10/5/19 Report - Rare Gold Coins Being Found on 19th Century Shipwreck. A Variety of Metal Detectors That I've Used Over The Years.

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

Blue Water Ventures has been finding rare gold coins on a 19th century wreck of the Steamship North Carolina off the South Carolina Coast.

Thanks to Dean R. for the lead on this story.  You'll find it mentioned in several sources.  Here are three links.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article235661717.html

https://rarecoininvestor.com/2018/11/05/divers-searching-for-extremely-rare-gold-coins-on-1840-shipwreck-off-south-carolina/


https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/blue-water-ventures-international-and-endurance-exploration-group-announce-first-day-success-on-steamboat-north-carolina-1028570511

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I was trying to remember the metal detectors that I've used over the years and thought I'd make a list beginning with the first one I ever used and putting them in order, but I doubt that I got them all and I probably don't have every one in the correct order.

Radio Shack metal detector.   Back in the 60s probably.  Don't remember what it was called.

Whites CoinMaster.  It was purchased from a Sears Roebuck catalog and returned for some reason after some useage.

Fisher Aquanaut 1280.   My first submersible and the metal detector and the detector I was using when I got on the gold trail.

Tesoro Royal Sabre.

Tesoro Silver Sabre.

Garrett Pulse Induction submersible.  I don't remember what that one was called either,  I didn't keep it very long.

Steve Noga modified submersible Nautilus metal detector.  I think I had three of those.

Herb MacDonald Aquasound metal detctors.  Very similar to the Noga metal detectors. They were also modified Nautilus detectors in a Ikelite case.

Tesoro Stingray.

Minelab Excalibur.

Minelab Sovereign,

Whites PI Surf.

Garrett Ace 250.

Garrett GTX.

Minelab Equinox.

My most productive detectors were the Noga and MacDonald modified Nautilus detectors, which were great beach and underwater detectors.

Most of those detectors were pretty good at doing something.  I used some of those a lot and others only a little.

Some of the later detectors were also very good, but it was when I was using the modified Nautilus detectors that I was detecting the most and finding the most.   I lived in the Fort Lauderdale area at the time,  and between consulting jobs and university teaching, I was able to hit the beaches pretty hard.  I was doing 20 to 30 pieces of gold each month on average without going all out.   As I recall, I was at around 130 pieces of gold one year and had more months to go when I lost track of my records. 

I might comment on each metal detector some other time.

If the Radio Shack detector was a better metal detector, I would have started to metal detect more seriously a decade or two earlier.

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MagicSeaWeed.com.

Looks like we'll have some nice surf Sunday night and Monday morning, but it looks like the wind won't be favorable.

The tides are more moderate now.

It isn't unusual to have a good storm in the fall.  We can still hope.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/17/19 Report - SS Pulaski Coins Being Sold. Another Kind of Collectible You Might Find: Insulators.

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

Finds From SS Pulaski

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu0ixvAA8BQ

I've posted a bit in the past about the shipwreck of the SS Pulaski, but now the coins are being sold.

The first 502 gold and silver coins plucked from a shipwreck off North Carolina have been sold to a global coin dealer at a price that “wildly exceeded” the recovery project’s expectations...

The 502 coins included some of the oldest U.S. gold coins ever recovered off a shipwreck, dating to around 1800, said Keith Webb of Blue Water Ventures International.   Blue Water Ventures is working with Endurance Exploration Group to recover treasure off the Steamship Pulaski...

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article226195150.html#storylin

All 502 coins predated the sinking of the Pulaski in 1838, with the oldest being a 1750s British Gold Guinea, said Micah Eldred of Endurance Exploration Group.

Webb believes more than 100,000 gold and silver coins wait to be found, along with jewelry...

Divers are finding the coins in areas where the passengers’ steamer trunks tumbled as part of a “wreck trail.” The trunks themselves have wasted away, Webb says, but the metal bands, keys and locks that held them together now sit in the sand...

Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article226195150.html#storylink=cpy

Here is the link for the rest of the article.


https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article226195150.html

See also:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/portion-pulaski-shipwreck-coin-collection-135108095.html

https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/6524/SS-Pulaski/

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You never know what you might find.  That is something I like about treasure hunting.  You can find a lot of interesting things besides coins.  There are bottles, fossils, arrow heads, shells, sea glass and other types of  collectibles that you can find.

If you've done much hunting, there is a good chance you've found some insulators.  Here are a few that I've found.

Found Insulators.

Sometimes they still have wire attached or are on bolt.  You can detect those, but very often they will be surface finds.

One thing I like about insulators, besides the fact that they come in all sizes and shapes and can be very colorful, is that they are usually well marked, both with the name of the manufacturer and the patent date.

Probably my best insulator is a cobalt blue example.  It isn't shown in this photo.

Brookfield Insulator.

This nice little green insulator is a Brookfield.  It also has the patent date on the bottom.

There are quite a variety of manufacturers.

Like most collectibles, most are fairly common and not very valuable, but there are some that bring very good prices.  As with all collectibles, condition and rarity are big factors.

I think insulators are attractive and make a nice collection.  They can be easily researched and nicely displayed.

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No big change in beach conditions.  The surf is still small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/24/18 Report - An Amazing and True Shipwreck Story: The Ville de Havre and the Spafford Family.

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

Here is a true and moving shipwreck story that has been retold many times.

On 15 November 1873, Ville du Havre sailed from New York with 313 passengers and crew on board, under the command of captain Marino Surmonte.^[2] After a week's steaming across the Atlantic ocean, she collided with the iron clipper, Loch Earn at about 2 a.m. in the morning of Saturday, 22 November, at the position 47°21′N 35°31′W. At the time of the collision, Ville du Havre was proceeding under both steam and sail at about 12 knots.

The sinking of Ville du Havre

The captain of Loch Earn, after first sighting Ville du Havre and realising she was dangerously close, rang the ship's bell and "ported his helm", thus turning the boat to starboard. The helm of Loch Earn was put to starboard, but Ville du Havre came right across Loch Earn's bow.^[5][6] Ville du Havre was violently shaken by the collision and noise, and woke all the passengers. Confused, most passengers went on deck, only to discover the ship was rapidly sinking. The captain assured them that all was fine, but in reality the ship had been nearly broken in two, and it did not take long for passengers to realize the situation was desperate. Commotion and chaos overtook panicked passengers. They started grabbing life preservers and trying to push lifeboats into the water. Unfortunately, these had recently been painted, and they were now stuck fast to the deck. Finally a few of them were yanked loose, and passengers fought desperately to be one of the few travelers to board those boats.^[7]

Shortly after the collision, Ville du Havre's main and mizzen masts collapsed, smashing two of the liner's life boats and killing several people. The time for saving life was very short as the ship sank in less than 12 minutes, and finally broke into two pieces as she went.^[8] Captain Robertson of Loch Earn did all he possibly could to rescue the drowning and eventually 61 passengers and 26 of the crew were rescued and taken on board that ship.^[2] However, 226 passengers and crew perished.  (Source: Wikipedia.)

And here is the story of one family tragically involved with the sinking.

Born in New York State on October 30, 1828, Horatio G. Spafford became a lawyer, practicing law and teaching jurisprudence in Chicago. By the time he was in his early 40s he was quite successful and invested heavily in downtown Chicago real estate along the shores of Lake Michigan. The infamous Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed all his land holdings. His material losses were exceptional.

Always a religious family, Horatio decided to take a holiday in England to assist the famous Dwight L Moody as he traveled about England on one of his evangelistic crusades. Horatio and Anna his wife planned to join Moody in late 1873. The Spaffords traveled to New York in November, from where they were to catch the French steamer 'Ville de Havre' across the Atlantic. Yet just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio to delay. Spafford encouraged his family to go as planned, so as not to ruin their holiday. He planned to follow later. Anna and her four daughters sailed East to Europe while Spafford returned West to Chicago. Nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife who was now in Wales. It read: "Saved alone."

On November 2nd 1873, the 'Ville de Havre' had collided with 'The Lochearn', an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford had stood bravely on the deck, with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tanetta clinging desperately to her. Her last memory had been of her baby being torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from the fate of her daughters by a plank which floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs. Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, "You were spared for a purpose."

Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Bertha Spafford (the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna born later) explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship had called him to the bridge. "A careful reckoning has been made", he said, "and I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The water is three miles deep." Horatio then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics of his great hymn.

This is usually where the story ends when told in Church, followed inevitably by the singing of the hymn...

Source: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-it-is-well-with-my-soul

But that isn't the end of the story.  Horatio and Anna went on to do help many people through their charitable works.

Remembering Horatio's situation, here is the hymn as performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Listen while remembering the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg5O2y1UXw4

The choir didn't put the usual emphasis on the tolling of the bells, which I find very powerful, but otherwise a nice performance.  If you listen to other performances you'll hear three slow and distinct bell sounds repeated.

Not really a Christmas carol, but having a lot to do with the Christmas story.

Have a blessed Christmas.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/21/18 Report - Railroad Metal Detector Finds. Stash of Gold and Silver Coins. Ringless Engagement Rings. Psychics Find Stuff.

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

Finds and photo by Dan B.

Here is the message Dan B. sent with this picture of his finds.

Another visit to a hunted out area. One of my favorite RR spots near the river. The dune has a pretty steep slope from the RR tracks out and down towards the west. It must get wind blown and with some rain it seems to reveal some new goodies every year or so depending on weather. Always a nice surprise to come back and find just a bit more. I found many RR era targets. These were the best for the day.
You can go back to the same location time after time and continue to find things, especially when the surface is eroded a bit.

Cool finds.  Thanks Dan.

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Now people are having diamonds embedded in their finger and not bothering with a metal band.

Here is that link.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/03/forget-engagement-rings-now-diamonds-embedded-in-fingers/

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A stash of gold coins found last week is the latest piece of evidence that a shipwreck 40-plus miles off the North Carolina coast is that of the steamship Pulaski, which took half its wealthy passengers to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838.

Divers found 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins in a spot “no bigger than a cigar box.” All predate the ship’s sinking and include one British coin that experts say could be worth $100,000. Other gold coins in the collection are valued in the $10,000 to $12,000 range, officials said...

This article is from January, but I don't remember posting it before.

Here is the link.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article196911119.html

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A good number of treasure hunters follow their intuition and a good number believe in some type of psychic ability or leaning. I once did a poll on that.

Here is an article about our intelligence agencies used psychics.

...Angela Ford was with Project Star Gate for nine years. She calls herself a medium; the Defense Department preferred "remote viewer." "I was good at finding people," she said. "I was good at locating things."

Moriarty asked, "In a sense, were you hired as a psychic spy?"

"I guess, yes!" she laughed.

Her assignment?  To look for missing hostages and fugitives without ever leaving a building at Fort Meade in Maryland...

Here is that link for more about that.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/esp-inside-the-governments-secret-program-of-psychic-spies/

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A cool front came through and we have a west wind and small surf - only one foot or less.   The surf will remain small for at least a few days.  The tides are decent.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/5/18 Report - Spanish Officer and A Kid From Reign of Philip IV : Paintings For Research. Treasure Dive in the Great Lakes.

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

This painting is one of fifteen from a Sotheby's exhibit of Golden Age Spanish paintings. Since you'll never see a photo from the 8th century or earlier, you can learn a lot by looking at paintings from the time period.  This one from the reign of King Philip gives you some idea of what the best dressed child of the day might wear.  Notice the scaled down sword and pike or whatever.

And here is a fellow of the period identified as a Spanish officer.

Painting of Spanish Officer

Old paintings can be valuable for research.

Below is the link if you want to see the other paintings from the Sotheby's Auckland Castle group.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/slideshows/2018/spanish-paintings-from-auckland-castle.html

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Here is an interesting and instructive account of a treasure dive in the Great Lakes from Steve in Sebastian.

Anything is possible to those who dream! When everyone and I mean everyone...the best of the best...veteran divers up on the Lakes... would still basically just swim along slowly (the more experience the slower you went) remember at 150+ feet of depth, no matter how well your mind is conditioned...you still were not even close to being 100%. You found yourself locked in patterns of behavior that worked. Example... I'm working a debris pile on the aft deck (that not in the least was by accident on my part, knowing that the original plans showed the Purser's Office was located originally directly above. Now long gone, because the upper decks ("hurricane deck" was always made of lightweight wood to keep the CG low. Often the hurricane deck totally tore off from the collisions and air pressure in the hull. Some were found floating down the lake a hundred miles away, weeks later!

I came across a heavy wood box, but no bottom, heavy like 1" thick, or something tumbled out... hardwood, 12" long, 6" wide, 6-8" high. I grabbed at it... (quite excited... purser's gold box?...why such heavy wood?) but only some engine parts, heavy bearings rolled out. Odd...but that was it. Move on.

How simple at the end of any of my dives (making 2 per day, for 30 days, weather permitting.) to simply tie on my hand reel to these "engine parts" and pull it up and see what it really is! The "hand reel" is a plastic spool with 200' of 5/16" poly line on, with a cut 1/2 through 3' up the bitter end riding up my arm with fishing net floats wire tied to the sides to tie anything heavy on, or to tie to the wreck anywhere for an emergency decompression line. (Although I had mastering holding 10' in free water...for 15 minutes to do all my decompression. You gently slip down to 12-13' constantly holding the depth gauge in front of your face literally, then a couple soft kicks of the fins, then carefully drift to a halt because you are always fighting the quick change in buoyancy that will occur... as the bubbles will expand rapidly in the last 10 feet in your suit, even a dry suit of the type we wore back then. Problem is I often came up at the end...1/2 mile from the boat! Later with the line half cut through at 3' off the tied end, you could cleat it on, and power the boat up, and snap it off when leaving for the day...only losing 3. (:

Anyway back then in the late 70 and 80s, there were really only a couple dozen "good" divers who dove the really deep ones, up to about 210.' So the word got around fairly quickly. Well sure enough I hear the grapevine and it tells me some lucky diver "just looking over the debris in the stern" found the SHIP'S TICKETING MACHINE all in brass with all the brass rollers and thumb wheel amounts and ports of call, etc. A fine, fine nautical steamship 1865 piece I'm sure. I almost wanted to leak it out that he go back and find the hardwood case for it!!! (;Thanks much Steve! 

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I'm still thinking of the stupid Super Bowl this morning.  I don't know how we elevate a game to such importance in this world, but I guess it is entertainment.

Anyhow, the Eagles were penalized more than the Patriots 6 to 2, but there weren't as many penalties as I expected and no big game changers.  There was one important non-call that in my opinion went in the favor of the Eagles.  That was a real surprise.  Anyway, Nick Foles is going to Disney World and my prediction was wrong.

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The tides are a bit more moderate now and the surf is only about two to four feet. 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

7/30/15 Report - Amazing 1715 Fleet Artifact Found In 1994. July 2015 1715 Fleet Finds by Trez. Steamship George L. Olson.

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

Remains Of Steamship George L. Olson
Source: see scribol.com link.

The Steamship George L. Olson, launched in 1917, collided with another ship and was thrown off course and onto the rocks in 1944. Nobody was injured and the vessel later pulled into the harbour to salvage whatever possible. Some of the ship’s load – lumber – built the Baptist Church in Charleston. Though grounded in late 1944, the George L. Olson had a tendency to pop up over the decades. Storms moved sand off it and uncovered the ship in the ‘60s but once covered again, it was quickly forgotten. When it surfaced again in February 2008, though, it attracted quite a bit of attention.

http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/25-objects-devoured-by-sand

This Olson is a part of a list of 25 items devoured by sand.  There are other shipwrecks.  You might enjoy looking at it.

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Aritfact Picture From July 5 Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Yesterday I showed some recent finds made on the Treasure Coast.   On July 5 the Treasure Coast newspapers did an article on the 1715 Fleet and why the Treasure Coast is named the Treasure Coast.  In that article they showed pictures of a few finds, including the "vessel" shown above.

Above is the description the newspaper gave with the item.

 I think you can see it on display at the Mel Fisher Museum in Sebastian.

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You won't want to miss the treasure I'll post tomorrow.

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I've been doing this blog for about seven years now.  That is hard to believe.  When I started, there weren't many others.  Now there are tons of others.

I started with the intention of letting people know when beach conditions were good for finding old shipwreck coins on the Treasure Coast beaches.

I thought that would be helpful, because I used to live down in South Florida and when I got interested in the Treasure Coast shipwrecks, I had to drive up here and the first times I did that I had absolutely no luck.  I thought people would like to know when they had a decent chance of finding cobs and when the chances were poor.

I haven't been posting my conditions ratings very often lately because the conditions have not changed or months and it gets boring posting the same rating day after day after day.

When I started I didn't imagine that so many people would read the blog, but it became popular right away.  I was really surprised.  I had tried a blog on a completely different topic and never got more than a handful of readers, so the success of this blog, blew me away.

I've never done any promotion.  I have no facebook page, twitter, ads or anything to promote the blog.  It has all been done by the readers of this blog via word of mouth.  (Thanks to all of you.)

After a short while I began to post more than my conditions ratings.  And as you know, the blog contains a lot more than the condition ratings, which lately have faded into the background.

Briefly, my Treasure Coast Beach Metal Conditions Rating Scale, as some of you will know, is a five point scale, with 1 indicating poor detecting conditions for finding old shipwreck coins, and 5 indicating excellent conditions.

Just to make it clear, my rating is for beach detecting, not salvage efforts with blowers that produces the kind of thing I posted in my last post.

I haven't had a five rating that I can remember in the seven years, maybe I did have one or two, but a five rating would be something like what you get after a hurricane, which we haven't had for ten years now.

I used to often repeat that I started the five-point scale with a 1 instead of a 0 because there is always some chance, even if it is very small.

Well, Trez proved proved this month that there is always some chance.  His high level of skill and local knowledge increased the chances though.  That is always the case.

Before I get into that, let me thank Trez for correcting an error that I made in my last post,  He pointed out that Potosi did not mint gold coins during the period that would be included in the group of coins that were recently found and that I posted in a photo.  I did see some Lima mint marks.

Here is what Trez said to me in an email.

So far my count for the month 3-1 reales, 5 pieces of lead sheathing w burlap imprint, 1 pot shard w some glaze, 1 small porcelain frag. (my 1715 celebration hunt will cont until the end of the month.) Hope to see you out there sometime. I have always believed and still do, no storm is needed to find 1715 material. It takes 40 plus days of this weather and you will find it, if you are patient.

Again, there is always some chance no matter how poor conditions are.  The chances though, can be very slim.  If you don't have the knowledge, skill and, as Trez points out, patience, you'll be out there for days and scan miles and miles without success.

He has a couple more days of the month to add to his finds too.

I always say those who hunt the most find the most.  Even when pickings are slim, if you stick at it long enough, you'll find something, and you can't tell what it might be.

Trez knows a lot about how to improve his chances.  That is the definition of skill.

Even though old things can be found anytime, even when overall conditions are poor, if beach conditions were better, you would have a much better chance.  To find anything like that now, local knowledge helps a lot.  There are also some things that have been going on lately that open up unique opportunities.  Sometimes those special opportunities have nothing to do with the general beach conditions.

Congratulations Trez, great finds!  A tip of the hat to your skill and patience.

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Talking about the unexpected, my first escudo find was made in the eighties in Dade County.

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Tomorrow I'll talk about "classification" or the sifting and sorting of targets.

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One day remaining on the blog poll.  Your responses are appreciated.

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The surf on the Treasure Coast will be increasing by about a foot for the next few days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/6/14 Report - 1000 Ounces of Gold Recovered on a Reconnaissance Dive on the SS Central America & More Poll Discussion

 

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




SS Central America
 

Here is a little from a May 5 Globe Newswire story that one reader forwarded to me.

It says,  Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a pioneer in the field of deep-ocean exploration, recovered nearly 1,000 ounces of gold during the first reconnaissance dive to the SS Central America shipwreck site on April 15,2014.

Recovered gold included five gold ingots and two $20 Double Eagle coins (one 1857 minted in San Francisco and one 1850 minted in Philadelphia). The gold ingots were stamped with assayer's marks and weights that range from 96.5 to 313.5 troy ounces.

That was recovered during a two hour reconnaissance dive without any excavation!  It was all in plain sight.

This dive confirms for me that the site has not been disturbed since 1991, when I was last there," said Bob Evans chief scientist/historian for RLP.

Here is the link for more of the story.

http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/gold-recovered-during-first-reconnaissance-dive-indicates-ss-central-america-has-not-been-disturbe-20140505-00368#ixzz30wy5MvLM

So that was that was 23 years ago and remained safely underwater without looting or any other major disturbance.

Odyssey stock has not been doing very well this year but maybe this news caused a little increase, or maybe it was totally unrelated to the news story.

So that was that was 23 years ago that it sat safely underwater without looting or any other major disturbance.

 

 

OMEX stock prices over last five days.

 

Wikipedia says, SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer that operated between Central America and the eastern coast of the United States during the 1850s. It was originally named the SS George Law, after Mr. George Law of New York. The ship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, along with more than 550 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) of gold, contributing to the Panic of 1857.

I started to talk about the results of the most recent blog poll yesterday, and it appears that about half of the people that responded to the poll detect more than one type of site.  A lot more detect on an ocean beach than detect in the ocean.

A relatively small number of people who responded detect along or in inland waters.  Less than 10% of the respondents said the detected along inland waters, and less than 10% said they detected in inland waters.

I always enjoyed detecting inland waters.  There are some old abandoned beaches on inland waters that are good for detecting.  And there are some where the main beach used to be at a different place from where the main beach is now.

I can think of a few right off where I detected in the past and it looked like everybody always swam and sun-bathed at one part of the beach, but in older times the main location was actually elsewhere.  By looking at it you would never guess where the main beach used to be.  It can pay to go around and detect some of those overgrown areas that don't look like anyone had ever been there.  Don't miss those overgrown and over-looked areas.

I remember when I visited a park out in the Everglades back a number of years ago and turned my detector on and the first signal I got was a wheat penny.  It didn't look like there would be anything there.  There were no other people when I was there and it looked like there never had been many people there, however that was wrong.

You might be surprised sometimes by where things used to be and where old items still remain waiting to be found.

I've detected along rivers in Alabama where there were hotels that no longer exist and a number of lakes in Minnesota, to give just two examples.  I like those kinds of places.   There are plenty of beaches besides ocean beaches.

Almost as many of the respondents said they detected a dry land site as the number that detected an ocean beach (42% and 46% respectively).  Of course there are a good number of readers of this blog who do not live near an ocean.  Others detect land sites by choice.

I've shown in recent weeks a number of very good finds that came from land sites.  It is always a good alternative but for best results some research is necessary.

About one third did not detect at all this month.  I don't find that surprising either.  People have stuff going on and it has been quite a while since beach conditions have been good.  There are still modern items to be found on the beach even if conditions aren't good.\


On the Treasure Coast the surf is pretty flat.  And on top of that the tides are pretty flat now.

Don't expect much help from Mother Nature on the beach anytime real soon.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/16/14 Report - Odyssey Marine, SS Central America, Copper Sheathing, Northeast Wind & Erosion

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

Treasure Coast Beach This Afternoon.

We had a good northeast wind on the Treasure Coast this morning.   That surprised me a little.  After watching it a while, I thought I should go check out the beach even though the surf was supposed to be small.

 

This picture shows the same beach that I showed yesterday.  The top cliff is from yesterday.  The bottom cliff is from last night, or more likely, this mornings high tide during the northeast wind.

 

You can see that a foot or more of sand got removed since yesterday, and this wasn't the most eroded spot.

 



Same Beach Just a Little North.

In some spots more sand got removed today.  The second picture shows where there was about a four foot cut.  It ran a good distance too.  It was about a two foot cut yesterday and two more feet gone today.

 

This cut beach that I'm showing was the most cut of any that I saw today.  Other beaches were nothing like this one.

 

I checked it out simply because the wind looked promising.  There were very very few signals though.  I'm not going to increase my beach conditions rating despite the sizable cut on this one beach.  I will however issue an alert.  If things continue to improve we might get into something.



Tonight the high tide will be higher than normal.  If the wind remains favorable that should help.  Thursday we're supposed to get up to a six foot surf and again Sunday.   That could do some good.

Odyssey Marine Explorations had a profitable year.  They will be salvaging the SS Central America which hasn't been worked in a decade due to court proceedings.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from an Odyssey press release.

The SS Central America was a wooden-hulled, copper-sheathed, three-masted sidewheel steamship launched in 1852 as the SS George Law. The ship was in continuous service on the Atlantic leg of the Panama Route between New York and San Francisco. Owned and operated by the United States Mail Steamship Company, the SS Central America was caught in a hurricane and sank on September 12, 1857.

When it was lost, the SS Central America was carrying a large consignment of gold for commercial parties, mainly in the form of ingots and freshly minted U.S. $20 Double Eagle coins. Because of the large quantity of gold lost with the ship, public confidence in the economy was shaken, which contributed to the Panic of 1857.

Here is the link for more about Odyssey and their projects.

http://ir.odysseymarine.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=831011

Did you notice that the SS Central America was copper-sheathed.  That practice started in the mid 18th Century.  So if you are finding copper hull sheathing it is from a wreck of that time or later and not earlier vessels such as those of the 1715 Fleet.   Of course, earlier wrecks do have copper items other than sheathing but copper sheathing would be later.

It can help a lot to know the approximate dates of things like that.

There is one beach on South Hutchinson Island that produces a lot of copper sheathing yet today.  I suspect a later shipwreck is there, in fact I think there is a mixture of wrecks there, but some of the copper bits could also come from things other than shipwrecks.  There is a lot of varied history there.

Here is a link to a site that gives some information on copper sheathing.

http://www.copper.org/education/history/60centuries/industrial_age/copperand.html

Later tin was mixed with the copper resulting in "Muntz metal."

Copper or copper alloy sheathing was no longer used on larger vessels after steel hulls became common, but it was still used later on smaller vessels.



Leo L. had this to say about Dan B.s key from yesterday's post.

Well the keys are likely from Allegheny County in Pennsylvania maybe likely keys from the jail?? or government building.


If the wind doesn't switch, and I think it will, we might get a beach conditions upgrade before long.

The trouble we've been having this year is the fronts have been moving through quickly and when the wind is right, it changes too soon and the cuts fill back in.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.nt

 

8/2/11 Report - More on Emily, How Often People Detect the TC Lately, & Steamship New Albany

Projected Path of Emily.

Emily is now a named storm. As you can see Florida is within the cone. That is according to the 5:00 AM Tuesday forecast.

The center of the storm is now projected to be just off the coast. "Storm" is the key word. Emily is not strengthening quickly, and is now projected to be a tropical storm, not a hurricane, when she reaches our area on Saturday.

She is expected to pass over Hispaniola, which will slow the rate of strengthening. I believe that could also cause some wobbling from the projected path.

If Emily goes as now projected, the entire coast should get some good waves, and hopefully not hurricane force winds. Strangely, though, the surf web site that predicted eight foot seas for the weekend yesterday, are now showing nothing but 1.5 seas all the way through the weekend. I find that very hard to believe considering the predicted path of Emily. I've expressed some doubts about those surf web site predictions in the past. Of course we are still a few days out and they might change their predictions by the weekend.

For me, I would expect to see some good waves if the path of Emily goes as NOAA is now predicting.

As I've mentioned before, but it doesn't take a hurricane to really rip the beaches. The angle of the waves is important, as is the duration.

I would expect to see northeast wind and waves for only part of a day. It looks like Emily will pass us relatively quickly rather than lingering around.

As you know, a cyclone turns around a center, so as it passes over, we'll first get the wind from one direction and then the opposite direction. The beach could erode and then fill in again. It all depends upon a lot of different factors.

Maybe things will be clearer in a couple of days. I wouldn't be surprised if this thing weakens or change path after it goes over Hispaniola.


I'll keep you up to date on any significant changes. So far nothing has changed.

I might post an update to this post if the predictions change before tomorrow.



The most recent blog survey has concluded and the results are in.

The percentages changed a bit during the course of the survey. It seems the first respondents were more of the people who weren't detecting very often on the Treasure Coast. I guess that makes sense. A lot of the snow birds and people from outside the Treasure Coast read the blog so they know what is going on and to know when they should make the trip. They are the ones that aren't detecting the Treasure Coast very often.

The final results show that 17% of the respondents have been detecting twice or week or more. That shows that there are a lot of hard core detectorists on the Treasure Coast that aren't letting the heat, mosquitoes, or poor conditions deter them. It also means that some of the best beaches are getting cleaned on a regular basis.

A little over one quarter of the respondents detect Treasure Coast beaches a few times a month, between once a month to once a week.

And 53% have not detected Treasure Coast beaches in the last month. Again, we have a lot of snow bird readers as well as readers from other parts of the state that probably make up most of those. And there are probably some people that are only interested in treasure coins and only detect the Treasure Coast beaches when conditions improve.


1860s Square Nail From Steamship. Clipped Photo from BastropEnterprise.com

This nail is one of those types of find that could easily be a signal find that points you to something bigger and may help you identify the age of the site and other items found in the area. It comes from what archaeologists believe might be the New Albany, a steamship that was lost in the 1860s.

The steamship was recently exposed in Bayou Bartholomew by a drought. It is now submerged again.

Here is the link to the original article.

http://www.bastropenterprise.com/features/x555031272/Archaeologists-give-tentative-name-to-shipwreck?photo=0

Changes in weather conditions often provide opportunities, whether it is drought, high water, or something else.

In the past I've reminded you to check the banks of waterways during droughts. You never know what might catch your eye.


Keep tuned to see what Emily might do.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net