12/3/16 Report - Historic Florida Shipwreck Claimed by France. Your Attention and Action Needed. Antique Bottle Find.

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

100-Year-Old Cures Bottle Found This Morning.

I found this bottle in the water yesterday.  On one side it reads "Chattanooga Tenn," and the other side reads "Manufactured by F. M. Plank."

After a little research I found that this is a cure bottle, often listed as a "quack cure" bottle.

Here is an ad that I found from 1906.

The ad was found in the 1906 Proceedings of the Florida State Pharmaceutical Association.

The other Plank bottles that I've seen have the bust of a man embossed on the bottle.  This one, however, has a diamond-shaped depression, that I imagine once had a paper label.  I haven't yet found when this type of bottle was used.  The bottle with the embossed bust is always described as being from the late 1800s.

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Below is a link to an article that you need to read and leave your own comments on.  I recently said that it is impossible to separate politics from treasure hunting.  This illustrates that.

France has filed a legal claim to an ancient shipwreck discovered off Cape Canaveral, saying it was part of the French fleet that in 1565 went to the aid of that country’s doomed colony at Fort Caroline in Jacksonville.

That follows a claim by the private treasure salvage company that found the wreck, and seems likely to lead to a dispute in U.S. District Court in Orlando over ownership of the artifacts.

It would be a high-stakes battle: A state archaeology report says the wreck, if it is indeed connected to the French fleet, “would be of immense archaeological significance...”

The identity of the ship is in question.  Rather than being a French ship, it might actually be something else, perhaps a Spanish ship which was carrying a stone marker used by the French to mark land claimed in the New World.

The article says,  ...If the wreck is of a merchant vessel, Global Maritime Exploration, which had a state permit to look for wrecks, would be entitled to 80 percent of what is found. The state would get 20 percent.

If it is determined to be part the royal French fleet, however, France could be granted ownership of it.

A marine archaeologist quoted in the article would prefer that rights to the ship be awarded to France rather than the company that found it.  If that were to happen, none of the items would go into the Florida Collection to be maintained for the benefit of the citizens of Florida.  

Not surprisingly, the archaeologist is a globalist that opposes capitalist ventures and evidently also the long-standing arrangements worked out by the State of Florida to preserve Florida history for its citizens.

Not only should you read this article, but also comment and contact your representatives.

Here is the link to the article.

http://jacksonville.com/florida/2016-11-29/france-claims-rights-shipwreck-linked-lost-colony-fort-caroline

Thanks to Brian B. for alerting me to this story and sending the link.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/24 Report - Wood Plank, Trailboard & Beachcombing

Another Piece of an Old Plank Found on a Treasure Coast Beach.

This one has what appears to be the rusted head of an iron spike to the right of the penny. The same spike seems to be broken off but visible on the other side.

You can also see a hole where a pin or something once was to the northwest of the penny in the middle of the dark brown area. There is some iron residue in that hole.

Emails that I received showed an interest in the piece of wood that I showed yesterday, so I decided to show another.

Also, I wanted to mention another wood find. One of the more interesting is an ornate trailboard found by John Brandon in the Vero Beach area. That piece was about four feet long and in very good condition.

It was preserved in such good condition because it was buried under five feet of sand and two feet of mud.

Items can remain buried for many many years. Depending upon what they are buried in, they can be very well preserved.

Beach and water hunters are very much dependent upon the movement of sand to uncover items like that.

Of course the piece of plank that appears in the photo today could be detected because of the piece of iron spike still attached to it. It could be missed by a metal detector if the detectorist discriminates iron.

Oh, the ornate trailboard is discussed as an important clue in Laura Strolia's book The Marigalera of the 1715 Fleet, which can be purchased at Amazon.com in time for Christmas. It is a nice little book with lots of good information.


Beachcombing has a long history going back at least 3000 or so years. One nice article that I found discusses how indigenous people scanned the beaches for shells, fossils, and would you believe, oil that ended up on the beach as the result of natural seepage from underwater locations.

I think you'll enjoy this article "littorally." Pun intended.

Here is the link.

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/coast/prehistory/images/beachcombing.html

It is interesting to think that people today search the beaches and find things that were found and used by people that searched the beaches thousands of years ago.

Beachcombing is an activity that seems to be natural to the nature of man and points somewhere beyond.

I've noticed that people haven't been registering as followers to this blog since I haven't been displaying the follower photos. You can still register as a follower from the main blog display. Just click on "FOLLOW" at the top of the page. Maybe I'll display the photos again. The main page got pretty full.

Forecast and Conditions.

The seas are now down to around two feet. The weather is beautiful. The high tides are still fairly high.

It could be interesting to check the beach fronts at low tide and look in the shallow water. Maybe even do some water hunting, where permitted.

Don't ask where that is. I've posted on that in the past.

Conditions won't change significantly this week. Expect calm seas for the rest of the week.

Happy Thanksgiving.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net