12/2/17 Report - Art Hartman's Anchor? Tools From the Age of Sail. Fid or Marlinspike. Difficulty of Identifying Some Finds. Big tides.

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

Recovered Rusted Remains of Anchor
Find and photo by Darrel S.

Darrel S. dug this anchor years ago.  One of the all-time top treasure salvage guys of the Treasure Coast got excited when he saw this anchor because he remembered the time when Art Hartman lost an anchor in the same area.

If you know much about Treasure Coast treasure salvage, you probably know something about Art Hartman (deceased Dec. 24, 2015, sorry to say).

---

The dating game can be very difficult. I'm not talking about trying to meet a member of the opposite sex.  I don't know how you know what is the opposite sex any more.  According to what I've been hearing, there are a dozen or more other sexes.  You've probably heard about the LGBTXYZ... whatever.   Anyhow.  In the past things weren't thrown away like the are today.  Broken objects were repaired or the parts or materials were reused.  A tea kettle, or example, would be repaired time and time again, and then when it was beyond repair the copper would be used to make other things.  I saw pictures of finds from one old fort site that yielded at least twenty different types of items made from the copper from old kettles.  Items were repaired so many times and were used for such a long time that it could be especially difficult to put a date or age on the item.

I often remind people that old items are being lost everyday.  That is another thing that can be confounding.  I've found coins just after they were lost that were hundreds of years old.  People still wear or carry old stuff at times.

Deciding what a thing is can be difficult too.  Some things could be used for a variety of different purposes.  Just think about a rock.  It could be a building material, a weapon, a weight, a hammer.  How it was actually used, can be a difficult thing to determine.  And some items were used in more ways than one.

How about the item found on the Treasure Coast by Gayle C that I showed yesterday?  John L. thought it might be a fid.  That was one of my first thoughts.  It could certainly be a fid or something very similar.

Brian M. sent this photo of a similar item he once found at a land site.  His is a bit longer and thinner.  Note the eye at the one end of Brian's item.

Find by Brian M.

The fid was the traditional tool of the sailor from the dawn of sailing all the way into the beginning of the last century.  It was used to loosen and tighten knots.  It was used to separate the strands of rope for splicing.  The fid was used as a club and a temporary pull handle.  It was used to shape hand sewn grommets in sails and clothing.  After the knife, it was the sailors most important tool.  The fid was often a handmade affair and was sized according to the size rope that was being worked.  Wood, bone and antler being the predominant choices.  Its an easy tool to make for yourself and can be made from just about anything you have available.   This simple tool had a good long run and is still of use to those who work with traditional ropes and cordage.  As ships began to transition to mechanical power and rigging was replaced with wire cables, the fid fell out of favor.

That text is from the pirateking web site.  Here is the link.

http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/marlin_spikes.htm

It seems that some people use the terms "fid" and "marlinespike" interchangeably, but I think "fid" more often refers to an object made of wood and used to work with ropes, while "marlinespike" more often refers to a metal object which is used to work with wire cables.

Here is a description of a Marlinspike.

Below is a picture of a variety of pointed sail-making tools.

Variety of Sail Making Tools.

I lost the sources for the last two pictures.  If you know where they came from, let me know.  I'll post the sources as soon as I find them.

I once posted a similar find that I made (See following link.).  I thought it could be a fid or an awl.  Hard to tell.  There were a lot of good uses for pointed objects on sailing ships.

http://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2016/08/81216-report-south-hutchinson-island.html

And here is the link to a very good web site that shows a wide variety of old sailing ship tools.

http://www.ageofsail.net/aosbt.asp

I think we have yesterday's mystery find narrowed down as well as we can.  Gaylen now has the job of cleaning and preserving his find.

---

I can tolerate cold weather and snow when putting up Christmas decorations, but I find mosquitoes and fire ant bites especially annoying and something one shouldn't have to put up with at this time of year, but that is what I got.


We're getting close to a full moon and the tides are now big.  The surf will only be 2 - 3 feet though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net