Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasrurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
An excavation at the site of a Spanish fort has yielded artifacts spanning centuries, including the medicine bottle shown above.
In 1626, the Spanish Empire dispatched a fleet of warships from Manila to the northern tip of Taiwan and established a small colony called Spanish Formosa.
The San Salvador fort was built there to counterbalance Dutch power in southern Taiwan and to safeguard Spanish interests in the shipping route between China's Fujian province and Manila in the Philippines.
However, Spain's rule in Taiwan ended in 1642 after years of battling and the fort was ceded to the Dutch...
Here is the link for more about that.
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/afav/201905110003.aspx
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Dan B. found the following bottles and would like any ideas about the broken neck, which was new to him.
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Finds by Dan B.
Photo by Dan B..
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Here is Dan's description of these finds.
Bottle on left just has an N on the bottom, is dark green, and has a seam.
One in middle says 54.
The one on the right is a Lea and Perrins Worcestershire that I looked up and seems to sell for 15$. Its neck is slanted and is a nice color green.
He'd like information on the bottle piece.
You might ask why he would care about that piece. One reason is that if he can identify the piece he might be able to better identify the age range of the things he can expect from the site as well as the type of bottles.
I know of one good bottle site that has some interesting history. Back in the day, a professional baseball player lived along the Indian River and would sit out on the dock drinking and throwing the empty bottles into the river. Of course a lot of liquor bottles found there, but they aren't real old. That doesn't mean that there are no older bottles found there, because bottles were collecting there before that happened, and bottles can be moved a lot.
It obviously helps to know the history of the area.
--
I was going to talk some about the movement of objects today anyway, but bottles are a bit of a special case, so I decided to talk on how old submerged bottles move in water. I'm sure that some people won't be much interested in how bottles move, but understanding that will help you understand how objects in general move, which of course will help you know where you might find those objects.
Some people just want to know where to go or where other people are going and having luck. I'm thinking of calling them "X marks the spot" hunters. They just want to know where the X is They will hunt mostly the same spots over and over unless they get word that another place is producing. They mostly want to know where people are hunting and what is being found. That isn't me. I like to figure things out - not that I don't appreciate a helpful tip. But if you can figure things out for yourself, that will help you adjust to new places and different circumstances.
First off, bottle movement is more complex than the movement of an object like a coin or ring. Why? Because bottles come in various shapes, can be capped or uncapped, and can be empty or full, and filled with different things, such as air, water, sand or mud.
Normally when you find a flock of surface bottles near shore, most of them will be laying parallel to the beach. I think I could go out this morning and take a photo of about fifty moss or seaweed covered bottles in a small area just like that. I've checked them multiple times before and have picked up the older or more interesting ones. They are where I found them over a year ago.
Most bottles will not be capped and will be filled with water. They'll lay on the bottom. Occasionally whole bottles will get buried. That occurs when the bottle is full of something like maybe mud or the bottle gets trapped somehow.
When a bottle lays in an area where barnacle and moss or seaweed attaches, it can become heavier and won't move as much, eventually getting covered and settled. Otherwise rounded bottles will be very mobile.
But not all bottles are rounded. Many older bottles are more rectangular, such as old medicine and pharmacy bottles. They obviously won't roll around as much.
Once a bottle gets covered it will take a lot for it to move. The sand can accumulate over it and the seaweed can hold it all in place, however those bottles can get uncovered by periods of rough water.
Bottles of different shapes can get sorted and accumulate together just like coins or other objects.
More mobile bottles can move in and out from shore, but once weighed down or trapped, can stay in place until something more dramatic happens to move them.
When bottles are filled with water they are close to neutral and will be much more mobile than coins or rings, but how they move in water and where you will find them is determined by the same basic factors - density (combined) and shape. In a way they are something like watches because there can be trapped air that keeps them near the surface and makes them more mobile than would be the case if there were only the density of the materials and shape of the object to consider. Rounded bottles filled with water are similar to waterlogged wood, and you'll often see cut limbs laying on the bottom with the bottles.
A year or two ago a lot of the seaweed died and bottles started showing up next to shore. I think the death of the vegetation allowed the sand to move and the buried were freed.
What I like about bottles that they will show up during conditions that do not produce much in the way of coins or gold. Like I've often said, when conditions are not right for one kind of treasure there will be something else that you can find.
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Nothing but small surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
You might ask why he would care about that piece. One reason is that if he can identify the piece he might be able to better identify the age range of the things he can expect from the site as well as the type of bottles.
I know of one good bottle site that has some interesting history. Back in the day, a professional baseball player lived along the Indian River and would sit out on the dock drinking and throwing the empty bottles into the river. Of course a lot of liquor bottles found there, but they aren't real old. That doesn't mean that there are no older bottles found there, because bottles were collecting there before that happened, and bottles can be moved a lot.
It obviously helps to know the history of the area.
--
I was going to talk some about the movement of objects today anyway, but bottles are a bit of a special case, so I decided to talk on how old submerged bottles move in water. I'm sure that some people won't be much interested in how bottles move, but understanding that will help you understand how objects in general move, which of course will help you know where you might find those objects.
Some people just want to know where to go or where other people are going and having luck. I'm thinking of calling them "X marks the spot" hunters. They just want to know where the X is They will hunt mostly the same spots over and over unless they get word that another place is producing. They mostly want to know where people are hunting and what is being found. That isn't me. I like to figure things out - not that I don't appreciate a helpful tip. But if you can figure things out for yourself, that will help you adjust to new places and different circumstances.
First off, bottle movement is more complex than the movement of an object like a coin or ring. Why? Because bottles come in various shapes, can be capped or uncapped, and can be empty or full, and filled with different things, such as air, water, sand or mud.
Normally when you find a flock of surface bottles near shore, most of them will be laying parallel to the beach. I think I could go out this morning and take a photo of about fifty moss or seaweed covered bottles in a small area just like that. I've checked them multiple times before and have picked up the older or more interesting ones. They are where I found them over a year ago.
Most bottles will not be capped and will be filled with water. They'll lay on the bottom. Occasionally whole bottles will get buried. That occurs when the bottle is full of something like maybe mud or the bottle gets trapped somehow.
When a bottle lays in an area where barnacle and moss or seaweed attaches, it can become heavier and won't move as much, eventually getting covered and settled. Otherwise rounded bottles will be very mobile.
But not all bottles are rounded. Many older bottles are more rectangular, such as old medicine and pharmacy bottles. They obviously won't roll around as much.
Once a bottle gets covered it will take a lot for it to move. The sand can accumulate over it and the seaweed can hold it all in place, however those bottles can get uncovered by periods of rough water.
Bottles of different shapes can get sorted and accumulate together just like coins or other objects.
More mobile bottles can move in and out from shore, but once weighed down or trapped, can stay in place until something more dramatic happens to move them.
When bottles are filled with water they are close to neutral and will be much more mobile than coins or rings, but how they move in water and where you will find them is determined by the same basic factors - density (combined) and shape. In a way they are something like watches because there can be trapped air that keeps them near the surface and makes them more mobile than would be the case if there were only the density of the materials and shape of the object to consider. Rounded bottles filled with water are similar to waterlogged wood, and you'll often see cut limbs laying on the bottom with the bottles.
A year or two ago a lot of the seaweed died and bottles started showing up next to shore. I think the death of the vegetation allowed the sand to move and the buried were freed.
What I like about bottles that they will show up during conditions that do not produce much in the way of coins or gold. Like I've often said, when conditions are not right for one kind of treasure there will be something else that you can find.
---
Nothing but small surf.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
