Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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I recently talked a little about spikes. Spikes and other fasteners are among the more common shipwreck finds. If you know something about spikes and other fasteners used in shipwreck construction, it can help you identify the age and type of a ship.
The photo above, from the maritimearchaeology.com web site, shows a variety of types of fasteners for old wooden ships.
Besides the metal fasteners, treenails (wood pins) were also plentiful.
This is a good article which you might find very helpful.
http://www.maritimearchaeology.com/information/reference/fastenings/
They also describe roves and the details of how the fasteners were used.
If you find a piece of shipwreck wood, you will often see square and round holes as well as other interesting clues.
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A variety of finds were recently made on the Atocha and Margarita sites. The Dare found an eight-foot timber length of timber, ballast stones, and what could be silver rim to a platter. The Sea Reaper found numerous pot shards, some EOs, sword blade fragments, lead sheathing, Research indicates a second Margarita site that was worked in the 17th century.
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Ships' Fastenings: From Sewn Boat to Steamship by Michael Mccarthy looks like an interesting book. I previewed the chapter of carvels online and found it very useful.
Here is the link.
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Somebody commented that I haven't been talking about hunting modern jewelry much lately. That's true. My posts tend to shift from one type of topic to another, but sometimes when I get on a topic, I tend to stay on it for a while as one thing just leads to another. There are times when I get on the topic of how sand and items move, how detectors work, hunting strategies, bottles, coins, tokens etc. etc. Sometimes it is because of what I've been finding or what I've been hunting or the research I'm doing or because of the comments or questions I've been receiving. Sometimes I'll see or hear something that just sets me off on a topic for a while.. Sometimes I intend to talk about one thing and then something else just comes to mind.
No matter what I'm talking about there is a lot of overlap. Old coins and jewelry move on the beach and in the water according to the same principles as modern coins and jewelry.
I sometimes talk about erosion when I talk about beach hunting, but many of the same principles apply when hunting the Mountains of West Virginia In both locations erosion is something I look for.
I never know what my topics will be next week. Sometimes I plan something and then I end up doing something else. One thing I'm sure of is that my posts will change from time to time and I'll be doing some posts on jewelry hunting in the future. It just haven't been doing much of it lately and it hasn't been on my mind. That will change sooner or later.
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Today we'll have a three to five foot surf and big tides. There will be some good high tides and negative tides. I'm hoping to get good negative tide to check out a washout where I spotted vintae bottle yesterday.
Tomorrow and Saturday we're supposed to get a 5 -8 foot surf. That is big enough to improve hunting conditions if other things are right.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
