  The thing that surprised me was that the salvage boat was exactly where I thought they would be.

Here is a closer view.

Salvage Boat This Morning Near The Nieves Wreck Site.

You can see the blowers are up.

While the salvage crews are having some of the best hunting they've had since back in the eighties, the beaches are about as bad as I can ever remember.  It just has been a really long time since we've had anything to move the beach sand.

Here is Walton Rocks Beach As Seen This Morning.

Walton Rocks is pretty typical of what you will see on the Treasure Coast.  Big wide flat beach fronts.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

John Brooks is a little steeper on the front beach.  The sand is more coarse.  Mushy.

Detectorist Out For A Morning Hunt by Fort Pierce Jetty.

There were about as many detectorists as beach goers this morning.  Not many targets on the heavily hunted beaches.  Poor conditions too.

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Really Nice 82+ Ounce Gold Disc Up For Bids In Mel And Deo Fisher Collection Auction.

If you've been watching the auction, this gold disc has a bid of $60,000 already.

The gold and emerald cross that I showed the other day has eleven bids already.  The current bid is $70,000.  I think that item has the most bids of any item in the auction.  No doubt the post helped.

Here is the link again.

http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/searchLots.cfm?scp=c&catalogRef=LCOZ5LM9LU

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KT wrote and sent this link.

http://www.lostmystuff.net/index.php

It is a site where people can post about lost items. Volunteer detectorists in the area will then go and hunt for the lost items.

KT also said, keep up the good work on the blog. as a landlocked geologist, i have really enjoyed your discussions of classification and attendant diagrams. took me back to my college days. if you havent already, you might want to study up on how crossbedding is formed in rocks. its basically size/density and migration of small geophysical structures. kinda gives you a 3D mental picture of how stuff is moving.

Thanks KT

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Keep watching for the latest Treasure Coast 1715 Fleet Finds.

You can see from the photos what the beach detecting conditions are like.  

Expect several more days of one or two foot surf.

I can't wait to see something that stirs up the beaches.  It has to happen someday before long.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/26/11 - Irene Gone and Soon to be Forgotten

Detectorist at Green Turtle Beach (Nieves Site) on the Treasure Coast Thursday Evening.

There were actually about a half dozen guys detecting this beach last evening. Some were further south and some further north. Between the sights and sounds of the breaking waves and all of the people that came out to see the high seas, it was pretty exciting. One of the TV news trucks was down at the jetty where so many people accumulated it looked like the state fair was being held there or something. I couldn't believe the number of people, mostly just spectators that were out yesterday. And the show wasn't really anything very remarkable. I really couldn't understand all the commotion this time. Some were tourists. I could understand their curiosity, but for some reason everybody came down to take a look at the ocean.

I got word that the House of Refuge and Bathtub beach area was badly eroded. Of course that beach, like many of the others, was recently replenished and only losing much of the sand that was recently dumped on it.

Replenishment sand almost always erodes first. I don't know why people think that if they dump sand by the ocean it will stay there after the previous sand has obviously departed.

Those replenishment projects often use a type of sand that is easily moved when the water hits it. Sometimes it is very fine, but whatever type of sand it is, it won't stay very long because it is in an unnatural position and does not have the support of natural beaches around it. It is a little like dumping a shovel full of dirt in a river. It won't stay there because it is exposed to the currents and does not have anything to shelter it like a natural beach would.


I saw one lady coming off the beach with her detector last night. She had her purse over her shoulder and her detector in her other hand. You don't want to leave valuables in the car so either leave them at home or be prepared to carry what you have to in a small waterproof container of some sort.

The beach you see in the photo at the top of this post is the Nieves site. Notice the water coming up onto the flat beach. The water got pretty far back towards the dunes there last night.

Here is a cut at the same beach a day or two before. The cut disappeared with the high water and the front beach, which was two steps, is now one mushy slope.

If I was going to spend any time detecting there now, I would sample the area where the shells washed up over onto the flat beach and the area just below that, but mostly the shelly flat sand area.

The high water actually hurt conditions there. It shows how big waves aren't the most important thing in producing a productive beach. And big waves don't necessarily mean a lot of erosion. It has a lot to do with how the waves hit the beach.

I did a survey of most of the primary treasure beaches this morning. It really wasn't very encouraging.

Here is a look at one of the better looking beaches that I saw this morning, and it wasn't great.

Beach Looking North from Seagrape Trail.

You can see that they had some erosion along there. Trouble is, the erosion was of replenishment sand. That was much of the problem with the north end of the Treasure Coast. Just too much replenishment sand all along there. Where there was erosion, it was mostly just replenishment sand.

A lot of sand was gone from Wabasso, but still didn't look productive to me at first glance. If I had more time, it would have been worth sampling.

A lot of beach bums were hanging out there watching the surfers this morning. Only a few detectorists there.

The stretch from Sebastian Inlet to Amber Sands didn't look very good to me.

Most places where I stopped, there were a good number of detectorists, in fact more than I've seen out on a given day for a long time.

I didn't see many of the hard core guys though. Many of he detectorists were couples, some young and some old. It seemed like many of the more casual detectorists (and gals) were out.

There aren't many wives that are going out to the beach with a hard core detectorist. There are a variety of good reasons for that.

To summarize for today, conditions are slightly better than pre Irene, but not dramatically so. If I was the go back and spend some time, I'd probably choose the Wabasso area down to Seagrape.

Turtle Trail and Rio Mar didn't look very good either.

If I were going to spend the time, I would check out some of the beaches that aren't too heavily hunted. You just might find a nicely eroded spot off the beaten track

My Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating remains a two. That is a five point scale, with one being poor, and five excellent.


Good night Irene.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/20 Report - Divers Down at Nieves Site

Boats Anchored Over Nieves Site Yesterday.

There were about seven boats anchored off of John Brooks Park yesterday, some with dive flags out. Interesting! I wonder what was going on.

The beach hasn't changed much in the last week. There is still a ton of loose shelly sand out in front of where the beach was cut at one time.

John Brooks Park Beach Yesterday.


The ram of an ancient warship was recently discovered by RPM Nautical Foundation near Sicily. The ram could be from the famous last battle of the first Punic War in which Rome defeated Carthage in 241 B. C.

The same RPM Nautical Foundation has worked near Florida with the Fisher organization in the past. You can find photos of the ram along with information on the three Florida projects on their web site. You'll find interesting information on the civil war use of a harbor near Key Largo, for example.

Here is the link.

Select the projects icon and then the geographical area that you are interested in.

http://www.rpmnautical.org/index.html

You might want to look at the various sections of that web site.

One person that has been reading this blog is about to buy a metal detector and get started with the hobby. As a result I have a couple of tips for those who are just starting out.

First, you will need patience. It is not likely that you will find a gold coin your first time out. Expect to start slow and stick with it. It will take you a while to learn how to use your detector well and to learn how and where to search. You'll find some things, so don't get discouraged.

Second, take time to learn about your detector. Work with it at a dry beach. Take some coins of your own to use as test targets. Bury them, or have someone else bury them not too deep in a well defined area, and then scan the area until you find them. Test the different settings on your detector with the test targets. Sweep the coil fast and slow and observe the difference in the signal that you get.

Try to find an area without many metallic targets for your experimentation.


There are many detectorists that have been detecting for years that have not really taken the time to learn how to use their detector to best advantage.

Often if you try your detector at home there will be electrical interference from power lines or different things that will confuse you until you know your detector better.

I would not buy the most expensive or fanciest detector to start with. Learn to use a basic detector well before stepping up to a top of the line detector. You can learn a lot by experimenting with your detector.

Patience and practice will be two of your best allies.

Another person said they would like to hear more about water detecting techniques. I'll do some more of that in the future.

Again, I'd advise browsing the current and past artifacts sections for the SedwickCoins auctions.


Forecast and Conditions.

The ocean is smooth and will remain smooth up until Saturday when the seas will begin to increase. If you want to do any water hunting, do it now.

On Sunday we will have five foot seas if the surf web sites are correct. I suspect that will be the result of a low pressure area down around Grand Cayman that will be forming and moving east.

The high tides are still pretty high and the wind is from the north.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net