5/21/19 Report - Buried Treasure, Pirate and Otherwise. Bernard Romans and Bleach Yard. Lost Payroll.

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

Source: Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, a Guinea Slaver (link below).

Yes Virginia, pirates did bury coins on the beach - at least that is what the book shows.  The book I'm talking about is Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, published by Lemuel Gulliver in Boston in 1834. You can read a free preview online by using the following link.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IQQWAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

In case you didn't recognize the "Yes Virginia" part, in 1897 a young girl wrote a letter to a newspaper asking if there is a Santa Clause, and that led to a very famous editorial response that included the much repeated, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."

You will find the testimony describing the burying of treasure as illustrated above on page 16 of the ebook.  Testimony concerning distribution of the treasure along with other interesting events is also included. It is not easy to follow the testimony, but if you manage, I think you'll find it entertaining.

Here is a link if you want to read a very brief summary of the criminal acts leading to the trial of Don Pedro Gilbert and the other pirates of the Panda. The robbery and destruction of the Brig Mexican occurred off Stuart, Florida.  The web site presents a variety of additional information on pirates.

http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Pedro_Gilbert?View=embedded's,%20newfoundland%20and%20labrador

If Lemuel Gulliver rings a bell, it is also the name of the fictional character and narrator in Gulliver's Travels, which was written about a century earlier.  For a minute it made me wonder if the author's name on the pirate's trial book might be a pseudonym, but the same Lemuel also published a book on another trial that took place in Boston in 1834 as well as a number of other non-fiction titles, some being almanacs.

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Yesterday I referred to a Frank Hudson book entitled Lost Treasure's of Florida's East Coast and mentioned Hudson's poor reputation for accuracy.  I happened to find that book  (which turned out to be surprisingly easy) and inside found the following map of what is labeled as the St. Lucie Inlet area.  After opening the book and briefly scanning it, I was less than impressed by the contents.  Nonetheless, here is the map of what is presented as the St. Lucie Inlet, the same general area that I discussed yesterday.

Illustration Found in Frank Hudson's book,

Lost Treasures of Florida's East Coast.

I'm really not confident of much of anything shown on the map, but would not find it surprising if treasures were buried around the St. Lucie Inlet (which was located at a different locations at different times) or any other Florida East Coast inlet, for that matter.

Treasures 1 through 5 are described as (1) gold bars, (2) iron bound chest, (3) buried cannons, (4) iron bound chest, and (5) iron bound chest.

Number 6 is the most interesting as a possible lead.  Hudson says, in 1834 an army paymaster was moving $8000 in a dugout canoe up the river when it was lost in the river.  Hudson additionally wrote that if you send him a stamped envelope seeking additional details, his source, who did not want to named in the book, would provide additional details.

While I doubt the accuracy of much in that book, it could nevertheless lead to some real facts if anyone is moved to do some research.  I often start looking into one thing and find something else that was totally unexpected.

The Hudson book on buried treasures of the Florida East Coast was published in 1983.  

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Yesterday I also mentioned the "Bleach Yards" down by Gilbert's Bar and couldn't remember the map where I originally saw it.  Ron J. came to the rescue and pointed to my 9/6/15 report that discusses  Bernard Romans and provides a link to the Romans book, which contains the map.  Below is the link to that post.

https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/09/9615-report-bernard-romans-and-1715.html

You might enjoy looking at both the post and book.

Thanks Ron!

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I have a lot more to talk about, but that is about it for today.

The surf is still one to two feet but Thursday will start increasing, reaching three to four feet on Friday.

We are still getting some nice low tides.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/20/19 Report - Treasure Lore of the Jensen and Sewall's Point Areas. Pirate Don Pedro Gilbert. Bottle Finds.

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

Source: Trial of the Twelve Spanish Pirates of the Schooner Panda, a Guinea Slaver

The Jensen and Sewall's Point area has been very much neglected in treasure lore.  There are many scattered rumors as well as finds and documented history, but the area hasn't received near the attention that has been focused on some other areas.  I'm amazed that one of Frank Hudson's books that lists 133 Florida treasure shipwrecks completely skips the area between Jupiter and Fort Pierce, for example.   It definitely deserves more attention than it receives.

A couple days ago I posted a photo of a cannon ball that was found in the Jensen area.  SW sent me the following email in response.

I am not surprised at the cannonball. I know of a small hand cannon found in a yard on Sailfish Point. There was mention by a mid 19 Century survey team of ruins in the Jenson area. I know the location but have never been granted permission to hunt. I believe it was a pirate hideout. It is also known ships used the river to bleach their sails. I have not been out for over a year due to a job change, less free time. I read the blog daily. Like you say there are many forms of treasure hunting. I still treasure hunt, just a different kind. I also have enough items to research probably the rest of my life. I have several fantastic sites I know of, some with maps. Just can't get permission to hunt. Maybe someday I will do a book, I tried a blog just do not have the dedication it takes. Best hunting to all. SW.

In this blog I've posted about Pirate Don Pedro Gilbert, who gave his name to Gilbert's Bar. If you want to research it, you should know that his name is sometimes spelled differently. In my 1/13/13 post, I gave a link to a free ebook about his trial (See photo above.)

I also remember once posting about a kid in a canoe finding a musket barrel at Indian Riverside Park, but I can't seem to find that post now.  If you can find it, please let me know.

On an old map there is an area on the river near Gilbert's Bar that is marked something like Bleech Yarde.  That is probably the same one that SW referred to.  I can't find the map right now either.

There is a TV show that I've seen a few times that shows Brent and Jonah and another fellow or two magging for a wreck off Jensen Beach.  At the end there was a find.  If I remember that one correctly, it was a sword hilt.

I'm having brain overload, I guess.

Then there are the middens at Mount Elizabeth and Mount Pisgah, and the remnants of a coquina building thought to be a pirate hangout.

But there is much more than that.  There was a novel written by a local author who conducted a lot of research and had maps and documentation of tunnels and gold at Sewall's Point.

There is also the story about a motel worker and maintenance man at an old motel that no longer exists that was located just north of the current Jensen Beach park who found a box or barrel of gold after a storm.

All that said, it is a very historic area with a lot of treasure lore.

Here is a little of the history of Sewall's Point.

http://sewallspoint.org/community/history/

 I just recalled another book by Frank Hudson that does place several found and buried treasures around that area the St. Lucie Inlet area.  The title is something like Buried Treasures of Florida's East Coast.

You can't put much faith in Frank Hudson, even though I mentioned him a couple times today.  His reputation for accuracy is not great.   I first mentioned him to illustrate how that area of the Treasure Coast hadn't received a lot of attention.

That isn't everything, of course.   I just listed the first things that I thought of.

Long ago I put together my own list derived from numerous sources.  

I  just found the printouts, but am not going to go through all of that now.

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Yesterday I posted some pictures of three Waterman's ink bottles that I found.  Here is another older one.  It is a two oz. bottle for no. 6 ink.

Waterman's Ink Bottle

Two Views.

Since I don't get many chances to metal detect anymore, I do some eye-balling when I get the urge to go hunting.  Last night I found two embossed Coca Cola bottles, which is what I was hoping to find, however they weren't as old or as valuable as what I hoped to find.

One was a Fort Pierce and the other was from Avon Park, which I think is a new one for me.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net