Lobster Man Blowing Holes at the Nieves Wreck Site By Green Turtle Beach.The Lobster Man was one of two salvage vessels working the area this morning.
Fox News Plays the Whatzit Game.
As you probably know I often post photos of mystery items. or "Whatzits," in the hope that someone will know what they are or at least be able to provide a clue to what they could be or how they might have been used.
Fox News recently did the same thing with a peculiar whatzit that was dug up by an archaeologist. A number of people wrote in their guess about what the item is.
See if you have any ideas about it.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/18/roman-dodecahedron-may-remain-mystery-forever/
Yesterday I posted a photo of a piece of an old plank that I think is from a 16th Century wreck that washed up on the beach. If you looked at the picture, you might have seen that it was riddled with worm holes.
Toredo worms were a real problem for the galleons and explorers of the early days.
Here is a web site that will tell you more about Toredo worms and how they tried to deal with them.
The web site is run by the University of West Florida Maritime Archaeology pProgram. You'll probably find some other interesting information there.
Here is the link.
http://www.flpublicarchaeology.org/blog/uwf/2011/05/29/teredo-worms-and-hurricanes-the-challenge-of-16th-century-shipbuilding/
There was a lot going on at Green Turtle Beach this morning. Not only were two salvage vessels busy at work, but Margaret Weller, widow of Bob "Frogfoot" Weller also stopped by with this little tour group.
Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions.
Well it's the longest day of the year. That's good if you like the sun. I don't.
Nothing significant has really changed on the beach for quite a while. The sea is till calm.
We are well into summer and tis the season to be diving. Tra La La La La.
The beaches are sanded in but the water is very inviting.
Actually, I did hunt the beach a bit this morning. If you wanted to walk along and look for shells or fossils or whatever (I saw a small piece of clay pot shard and some fossils)it was beautiful. If you want to detect, I think you'll find it challenging. It was tough digging.
The beach where I detected (Not Green Turtle) had a huge low flat front. The amount of front beach was overwhelming. There was no way I could even begin to cover the hundreds of yards of flat wet sand area that was available.
There was no longer a dip in front of the beach, but the sand bar and the front beach had become one, giving many many yards to detect out at low tide.
If you find a dimilar beach having a broad flat low front like that today or tomorrow, I think you will find a variety of iron targets. Here is the problem. Almost all of the targets worth digging are down at the water level and back from the water line (at low tide) far enough that you have to dig a foot or two to get to them.
It is really tough digging too - at least where I was. There was a layer of very fine silty sand on top of layers of shells. The sand filled in between the shells like mortar and it made for difficult digging.
I ran out of time and left a few targets that sounded very much like they could have been spikes.
I gave some tips on digging deep iron targets in this blog a week or so ago. One good thing to do is look for any sign of rust as you dig. That will give you a good clue about exactly where the item is. And when you get down to the water level, the rust shows very well.
In front (east) of the area where better targets seemed to be, there were smaller lighter items near the surface. I would recommend staying about five yards or more behind the area where the surface junk items are.
I think you will find the more interesting items a foot or two deep down near the water level.
If you want to go after those targets, you might want to take a shovel instead of a scoop. Like I said, the digging could be tough. Eat your Wheaties.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
