1/13/16 Report - Lots of Sand on Treasure Coast Treasure Beaches. Orange Sand. Grinding Crust. A Shard.

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

John Brooks Beach Yesterday Afternoon.

Its baaaaaack.  I'm talking about the sand.

I looked at four treasure beaches yesterday afternoon and each one had a lot of new sand on it.

Turtle Trail, which I've  been talking about a lot, has so much newly accumulated sand that the blue bags that were exposed a few days ago, are now completely covered again.  The black sand had disappeared too.

South of Turtle Trail Yesterday Afternoon.

The other beaches were similar.  There was a light beige new sand on all of them, and the beaches were now convex.

It is always helpful to have some rocks, stumps, posts or anything that you can use to judge the changing level of sand.

There weren't any shells to speak of either.

North of Seagrape Trail Yesterday Afternoon.

John Brooks, Turtle Trail, Seagrape Trail and Wabasso beaches all looked very similar with tons of new light beige sand.

The beach front at John Brooks was firm.  I dug a hole to see what was underneath.  In the first foot there was nothing but more of the same sand.

Wabasso Beach Yesterday Afternoon

I don't think I posted this shard yet.  It was found about a week ago.

I tried a different way to remove crust from heavily encrusted objects.  I used a grinder, like you would use to sharpen tools.  It worked well for removing the bulk.  Of course you should be careful to not hit the object inside.  This method is pretty fast.

I intended to take pictures of the orangish sand that was uncovered at Turtle Trail in recent weeks, but it got covered up again.  The old sand was showing below the renourishment at the bottom of the cliff.  It was also seen under just a few inches of sand on the beach in front of the cliff.

That older sand could have been the source of some of the finds.  If not, it was certainly a sign that a lot of the renourishment sand at that location had been removed.

The other beaches were not eroded down to the old orange sand, and as far as I know, were not producing.

I hope you took the time to take a look at the thesis I mentioned yesterday.  It contains a wealth of great information, including a lot about armaments.

The surf on the Treasure Coast is now down to 3 - 4 feet and will continue decreasing until it is down to 1 foot by Sunday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/12/16 Report - Great Resource for Shipwreck Research. Not 1715 Fleet Treasure Coast Shipwrecks.

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

Recovered Artifact Shown in Borgens Thesis
See link below.

If you know anything about the Treasure Coast, you probably know something about the 1715 Fleet. Most of our treasure wrecks came from that fleet, but there are other important wrecks along the Treasure Coast that you should know about.   Some are older than the 1715 Fleet and some are more recent.

Among the more recent is the Spring of Whitby, which probably sank near Wabasso in 1824.  The Spring of Whitby is not as well known as the 1715 Fleet, partly because it has not been as thoroughly researched.  It was identified in 1965 when a bronze bell bearing the date 1801 and the name Spring of Whitby was recovered.  The Spring of Whitby maintains a shroud of mystery.  The evidence and research concerning her does not fit neatly together.

One of the older Treasure Coast wrecks is the Power Plant wreck, which is believed to have sunk in the late 1500s.  Relatively little is known about that wreck.

Another older wreck is the wreck of the San Miguel Archangel, which sank in 1660 near the Jupiter Inlet.  Spanish cobs were routinely found by detectorists along the beach near the wreck site for years before the main pile was found by a lifeguard on his morning swim.  On that fateful morning he noticed a recently exposed cannon.

I often encountered a detectorist named Dave, who filled jars with cobs that seemed to wash out of the dunes near the Jupiter Inlet.  That was back in the eighties before the cannon was found and salvage efforts began on that wreck site.  I don't know what happened to Dave.

There are other wrecks than the 1715 Fleet along the Treasure Coast and some have not been identified.  Some are older and some more recent.  Of course not all of them are treasure ships, but they can still produce some interesting artifacts.

It can be difficult to tell how old an artifact might be and what type of wreck produced it.  There are times when artifacts from different wrecks intermingle, and that can make it more difficult.  There are sometimes subtle signs to help you tell one from the other, but you have to do your homework.

Below is a link to a very useful paper entitled, Analysis of the Pass Cavallo Shipwreck Assemblage, Matagorda Bay, Texas.  It is a master's thesis by Amy Borgens.

You will find a lot of good information and drawings of artifacts, including a lot on armaments. There is also a great bibliography at the end that will give you much more research material.

Here is the link.

http://anthropology.tamu.edu/papers/Borgens-MA2004.pdf

It is 294 pages.  Here are the first two paragraphs from the abstract tp give you the idea.

A survey conducted in February of 1998 located an anomaly originally believed to be the remains of L’Aimable. L’Aimable was one of four ships utilized by ReneRobert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, for his voyage to colonize the Gulf Coast in 1684. The anomaly, a wrecked vessel with a heavy iron signature, was located outside the entrance to the historic pass into Matagorda Bay, Texas. Artifacts were extracted from the wreck site to aid in the identification of the vessel, which was subsequently determined to be more recent in origin. 

A preliminary examination of the artifacts indicates that the shipwreck dates to the first half of the 19th century. The survey recovered over two hundred artifacts. The assemblage of artifacts includes over 80 lead shot, over 40 examples of brass firearm furniture, over 15 firearm fragments, several pieces of copper sheathing, and iron bar stock. Almost two-thirds of the material is associated with small arms. The majority of the identifiable firearms are military arms of three patterns: the British Short Land Pattern, the British India Pattern, and the Model 1757 Spanish musket. 

Good reading.

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Today we'll have a 4 - 6 foot surf on the Treasure Coast and north winds.  After today the surf is supposed to decrease for several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/10/16 Report - More January Treasure Coast Finds. Importance of Adjusting Your Detector Stem. Salvage of CSS Georgia.

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

Steve L. said, I love reading your posts and check for new ones daily.  I am new to detecting as of June 2015 but was lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time early December...  I wanted to share my finds with you, six lead balls a full small nail and part of a larger one.  Thanks for all your help and I look forward to more finds in the future.    

Finds and photo by Stever L.

Thanks for sharing Steve.  Nice finds!  You did well to find shipwreck items on the beach so soon after beginning detecting.

There were reports of many musket balls, shot and other lead items being found.

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This might seem like a small thing but it can make a big difference.  Adjust the length of your detector stem very carefully.  A lot of new detectorists have the stem too short and as a result their coil is too high off the ground.  An inch or two can make a big difference.  Someone emailed me about this not too long ago.

Also, if your stem is too you very well might tend to lean forward as you try to keep your coil close to the ground.  When you do that you'll get tired much more quickly.

Make the necessary adjustments so that you can maintain good posture and keep the coil as close to the ground as possible.

More frequent adjustments might be necessary when you are working uneven ground or working on a slope.

Take a minute to check your stem length.  You might be surprised how much of a difference it might make.

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Here is an excerpt from a story about the salvage of the CSS Georgia, a confederate gunship.

...More than half of the haul retrieved during the $14 million government project, however, was of a much more mundane nature: nuts, bolts, washers, bent iron rails and other material that did not shed any new light on the lives of sailors serving aboard the vessel.

Altogether, 16,697 artifacts weighing a total of 135 tons were returned to a watery grave at the bottom of the Savannah River, said Jim Jobling, project manager for the Conservation Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University, which is tasked with cataloging, cleaning and preserving artifacts from the Civil War shipwreck.

"Anything I considered to be unique, I would say, 'I want this, I want this,'" Jobling said. "I picked through everything. No unique stuff went back in the river."...

I found this article both interesting and telling.

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/half-artifacts-confederate-gunship-returned-river-36047145

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/9/16 Report - Nice Silver Reale Find. Unusual Weather. Falling Into a Common and Dangerous Metal Detecting Trap.

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

Terry S. sent me this email with photos of his recent find.  He said, I sent you a picture of a couple reales I found last month. Well I got lucky again and put my coil over an 8 reale. ...

Find and photo by Terry S.

Same Cob As Found.

I can't see the date, assayer, or the denomination in the picture.

Great find Terry!  Thanks for sharing.

Note what appears to be a bent corner on the right side of the cob in the second photo.  Some say that they hammered sharp corners so that they wouldn't tear the bags.

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nhc.noaa.gov

Here is something unusual but not unheard of.

The National Hurricane Center says ...conditions could become conducive for 

this system to acquire some subtropical
characteristics while it moves 

east-southeastward into the eastern
subtropical Atlantic Ocean by the 

middle of next week.

I don't think it will affect us much.

---

I saw eleven detectorists out at one beach two days ago.  Not so many yesterday.

When people are congregating at one spot like that there is usually a reason.  When you put that much man-power on a single beach, there is a good chance of something being found.

You know how when you find something at a particular location and then keep always want to check that location?  It makes it much more likely that you'll find something there just because you keep checking.

The natural tendency is to go back and hunt those spots where you've found something.  On the other hand, when you strike out at a location over a location a few times, the tendency is to give up on that location.  The result is that you can end up falling into a trap.

It becomes a vicious circle.  The more you hunt a location, the more likely it is that you'll find something there, and then you want to hunt it more.

To put it another way, you'll find more at the locations you frequently visit and nothing at the beaches that you don't visit.  That might seem obvious enough, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the short term, going back to a location that has produced is a good strategy.  However, in the long run it can have disastrous results.

Beaches change daily to some extent.  There are long term changes as well as short term changes though.

A given spot might produce for an hour or a day and then quit.  However, if the spot doesn't change too drastically when it quits producing, it can quickly start producing again when things change a little in the right direction again.  As I've been saying it has been on and off for a few months now.

There are a few unique features at that beach right now that I hope to discuss in more detail some other time.

The important point that I wanted to make today, though, is that if a beach has NOT produced for months or years, that does not mean that it will not start producing sometime in the future.  Don't give up entirely on a beach because it hasn't produced in a while - even a long while.

It is also not uncommon for a hot spot to shift up and down the beach, so don't get locked in to one specific location.  At Frederick Douglas the past few years the most productive spot has moved probably fifty to a hundred yards south in the last decade or two.  It seems that another hot spot on the same beach has quit altogether.  I suspect it will start producing again some day or some year when the long term changes are right again.

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The surf is generally going to decrease a little for the next week or two, however the wind will be shifting back and forth, and we're supposed to get some good periods of north wind.  When a beach is close to producing, and maybe has produced in the recent past, it doesn't take as much to turn it back on.  Those wind changes might be all it takes.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/8/16 Report - Big Guns (Subsurface Radar?) At Turtle Trail Today. Sand Accumulating.

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

 Turtle Trail Beach Being Scanned Today.

This unit was being used on Turtle Trail today.  It took them a while to put it together, and then they seemed to have a bit of trouble before getting it working.  I think it was about noon before they got started on the beach.  They got help from Vero based Moran Electric.

Closer View

Set Up In The Parking Lot.

Moran Electric.

I think the contractors were called in because of some problem with the unit.

I have a lot of other things to talk about, but thought this was interesting and wanted to get it  posted so you could see it.

Maybe you can see that there is a computer display screen in front of each of the fellows carrying the detector.  I don't really know if it is subsurface radar, but that is what I would guess.

I'm turning into a reporter or sorts.

Two feet of sand accumulated south of Turtle Trail in the last couple of days.  It was up some yesterday, but today most of the blue bags were covered again.

There were also some posts that were sticking out another couple of feet a couple of days ago.

Beach At Ambersand Access Around Noon Today.

I took a look at Ambersands, which I haven't seen in quite some time.  It was pretty firm.  Better than I recall from the last time I was there.

Beach North Of The McLarty Museum.

I also took a look at the beach north of McLarty.  There were some dips and at places there were cuts into the renourishment sand.

I've have a lot to write about and some lengthy discussions, but I'll get into that some other day.

The surf will be slacking off for a few days now.

The area south of Turtle Trail will be something to watch for at least the next month or so.  As I've said, it has been going on and off and on again lately.  I plan to talk about why that might be.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/7/16 Report - I Missed It, But Not All Of It.

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

One Reale and Half Reale

Sometimes you miss by an inch and sometimes by an hour or a day.  You have to be in the right place at the right time.

I had it figured right this week, but life got in the way.  I had an injury and had to get to the doctor as soon as I could.  He could only fit me in at 7:30 Tuesday morning.  That was when I was planning on hitting the beach.  The surf and wind were right, and I knew a place that had produced in recent months under similar circumstances, so I wanted to be there. It didn't happen.

That was the only time the doctor could fit me in and I needed to go.  I thought it might not take too long so I packed all of my gear in the car so I could go directly to the beach from the doctor's office.   Well, it turned into a big deal and took much longer than expected.  Then I needed to go to the pharmacy for antibiotics.   They couldn't fill the prescription right away, so I had to come back later.

The doctor said I shouldn't do much of anything.  I still felt like going to the beach, but all things considered, thought it wasn't a good idea.  I still wasn't ready to give it up, and went out to a closer beach just to see what it looked like.  It didn't look much good, and I didn't feel so good so I thought I better give up on detecting for the day and go home.  End of story.  I missed it - not all of it, but the main event.  That is the way it goes sometimes.

I didn't miss everything.  I definitely missed the first day, but I did manage to get out a little, and managed to pick up a few things.

The spot continued to produce for a few days and might continue to produce for a few more days. Only time will tell. to come.  Under the circumstances maybe I should count myself lucky to have found as much as I did.

I don't know that I've ever seen a time when the finds have been so predominately from one small spot while most of the beach isn't doing anything.  Usually if one beach is good, there will be some others that aren't all that bad.

The spot that I'm talking about has been producing on and off for at least three months now.  First a day or two on then a couple weeks off, but this week it has been producing for a few days.  I think the most this week.

I found a little but missed most of it.  There has been a lot found.  I've heard of nearly 200 shipwreck items of various sorts.  Not too many cobs, but at least one gold cob and some other neat items.

Most of the beaches look poor right now and have not been producing much of anything old.  I haven't issued a beach detecting conditions upgrade because as far as I know, the conditions have only been good at that one spot.  My beach detecting conditions rating isn't meant to rate a single beach.  It is meant to reflect general conditions along the Treasure Coast.

I know everybody will want me to tell them which spot I'm talking about.  I did give some hints, but didn't tell it outright because I don't want hundreds of people showing up at that one spot.

Shortly after I started this blog I quickly found out that if I said that a particular beach was good a hundred people would show up at that beach.  I got a lot of complaints from people because of that. As a result I try to give good information on when it might be a good time to go, but don't want to send everybody out to one little spot.  If you carefully read what I've said the past few days you can probably figure it out for yourself anyhow.

I'll have more pictures of what has been found.  I already mentioned the gold coin.  A lot of lead was found, including musket balls.

For the time being, at the top of the post is a couple of finds.

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be 5 - 7 feet, but the wind will be coming from the south.  That will be a change from today.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

South of Turtle Trail Near Low Tide Thursday.

A lot more of the bags were showing yesterday.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide

1/6/16 Report - A Quick Survey Of Some Treasure Coast Treasure Beaches This Morning. More To Come.

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

Frederick Douglas Beach This Morning Just Before Low Tide.

Yesterday I wasn't able to get out much.  I did get to see one beach but that is all.  Today I took a look at more beaches, but it looks like things have already changed some.

Most of the beaches, like the one above, had seaweed this morning.  That is a sign that sand was
accumulating.

View From The Seagrape Trail Beach Accsss This Morning Before Low Tide.

You can see the seaweed here too.

I also took a picture at Turtle Trail but messed that picture up.  Too bad.  That was the best looking beach that I saw this morning.

From the beach access, it didn't show much other than a small cut running along the high tide mark, however to the south, between the two flag poles, the blue erosion control bags were very visible - more than I've seen for quite a while and most certainly more than I've seen in the past few months. At some spots there was a new three foot cut.  However, in front of the bags it appeared that sand had accumulated again.  I found some things there but they all need cleaned before I know what they are.

I saw seven detectorists there this morning but none at the other beaches that I visited.

Wabasso Beach.

Wabasso didn't look very promising either.  Again, you can see the seaweed.

Rio Mar had about a one foot cut, but again you see the seaweed.

Rio Mar This Morning Before Low Tide.

It appears that the best time was when the front first came through. That is often the case.  It isn't uncommon for the wind to start from the north, shift to the east and then the south.

We've had a lot of those lately where the front moves through and the wind shifts through the cycle fairly quickly.  Windows have been opening and closing in quick succession.

An injury kept me off of the beach when the front first came through and most of yesterday and I kept my hunt short today.  I didn't want to push it, nonetheless I managed to pick up a few things, mostly crusty and unidentified at this point.  I'll do some cleaning and maybe post some photos when I can.

We;re supposed to have three days with a surf in the 4 - 7 foot range.  That is welcome, but only one morning is the wind supposed to be from the north, then it will shift again.

That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net