1/12/16 Report - Great Resource for Shipwreck Research. Not 1715 Fleet Treasure Coast Shipwrecks.

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

Recovered Artifact Shown in Borgens Thesis
See link below.

If you know anything about the Treasure Coast, you probably know something about the 1715 Fleet. Most of our treasure wrecks came from that fleet, but there are other important wrecks along the Treasure Coast that you should know about.   Some are older than the 1715 Fleet and some are more recent.

Among the more recent is the Spring of Whitby, which probably sank near Wabasso in 1824.  The Spring of Whitby is not as well known as the 1715 Fleet, partly because it has not been as thoroughly researched.  It was identified in 1965 when a bronze bell bearing the date 1801 and the name Spring of Whitby was recovered.  The Spring of Whitby maintains a shroud of mystery.  The evidence and research concerning her does not fit neatly together.

One of the older Treasure Coast wrecks is the Power Plant wreck, which is believed to have sunk in the late 1500s.  Relatively little is known about that wreck.

Another older wreck is the wreck of the San Miguel Archangel, which sank in 1660 near the Jupiter Inlet.  Spanish cobs were routinely found by detectorists along the beach near the wreck site for years before the main pile was found by a lifeguard on his morning swim.  On that fateful morning he noticed a recently exposed cannon.

I often encountered a detectorist named Dave, who filled jars with cobs that seemed to wash out of the dunes near the Jupiter Inlet.  That was back in the eighties before the cannon was found and salvage efforts began on that wreck site.  I don't know what happened to Dave.

There are other wrecks than the 1715 Fleet along the Treasure Coast and some have not been identified.  Some are older and some more recent.  Of course not all of them are treasure ships, but they can still produce some interesting artifacts.

It can be difficult to tell how old an artifact might be and what type of wreck produced it.  There are times when artifacts from different wrecks intermingle, and that can make it more difficult.  There are sometimes subtle signs to help you tell one from the other, but you have to do your homework.

Below is a link to a very useful paper entitled, Analysis of the Pass Cavallo Shipwreck Assemblage, Matagorda Bay, Texas.  It is a master's thesis by Amy Borgens.

You will find a lot of good information and drawings of artifacts, including a lot on armaments. There is also a great bibliography at the end that will give you much more research material.

Here is the link.

http://anthropology.tamu.edu/papers/Borgens-MA2004.pdf

It is 294 pages.  Here are the first two paragraphs from the abstract tp give you the idea.

A survey conducted in February of 1998 located an anomaly originally believed to be the remains of L’Aimable. L’Aimable was one of four ships utilized by ReneRobert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, for his voyage to colonize the Gulf Coast in 1684. The anomaly, a wrecked vessel with a heavy iron signature, was located outside the entrance to the historic pass into Matagorda Bay, Texas. Artifacts were extracted from the wreck site to aid in the identification of the vessel, which was subsequently determined to be more recent in origin. 

A preliminary examination of the artifacts indicates that the shipwreck dates to the first half of the 19th century. The survey recovered over two hundred artifacts. The assemblage of artifacts includes over 80 lead shot, over 40 examples of brass firearm furniture, over 15 firearm fragments, several pieces of copper sheathing, and iron bar stock. Almost two-thirds of the material is associated with small arms. The majority of the identifiable firearms are military arms of three patterns: the British Short Land Pattern, the British India Pattern, and the Model 1757 Spanish musket. 

Good reading.

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Today we'll have a 4 - 6 foot surf on the Treasure Coast and north winds.  After today the surf is supposed to decrease for several days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/3/12 Report - Power Plant Wreck Area

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

Here is a construction project going on by the nuclear power plant.  For a while I thought they were going to do this all the way along the dunes there.  Now it looks to me like they are only going to cover the cliff right around the project area.

Note the planted seas oats.  They are protected.

Also note the three foot cut along the bottom of the newly filled and planted area (The picture doesn't show the cut real well.). 

That is pretty high on the beach for a  cut, but the water obviously had been up there.  That area is one area that had cut pretty good a few times in recent months.  I'm sorry they covered it up.  If you put sand where Mother Nature has been moving it, it won't stay very long.

When Mother Nature isn't moving sand, watch for other places where sand is being moved.  If that newly dumped sand originally had anything in it, some of the objects would probably now be at the foot of the cut.  I'm always interested in where sand is moved, no matter if it is by Mother Nature or man.  It can be worth checking.

That is the general area of the Power Plant Wreck and where the small disk shaped silver ingots were found back in the seventies when construction for the power plant was taking place.



Small Silver Ingot From Power Plant Area.



That wreck is thought to be from the late 1500s.  The wreck site is a bit of a mystery.  A lot of miscellaneous artifacts and stories, but not a real coherent picture of what is there.

I've seen old timbers exposed in the dunes north of there when the beach was really cut once.

And an entire stack of Kang Hsi  was found just north of there as well.

Here is an example from the most recent Sedwick Coins auction catalog.  You can see the cross on it. 

These disks were usually small.  This one was just over 32 grams.

Seas are flat today and will remain flat for at least a few days.  We'll be having mostly winds from the west.  It will be a good time to snoop around in the water, but beach finds will be mostly limited to recent drops and chunks of iron near the water's edge, and perhaps some non-metallics.

You might choose to get in the water, although the shallow water is generally very sandy too, or try some off-beach hunting. 


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

6/19/11 Report - Mystery Shipwreck & Three Common Metal Detecting Misconceptions

Typical Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.



Almost all old shipwrecks are mysteries to some degree, but there is one Treasure Coast shipwreck site that is a bit more of a mystery than most of the others. Although most people that know about it speak of it as if it is a shipwreck, it was once thought that it might not be the site of a shipwreck but rather a camp where treasure was transferred, or something else.

While I personally believe this site to be the site of a shipwreck, or two, it is less well documented in most of the literature than many of the other more famous Treasure Coast shipwrecks. As far as I know this wreck has not been identified and goes by no name other than one that simply refers to the site rather than a specific ship.

This mystery shipwreck was discovered during a construction project back in the seventies. I often talk about looking for obstructions to the flow of sand that will result in buried materials being uncovered. This site is a prime example of how that can happen.

The silver disks and silver coins that were found were discovered when FPL built cofferdams on South Hutchinson Island. The cofferdams interrupted the normal flow of sand, created erosion and a small number of old small silver reales and silver disks like the one I posted yesterday were found on the beach. Fred Turner and

Erosion is one huge keys to success in hunting old things on beaches, especially heavier materials such as silver or gold. I always say, "Follow the sand - but don't catch it." In other words, go where the sand just left.

It is interesting to note that beach detectorists were among the first, if not the first, to discover evidence of this wreck. Fred Turner and Steve Rolowitz are names often credited with those early discoveries.

That was also the case at Jupiter. Silver reales were discovered on the beach just south of the Jupiter inlet long before the cannon and ballast pile was discovered in the water.

You probably have guessed by now. The mystery wreck that I am talking about is commonly referred to as the Power Plant Wreck.

Judging from the coins found in the area when the power plant was being constructed, the date of this wreck seems to be considerably earlier than most of the Treasure Coast wrecks. It could possibly be one or more of the three treasure galleons that Frank Hudson says sunk in 1565 just north of Ft. Pierce. This site isn't north of Fort Pierce, but Frank isn't really known for precision.

Talk is that cannon, anchors and a ballast pile have been found in the area and it seems the locations are precisely known. That same information hasn't appeared in any publications or any of the more authoritative sources that I've seen though.

While there are reports of a few silver finds in recent years in addition to those found back in the seventies, this isn't one of the more popular treasure beach sites and as far as I know, it isn't one of the more productive treasure beaches. From what I've heard, a number of shipwreck spikes have surfaced on the beach there over the years but not many silver coins.

Right now that beach, like most of the others on the Treasure Coast is sanded in and not very good for detecting.

I'm still looking for the name of the book in which the image of the silver disk that I posted yesterday is found. I'd like to give credit. Please email me if you know the name of that book.


Funny thing! It seems like almost everybody I've been meeting lately is the smartest person in the universe. They know everything better than anyone else.


A confederate flag from the CSS Alabama recently sold for over $218,000 dollars in a Sothebay auction.

Here is the link to the auction catalog and results.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2011/fine-books-and-manuscripts-n08755#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.N08755.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.N08755.html/157/


Three Common Beach Metal Detecting Misconceptions About Depth.

1. The best detector is the one that detects the deepest.

A good detector will tend to detect items more deeply than other detectors, but the deepest seeking detector is not always the best detector. There are many other very important factors.

What types of material will the detector detect at great depth? Will the detector detect small items made of precious metals? Will it work well in the conditions that you will be hunting in?


2. If you could only detect deeper you would find a lot more.

Beach hunting is not exactly like hunting on the solid earth. The beach continually changes and moves. The trick is to find the objects that have been uncovered and are near to the surface.

It is much more effective to hunt for hot spots where multiple good targets have accumulated over time and been deposited near the surface and uncovered, rather than trying to penetrate deep layers of sand.


3. Old treasure coins that are found on a beach are deeply buried in the sand.

In my personal experience, beach cobs are normally found near the surface of the sand. It doesn't seem to matter whether they have washed out of the dunes or washed up onto the beach. Cobs are most often found within a few inches of the surface f he sand. I've even seen them on exposed on the surface. I won't say they are never found buried deeply, but on the Treasure Coast beaches, my experience shows that would be the exception rather than the rule.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.

The wind is from the west this morning. It will be changing around on and off for the next few days.

There is absolutely no change in the forecast for beach conditions for at least the next week. That means more smooth water and sandy beaches.

I can't say I can remember such a long period of time with such poor beach conditions.

I think it has been almost two years since we had what I would call level four (excellent) beach hunting conditions on the Treasure Coast. It makes you appreciate those times. And when they come you have to make the most of them.

That's it for today.

Don't forget to check out the treasure link list on the main display. There are some great web sites listed there.

Also remember, you can use the search box to search the blog of specific topics.


Happy hunting.
TreasureGuide@oomcast.net