11/26/18 Report - Mysterious Tunnels Discovered. Treasure Hunter Can't Present Coins to Court. Florida Shoreline Change Database. Plastic in Whales.

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

More evidence has emerged of a mysterious network of tunnels beneath the historic neighborhood of Ybor City in Tampa, Fla.

Earlier this week, architect Gerry Curts was on site showing pictures and offering descriptions of one of the tunnels, Fox 13 reported. He said that a new opening to the tunnels was revealed during demolition work by developers planning an office building./..

Mormino speculated that the tunnels may have been part of a network that transported Chinese prostitutes from Cuba to the Port of Tampa to Ybor City in the early 1900s, but added that we may never discover their real use. "The tunnels of Ybor City represent one of the great riddles and mysteries," he said...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/mysterious-tunnels-discovered-in-florida

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COLUMBUS (AP) — A treasure hunter has taken back a pledge to turn over 500 missing coins just days after he promised to deliver the coins minted from gold found in a shipwreck off the South Carolina coast.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Tommy Thompson agreed on Wednesday to deliver the coins to a court-appointed receiver by Sunday to settle a lawsuit brought by an investor.

The paper says the deal fell apart Friday when Thompson said he has no idea how to obtain the coins.

Thompson found the S.S. Central America in 1988 after convincing more than 100 investors to fund the voyage for nearly $13 million.

Thompson never repaid the investors. He became a fugitive and fled...

Here are a couple links.

https://www.limaohio.com/wire/state-wire/329120/treasure-hunter-flip-flops-over-returning-missing-gold-coins

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181114/tommy-thompson-agrees-to-surrender-gold-coins-in-tentative-settlement

You might remember when a fugitive Tommy Thompson was apprehended in a Boca Raton hotel.

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Here is a link that you can use to find some information on Florida shoreline changes.  Not all of it is up-to-date.

https://floridadep.gov/water/beaches/content/historic-shoreline-database

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A dead whale that washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had a large lump of plastic waste in its stomach, including drinking cups, bottles and flip-flops, a park official said Tuesday, causing concern among environmentalists and government officials in one of the world’s largest plastic-polluting countries...

Santoso said researchers from wildlife conservation group WWF and the park’s conservation academy found about 5.9 kilograms (13 pounds) of plastic waste in the animal’s stomach containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, 2 flip-flops, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic...

For more - 

http://www.startribune.com/dead-whale-had-115-plastic-cups-2-flip-flops-in-its-stomach/500897282/

I'm always amazed by the number of flip flops and other plastic that washes up on the beaches on the Treasure Coast.

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I've been busy with holiday activities already.  I always like the holidays.

Cooler weather is on the way.  The Treasure Coast surf is down to two to three feet, but the tides are still big.

We'll be getting more west and northwest winds, so I'm not expecting any improvement in beach detecting conditions.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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In this undated photo released by Akademi Komunitas Kelautan dan Perikanan Wakatobi (Wakatobi Marine and Fisheries Community Acad

emy or AKKP Wakatobi), researchers collect data of the carcass of a beached whale at Wakatobi National Park in South

12/16/16 Report - What Happened To Tons of Gold From The S. S. Central America? Tommy Knows!

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

Neat Picture of Recent Cold Air Covering The Northern U. S.

Here is a link to a video showing the cold air moving south.

https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/129177.php

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The main topic today comes from a long article from the Washington Post about Tommy Thompson and three tons of sunken gold.  It seems Thompson won't be able to leave jail until he tells where the gold is.

Here is how the article, which reads more like a novel, begins.

Tommy G. Thompson was once one of the greatest treasure hunters of his time: A dark-bearded diver who hauled a trove of gold from the Atlantic Ocean in 1988 — dubbed the richest find in U.S. history.

Years later, accused of cheating his investors out of the fortune, Thompson led federal agents on a great manhunt — pursued from a Florida mansion to a mid-rent hotel room booked under a fake name.

Now Thompson’s beard has grayed, and he lives in an Ohio jail cell, held there until he gives up the location of the gold...

And here is the link if you want to read the rest of the article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/14/a-treasure-hunter-found-3-tons-of-sunken-gold-and-cant-leave-jail-until-he-says-where-it-is/?utm_term=.bc6e2d50ffbb

I think you'll want to read it all.

Thanks to Dean for that link!

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The water has calmed down in the Keys and the Dare was back out working the Atocha while the Sea Reaper is working west of the Margarita.

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The surf isn't going to increase much for a while.  From earlier predictions it looked like it might be higher this weekend.

We are still having some nice negative tides and the water is calm.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/29/15 Report - Closed Beaches. TreasureGuide Beach Cam. Tommy Thompson Found in West Boca. Odyssey Marine Working S. S. Central America.

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

Wabasso Beach Access Closed This Morning.

Both the Wabasso Beach Access and the Turtle Trail access were closed this morning.  I know the Turtle Trail access has been closed for a while.  I'd guess that another big sand dump is coming.  I saw survey markers above Seagreape Trail too.


Vero Looking Towards Rio Mar Near Low Tide This Morning.

As you can see, no cuts here.  There were a few barely noticeable scallops.  Not many people out either. 

Early this morning it was pretty windy and cloudy.



Seagrape Trail Access Looking North This Morning.

Not much in the way of cuts here either.  The water did hit the cliff and there were some cuts that were only a few inches high out in front of the cliffs part of the way.

From about where the steps are in this picture to the next set of steps in the distance, there were a number of targets in the wet sand and near the water - mostly junk.

Couple Detectorist Caught By The TreasureGuide Beach Cam This Morning.

These detectorists were working along  near the foot of the cliff.  One other detectorist left a little earlier. 

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The big treasure news of the week is that Tommy Thompson was found.  I did a post back in the summer about him missing.  He was being sued by investors who claim they never got their share.

Tommy found the S. S. Central America and salvaged a reported $50 million worth of treasure.

C Man sent me this link.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fugitive-treasure-hunter-nabbed-florida-2-hunt-144801276.html

L. B. sent me this link on that topic.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2930007/Fugitive-treasure-hunter-nabbed-Florida-2-year-hunt.html

This article has some good news too.

Thanks for the links guys.

Odyssey Marine Explorations has been salvaging the S. S. Central America site. 

http://ir.odysseymarine.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=881983

Their third quarter report said, Completed the 2014 season's offshore operations at the SS Central America shipwreck site and recovered more than 15,500 silver and gold coins, 45 gold ingots, gold dust, nuggets, jewelry, and various other artifacts. Odyssey's share of the expected proceeds from the recovered cargo is far in excess of the project costs and is expected to generate a significant profit margin to Odyssey.

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On the Treasure Coast expect something like a 2 to 4 foot surf for the next few days.  The primary beaches have been worked hard and targets or any kind are generally scarce.  You'll have to do a little more than go to the same beaches that everyone else is doing.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@Comcast.net

1/28/14 Report - Treasure Coast Eight Reale. What Civil War Artifacts Will Be Found On The Bottom of The Congaree River. Tommy Thompson Found.

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

Photos by Captain Jonah.

Here is a neat Treasure Coast Potosi Pillar and Waves Eight-Reale.

You can see the Potosi mint mark.  Also a three digit date in the bottom column of the middle row.

The picture below is the other side of the same cob.

I'm not certain I am reading the date correctly, but it looks like (1)715 to me.  What do you think?

It appears to nicely match some examples that are in Menzel's book.  That book shows a 1715 eight-reale that is also chunky and cracked like this one.

Menzel says that mint production for that decade was low and quality control was poor.  The book said that is rare to find a well struck Potosi cob around that time period.


Another excellent Treasure Coast find by a Treasure Coast salvage crew.

You might remember my comment from a recent post indicating that in 1700 and after, Potosi Pillars and Waves cobs had a three digit date while earlier Pillars and Waves cobs had a two digit date.


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COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA—A planned environmental clean-up of the Congaree River in South Carolina could recover Confederate munitions that Union troops, under the command of General William T. Sherman, captured in 1865. Sherman’s army burned a third of the city and captured 1.2 million ball cartridges; 100,000 percussion caps; 6,000 unfinished arms; 4,000 bayonet scabbards; and 3,100 sabers. The soldiers reportedly dumped what they couldn’t carry in the river. Since then, fishermen and swimmers have recovered some of the weapons...

Here is the link to read the article.

http://www.thestate.com/2015/01/17/3934680_exclusive-congaree-to-be-dammed.html?rh=1

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One thing I continue to be impressed by is the importance of the threshold setting on a pulse induction metal detector.   A threshold that is either too high or too low will cause a loss of depth and signals.  It is so important that I often test my threshold by using a well known gold test target so that I know I have the best threshold setting.  In my opinion, selecting the threshold is too important to do casually.

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When learning a new detector learn first in a familiar test garden if that is possible.  Then move to an easy setting such as dry sand.  Then to wet sand, and finally in water.

I think if you become very familiar with a detector in a less challenging environment first, it will make it easier to move to a more challenging environment.

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When I was at the beach yesterday, almost all the targets I found were discolored, corroded, and deep.  The recent surface drops had already been picked up, yet there were a good number of deep targets remaining.

It was also my observation that there is less junk out there these days.  I think more people are removing the junk.   There were a good number of bottle caps at some beaches.  There are also some beaches with a lot of small iron.

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Just got the news that Tommy Thompson was captured.  I did a post giving a link about him missing a few months ago.  You can find that post by using the blog search box.

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On the Treasure Coast, the wind changed direction.  It was coming from the North.  Tomorrow the surf will be a little higher.

Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@Comcast.net