7/30/17 Report - $130 Million In Sunken Nazi Gold. Pirates And The 1715 Fleet. Tropical Activity In The Gulf.

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

Source: See FoxNews link below.

SS Minden, a German cargo ship scuttled in waters near Iceland during the early days of World War II, may contain a huge trove of Nazi gold.

The merchant vessel, which is 120 nautical miles south of Iceland, is in the international spotlight following the reported discovery of a chest containing up to four tons of Nazi gold on the wreck. The horde is valued at 100 million British pounds (approximately $130 million), according to news reports.

U.K. salvage company Advanced Marine Services (AMS) has reportedly requested permission from Icelandic authorities to cut a hole in the ship’s hull and remove the chest.

Here is the link.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/07/27/sunken-wwii-ship-may-contain-130-million-nazi-gold.html

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I found a very good web site about pirates.  I'll give you a few short excerpts that relate to our area just to give you some idea of the kind of information you'll find on that site.

The pirate population of New Providence was swollen in 1715 by a shipwreck off the Florida coast. This wasn’t just an everyday shipwreck. The dozen or so ships that were driven aground by a hurricane made up the Spanish plate fleet. In the hold of just one of the flag ships were three million silver pieces-of-eight, gold bars and coins, pearls and jewellery. The second ship of the fleet was almost as heavily loaded, with another three million pieces-of-eight, and there were nine more ships with smaller quantities of treasure....

Pirates close in

Soon, of course, English officials sat up and paid attention. The first was the governor of Virginia, who wrote to his bosses in London that

The Spanish plate fleet, richly laden, consisting of eleven ships, are, except one, lately cast away in the Gulf of Florida to the southward of St. Augustine …I think it my duty to inform his Majesty of this accident which may be improved to the advantage of his Majesty's subjects by encouraging them to attempt the recovery of some of that immense wealth.

Archibald Hamilton, the governor of Jamaica, also took an interest in the wreck. In fact, he took a very close interest indeed. Towards the end of November, not long after divers had stopped work for the winter, he sent two ships to sea. According to Hamilton, the Eagle and the Bathsheba were on a pirate-hunting mission that would last six months. Since Jamaica was itself a den of pirates, and had grown rich on the buccaneering trade, this perhaps seems rather surprising. So too was Hamilton’s choice of captain: he picked one Henry Jennings to command the Bathsheeba.

Jennings was no stranger to piracy – or at least, to its more upright brother, privateering. Jennings had successfully attacked Spanish ships in the war that had recently ended. Possibly Hamilton believed that Jennings’ experience as a privateer would make him a very effective pirate hunter, just as poachers make the best gamekeepers. But it’s much more likely that the governor and the captain had something altogether different in mind. Certainly Jennings wasted no time. The Eagle, the Bathsheba and three sloops sailed straight to the salvage site with 300 men.

Mooring their ships off-shore, the pirates waited until nightfall, cleaning their pistols, and sharpening their cutlasses ready for the attack. Then, armed to the teeth, they rowed to the sandbank. The raiders pulled their boats up the beach, well beyond the reach of the pounding surf that hid the sound of their approach. Then they lay low until dawn. The following morning, the company regrouped and drew their weapons before marching across the sand to the Spanish camp. Finding himself surrounded and outnumbered five-to-one, the Spanish commanding officer stared down the barrel of Henry Jennings flintlock pistol, then quizzically asked “Is it war?”.

“No” said Jennings “We have come to fish for the wrecks.”

“There is nothing of yours here…” replied the officer “…the vessels belong to his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain, and I and my people are looking for the treasure.” ...

That is actually a fairly long excerpt, but a very small portion of what you'll find on the site.

Here is the link.

http://www.piratechart.com/pages_ages/golden_age.php

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On the Treasure Coast we still have a small surf.

There are now two disturbances: one in the Atlantic and one in the Gulf.

The one in the Atlantic is not expected to strengthen real soon.  The other, however, is close to the Florida Panhandle and has a twenty percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

Source: nhc.noaa.org

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/21/13 Report - Pirate Henry Jennings & Coprous Shipwreck Beach Finds

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

A Sample of Treasure Coast Cuprous
Shipwreck Beach Finds.

People who hunt the Treasure Coast most often think of Spanish galleons.  That's mostly what the Treasure Coast is known for, especially the 1715 Fleet.  But sometimes old shipwreck items are found on Treasure Coast beaches that do not seem to be Spanish, and that sometimes makes people wonder where they came from.

There are a number of  reasons you will find old items from other countries along the Treasure Coast.  Two very obvious reasons include the fact that Florida was not always a Spanish possession  (everybody knows that), and ships of other nations traveled the Florida Coast even while Florida was a Spanish possession (everybody knows that as well).  There are other reasons that I will mention in a little more detail today and in the near future.


The one that I'll address most directly today is piracy.  Of course piracy is not the greatest source of Treasure Coast finds that are not Spanish, but it is one source, and a very interesting one at that.

A couple of days ago I posted a link to a TV program about Ben Franklin's privateers.  There was a very famous privateer that worked some on the Treasure Coast.
 
First I should explain that there is a difference between a privateer and a pirate (sometimes).  Basically, privateers act as an agent of a nation, while pirates act under no national authority. 

The distinction can get blurred.  Privateers can easily become pirates when they see the opportunity or when their privateering work is done, and pirates might claim to be good friends of one specific nation or might claim patriotic motives for their actions.

Henry Jennings was an 18th century British privateer, who later did a little work as a pirate, including some work right here on our Treasure Coast. 

Jennings was a privateer during the Spanish War of Succession, but his first act of piracy is said to be a raid on a 1715 Fleet salvage camp that occurred in 1716.  The Spanish salvage effort of the 1715 Fleet was mostly complete by early 1716, but Jennings made several attacks on the Spanish salvage camps, including the main camp located near the McClarty museum and stole something like 350,000 pesos, eventually retiring as a wealthy plantation owner in Bermuda.

Jennings teamed up with Black Sam Bellamy for a while, but that relationship ended poorly, like many relationships between pirates.

If you want to read more about Jennings, here is a place to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Jennings

The battles between Jennings and the Spanish salvagers undoubtedly resulted in some items of British and other origins being lost on the Treasure Coast, as did the actions of other pirates (some of whom I've mentioned before in this blog).  I'm sure there are musket balls and other items that were lost.

It was not uncommon for well-traveled opportunist of other nationalities to fish the Spanish wrecks along the Treasure Coast over the years. 

We also need to remember that the Spanish galleons were built and supplied with many products made in other countries.  Cannons used by the Spanish were sometimes made in other countries, as one of many examples.  Many items were imported, even back in those days.

The intermingling of goods from various sources had to become even greater the longer a vessel was in service.  So don't be surprised if you dig a British, French or Dutch item on a beach associated with a Spanish shipwreck.  It is always possible that such an item came from a Spanish shipwreck, so don't be too quick to think that an item is not from a Spanish galleon just because you think it doesn't look Spanish.

Also remember that there are colonial period wrecks from other nations intermingled with the Spanish shipwrecks along the Treasure Coast.


The photo above shows some miscellaneous cuprous shipwreck beach finds.  By cuprous, I mean to include copper, bronze and brass.  It can be hard to tell the difference. 

Among the more common shipwreck finds are connectors, such as spikes, nails, tacks and pins. Many connectors are made of iron, which often corrode worse than copper items, and might be more difficult to clean and preserve.

There are two copper pieces at the bottom left in the photo that are obviously not connectors.


With thousands of law enforcement personnel surrounding the area, it looked like the 19 year old terrorist slipped them all until a citizen reported his location.  There is no substitute for making use of the eyes of the population no matter if you are talking law enforcement of archaeology.   Too bad there isn't greater cooperation between archaeology and the population.  We'd see a boom-age revival of archaeology instead hard times.


I'll be posting a new poll in this blog soon.


After today the surf will increase a little on the Treasure Coast.  Today we are expecting around a 2 foot surf.  For the next few days it will be more like a 2 - 4 foot surf.  That isn't much increase, but it is enough to possibly freshen up some spots on the front of the beach.

The wind will be mostly from the east and east/northeast.

Low tide this morning is going to be after between 11 and 11:30.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net