3/2/17 Report - Bigger Surf This Weekend. Ancient Trails of America Discovered By Spanish Explorers. Archaeological Pub. HMS Victory Galley and Mess.

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

Source: See link below.

On August 26, 1776, after descending the eastern side of the Uncompahgre Plateau to the Uncompahgre River Valley, Father Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante wrote, “In the meadow of this river … there is a very wide and well-beaten trail.”

Similarly, on Sept. 9, when the expedition he led with Father Francisco Atanasio Domínguez descended the north side of Douglas Pass, Escalante wrote that the group traveled nearly 30 miles “over a very well-beaten trail with only one bad stretch.”

Since very few Europeans had traveled this region prior to Dominguez and Escalante, it’s clear that these “well-beaten trails” were established by the natives who lived there. In 1776, that meant the Utes. But the trails were likely used by a variety of native people over the ages...

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/routes-trails-crisscrossed-area-long-before-europe

Having done some hiking in the area I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be to hike those ancient Indian trails.

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The restoration of an historic pub on Falmouth's waterfront has led to some "remarkable" archaeological finds which has delayed the project.

St Austell Brewery are currently restoring and refurbishing the Chain Locker and builders have discovered that not only is the building older than first imagined, but some of the earliest features of the place are still in situ.

This includes an original earth and hair plaster-bounded wall, a timber partition wall featuring hand-painted wallpaper and a stone-built fireplace...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.cornwalllive.com/archeological-finds-during-restoration-of-falmouth-s-chain-locker-pub-surprise-st-austell-brewery/story-30163164-detail/story.html

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Not too long ago I talked about galley bricks.  I just found this nice article about the galley of the HMS Victory.  Here is how it begins.

The galley provided the means for cooking hot food for all of the ships crew - at the time of Trafalgar, 821 men. The galley stove burned firewood (kept dry in its own store in the hold). Due to the risk of fire in a wooden ship, the galley fire was put out in rough weather or during action to prevent sparks or burning embers from setting light to the deck around the galley. Crews were often given a hot meal before being called to clear the ship for action - there was little knowing when the next hot meal might be able to be cooked. In rough weather, when the crews were often wet and cold, there was no respite from cold food.

The crew ate in groups of 8 to 12 men known as a 'mess'. These groups remained together throughout a voyage so the men became 'mess-mates'. Each day one man would take his turn as 'duty cook'. It was his responsibility to fetch the day's rations from the hold and to prepare the food for cooking. The prepared food was then taken along to the galley to be cooked (each mess marked its food with a metal tag). The galley cook was often a naval pensioner or wounded sailor - unable to perform the normal heavy shipboard tasks, he cooked the food for all the crew - a cook's pay substantially supplemented the poor pension given to a man wounded in battle. The duty 'mess cook' would then collect the food for his mess and carry it back to his mess-mates...

And here is the link for the rest of the article.

http://www.stvincent.ac.uk/heritage/1797/victory/food.html

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The Oak Island TV program brought in another expert to clean up the "spike" mess.  I expect her, after much study and deliberation, to declare it a shipwreck spike.

Don't know why they never had the board that they thought might be a deck plank dated?

There  was a fellow that used to be on a sitcom that is now a teacher who they were going to follow in the classroom to make a reality program out of it.  They dumped the idea because they said there wasn't enough drama.  Of course the producers are going to try to keep a program exciting to keep the ratings up.

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Hope and change coming.  Looks like the weekend could get interesting.  Its about time.

Source: MagicSeaweed web site.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/9/13 Report - Agatized Coral The State Stone & Wood for Ships & First(?) Metal Detector

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

Florida Agatized Coral
Source of photo link below.

What very famous inventor invented a metal detector and was called to locate a bullet used to shoot a US president?   I'll give you the answer below.

While I'm asking questions, here is another.   How many oak trees were required to build Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory?  You'll find that answer below too.

Its a damp rainy day on the Treasure Coast.  The surf today is to be a little bigger - up around six feet.  The surf will decrease some tomorrow.

The wind and waves seem to be coming from the southeast today.  It is warming up a bit.

Yesterday I showed a close-up photo of an arrowhead that was once found by a lady looking for shells on a Treasure Coast beach.  William M., who knows a lot about things like that, added the following comments.

The white coloration on the agatized coral point is a calcium patina...if you want to see the beautiful material below it..you can soak it in mineral oil for a day or two...this makes the patina clear temperately. It won't harm the artifact.

Thanks William.

That brings up another question.  What is the state stone of Florida?  Yes, we have one.

It is agatized coral.   The Florida Dept. of Historical Resources web site tells about that.

Here is the link.

http://www.flheritage.com/facts/symbols/symbol.cfm?id=16

The coral was fossilized when silica from the ocean water replaced the lime corals with a form of quartz over a period of 20 or 30 million years.  Three locations where agatized coral is found is Tampa Bay, the Econfina River and the Withlacoochee/Suwannee rivers.

That means that the coral for the arrowhead found on the East Coast was most likely obtained on the West Coast of Florida.

You might also want to look at samples of minerals found in Florida, including chert, agatized coral and others.  Here is a link.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/rocks/florida_rocks.htm#minerals of Flor


A book that I am reading, At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson, says it took about 3000 oak trees to build the Victory.

And in the same book I learned, that Alexander Graham Bell, who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym of H. A. Largelamb, invented a metal detector and was called to locate the bullet that shot James A. Garfield in 1881.  The detector, which worked well in the laboratory, the book says, gave confused results at Garfields, picking up the bed springs.  Apparently the bullet was still in the president.  Of course it would be difficult to find a bullet in a hospital room, let alone in a body in a hospital bed.

I'm not totally sure that all of the details provided by the book are correct, but I assume that there is some truth to it.

There is a knack to using a modern detector near metal objects such as fences, beach chairs, and concrete walk ways with rebar, etc.  I've discussed some of the problems and solutions for doing that in the past.

I should make a video on that some day.

It is really pouring rain now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/11/13 Whydah, HMS Victory, Nugget Jewelry and Beach Conditions.

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

Treasure Coast Beach Showing A Little Erosion.

This photo is from yesterday.  Notice the small erosion creating a second step.

This erosion was really not significant in terms of improving detecting conditions. It probably occurred during one of the high tides the day before.

Also notice the sea weed.

The erosion was confined to a small area.  The sand in front was mushy, as you would expect from seeing the sea weed.

Two other beaches I looked at were about the same.  One beach was just a touch better looking, having a wider flat area in front.  

Overall this is pretty much what I'd expect to find almost anywhere along the Treasure Coast right now.  Nothing very exciting.

Here is a video showing one Treasure Coast beach and the surf yesterday morning.  Pretty typical.

The Whydah, which the following linked article calls the only documented pirate ship wreck, is producing a lot of artifacts and coins.

Salvage efforts on the Whydah may have recently struck a hot spot.  It looks like bags of coins have just been found.   It looks like there may still be something like 400,000 pieces of eight still unaccounted for.

Here is the link to the recent article Times News article.

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9067132/dive-signals-more-treasure-at-site-of-pirate-ship-wreck


Here is another good web site showing a reconstruction of the Whydah and some of the artifacts and treasure found on the site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2415873/Treasure-hunter-finds-gold-coins-stacked-like-poker-chips-18th-century-pirate-ship-Cape-Cod.html

Whydah links submitted by rinkrat.  Thanks fellow!


And here is a great web site on the HMS Victory.  Great pictures.  This one was submitted by Christopher P.  Thanks!

http://www.victory1744.org/


A week or so ago I showed a nugget ring beach find.  Robert K. wrote in about that.  Here is what Robert said.

As a prospector, I have several pieces of jewelry that were made from actual natural gold nuggets.
The ring you found may be marked 14K, but if you were to test the nuggets in the setting it is possible they would test out at 20 - 23K. It would depend on where the nuggets were found. Most AK. and CA.
nuggets are 20-22K, all though I have found many in Maine that test out at 22K as well.

Gold in it's natural form (nugget) is more valuable than gold that has been refined and poured into a mold or made into jewelry because nuggets are hard to find in their natural form and the bigger the better. Large nuggets are sold as "jewelry quality" and are generally made into pendants, rings, bracelets and the smaller ones can be lightly melted together and used as decoration on watch bands and belt buckles or ear rings.

Robert sent links to a number of items made from and decorated by natural nuggets.  Very nice stuff.


We're have 2 - 3 foot surf with very little variation the next few days.  Thursday a little less and Friday a little more, but nothing significant.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net