5/18/19 Report - Exciting Treasure Found in Jensen Backyard. Beautiful Artifacts of the Atomic Age. Alchemy of Treasure Hunting.

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

Cannon Ball and Oyster Shells Found In A Backyard On A Jensen Ridge.
Find and photo by K. K.

I received the following email yesterday, along with some photos. Happy Friday, a few weeks ago we were doing some renovations to our backyard in Jensen beach and under neath an old line of bushes we found all kinds of fun treasures from the Ais Indians, which isn’t uncommon.... We routinely find mounds of discarded oysters, small pottery shards and all kinds of later years fun types of glasses. Well this day we came across a large oyster bed and a second section where they had been shaped into different shapes and what looked like a huge heavy ball of some sort.  We called around and finally a lady from the local museum at Gilbert’s House of refuge came over and said it in fact looked like a very old maybe 16th century Spanish iron cannon ball to her and it looks like we may have a bit of a mound in our backyard a place where the Ais Indian, would have a outpost for fishing and hunting trips and later on a place to be on the look out for the British or Spanish and their Indian collaborators who routinely traveled the area... I guess it’s still crazy a 450 year old cannonball was in my yard unsound until now! (My family has been in this house since 1979) I attached some pics for you to take a look at.

Exciting finds!  Thanks for sharing K. K.

While our beaches have been heavily detected, most of the inland areas have not.  There is a lot to find out there.

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Beautiful Beach Artifacts From a Horrendous Event.

Source: See Atlasobscura.com link below.

Wannier had been studying beach debris from different areas in order to compare the health of different marine ecosystems, when some particles from the Motoujina Peninsula struck him as unusual. Next to particles generated by plants or animals, these were “aerodynamic, glassy, rounded”—they reminded him of what he had seen in sediment samples from the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, the geological marker of the mass extinction that erased the dinosaurs around 66 million years ago. 

But these particles from the Motoujina Peninsula were also notably different in several ways from the K-Pg particles: Some were rubbery, others had multi-layered glass shells. The variety reflected the wide range of materials present in the particles, identified under electron microscope at the University of California, Berkeley. X-ray experiments were also conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which proved useful in analyzing the formation of the debris.* The range of materials is just one indication that the particles formed as a result of the Hiroshima bombing. An urban center presents a wider variety of materials—such as concrete, marble, stainless steel, and rubber—than a desert test site like Trinity, in New Mexico, where the first-ever nuclear explosion was tested. The resulting particles from that test, called trinitites, are notably less diverse in their composition than what Wannier and his colleagues are now calling “Hiroshimaites.” The presence of anorthite and mullite crystals in the particles, meanwhile, suggested that they had formed in temperatures hotter than 3,300 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,800 degrees Celsius...
Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-glass-fallout-from-hiroshima


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I lost interest in the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush TV show years ago, however I caught a few episodes of Gold Rush: Parker's Trail last night and was glad I did.

Unlike the History Channel's three "Curse" treasure shows, the Parker's Trail episodes, filmed in New Guinea, illuminated the human condition.

The alchemy of treasure hunting is the transformation and purification of the hunter.  That was made clear as Parker and his crew shared blood, sweat and tears with the native populations and were refined in the process.  Meaningful and worthwhile TV!

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The tides are big now, but the surf remains around two-feet.  The wind is mostly from the south.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/7/18 Report - Local Beaches. Old Gold Coin Found. Hundreds of Cannon Balls Found. Bigger Surf Coming.

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

John Brooks Beach Thursday Afternoon.

I took a look at a couple beaches yesterday just to see what was going on.  Above you see John Brooks beach.  It looks very much like a summer day.  There were fishermen and snow birds enjoying the nice weather.

There were very few cuts.  The tides have been high lately and you could see that the water had been high on the beach.  The slope was gradual and the berm was pretty far back.

John Brooks Beach Thursday Afternoon

Looking South.

There were only a few very small cuts - less than a foot high.

The slopes were soft.

Frederick Douglass beach didn't look any better.

Frederick Douglass Beach Thursday Afternoon.

As predicted the surf was small, and the water hitting the beach straight on.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park was no better.

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Archaeologists, doing a protective excavation in Bela Krajina without any major expectations, were most surprised when they hit an extremely rare find - a bronze belt bearing a golden coin from the 3rd century BC...

The find is even more valuable because coins usually turn up in searches with metal detectors or in searches in riverbeds, while this one provides archaeologists with much more data.

It was found in "a closed grave, it's position on the belt is clear, and even more, some organic material has been preserved on the belt", potentially making it possible to carbon date the find...

Here is the link.

https://english.sta.si/2582339/archaeologists-hit-mother-lode-in-bela-krajina

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Archaeologists digging in Stockholm's Slussen area have stumbled on a unique find that has left them scratching their heads: hundreds of cannonballs from the 17th century. But who left them there and why?

A proposal to redevelop Stockholm's Slussen junction was approved in 2013, and since then archaeologists have been excavating the area as the construction work continues. It is the largest such excavation in Sweden and tells the story of a time when the area was the hub of Stockholm's iron trade...

Here is that link.

https://www.thelocal.se/20181204/hundreds-of-17th-century-cannonballs-unearthed-in-stockholm

What is your theory for the large group of cannon balls?

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It looks like we'll get a bigger surf by next Thursday.  Another front will be coming through, with north winds maybe Tuesday and Wednesday.,

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Sure would like to see a sustained nor'easter.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

4/14/17 Report - Locals Hit Treasure Coast Beaches On Good Friday. Gold Shipments Sunk. Brass Monkey. Unfortunate Loss.

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

Jensen Beach This Afternoon.

It is a beautiful Good Friday on the Treasure Coast and many locals along with a few remaining snow birds hit the beaches.

North of Jensen Beach Friday Afternoon.

There were a lot of people at Jensen Beach - as many as I've seen on a Treasure Coast beach for a good while.  There should be a few coins and modern items to find.

The Treasure Beaches weren't as busy.  They weren't eroding either.

John Brooks Friday Afternoon.

John Brooks beach had filled some since I showed it last.  It had more sand.  The cuts were at least a foot less than the last time I was there.  Also, there was more seaweed.

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Michael Gannon died at 89.  He was personally known to some of this blog's readers and was a leading promoter of  St. Augustine’s history. 

http://staugustine.com/florida-news/local-news/news/2017-04-12/michael-gannon-champion-st-augustine-s-history-dies-89

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Here is an excerpt from a good article.

After 25 years of research, a group of marine experts has produced a comprehensive and closely-guarded database of secret gold movements from Britain to the U.S. and elsewhere in World Wars I and II.

The gold was being sent by both the government and private institutions to pay their wartime bills. But a substantial amount ended up on the seabed, courtesy of the German U-boats which made every trans-Atlantic voyage a game of Russian roulette.

Now some of it may be heading for the surface as the most ambitious treasure hunt of modern times gets underway.

After painstakingly cross-referring classified Bank of England and government records with new archive material in Britain and overseas, the researchers believe they have pinpointed a series of Atlantic wrecks containing gold with a combined value of at least £4.5 billion. That is just a conservative estimate...

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4325822/The-4-5BILLION-British-gold-sunk-Nazis.html

There is a lot to read in that one article, and there are other related articles to check out.

I haven't looked into this story much yet, but might have more on it in the future.

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Brass Monkey and Cannon Balls.

If it was very cold today I might use an old expression and say, "It is cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey."  That sounds crude - certainly not appropriate discussion for Good Friday.  The statement might not be as obscene as it sounds though.  If the article I just read is true, the expression has nothing to do with primates or any part of their anatomy.  The article says that the expression comes from the time of sailing ships and the balls referred to are cannon balls.  The "monkey" was a brass plate on which the cannon balls were stacked.

Here is what the article says.

The master wanted to store the cannon-balls such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck. The solution was to stack them up in a square based

pyramid next to the cannon. The top level of the stack had one ball, the next level down had four, the next had nine, the next had sixteen, and so on. Four levels would provide a stack of 30 cannonballs. The only real problem was how to keep the bottom level from sliding out from under the weight of the higher levels. To do this, they devised a small brass plate (“brass monkey”) with one rounded indentation for each cannonball in the bottom layer. Brass was used because the cannonballs wouldn’t rust to the “brass monkey”, but would rust to an iron one.

When temperature falls, brass contracts in size faster than iron. As it got cold on the gun decks, the indentations in the brass monkey would get smaller than the iron cannonballs they were holding. If the temperature got cold enough, the bottom layer would pop out of the indentations spilling the entire pyramid over the deck. Thus it was, quite literally, “cold enough to freeze the balls off a “brass monkey.” (Source: http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp)

That is the story anyhow, and I assume they are sticking with it.

I'm a little skeptical and suspect that there is some truth to it, but I've also read that the physics don't work out.  At least one person said that no amount of cold would have such an effect to freeze the balls off of the brass monkey.  That sounds right to me.  I wouldn't be surprised if this was one more of those things that has some truth to it, but also some myth.

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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/18/16 Report - Civil War Ordnance Uncovered by Matthew. Kang-hsi Of Manila Galleons. TCBDCR= 2.

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

Pot Shards From Manila Galleon
Source: Xinhualin link below.

The first thing I want to mention today is the big tides that will be combined with a 4 - 6 foot surf today and an even bigger surf tomorrow.  Unfortunately the winds will hit straight on, but there could be enough water action to help, especially tomorrow.

High water can result in a few scattered cobs on the beach even if there are not much of any cuts. However, you can almost always find some erosion if you look around enough after high water, especially around rocks and other natural or man made obstacles.

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4PM update: I was out this afternoon and as a result am giving a Treasure Coast a beach detecting conditions rating of a 2.

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Hurricane Matthew uncovered Civil War ordnance in South Carolina,  One corroded clump of grenades was exploded.

Trae R. sent the following link.

http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/great-white-nursery-discovered-off-new-york-old-civil-war-ammo-on-south-carolina-beach-ocean-oddities-east-coa_142415/

Here is another link about the same thing.

http://www.livescience.com/56458-hurricane-matthew-uncovers-civil-war-cannonballs.html

That reminds me of the grapeshot I found in the Carribbean, but left there because to take it on the plane could have meant hefty fines or other troubles.

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Mexican archaeologists have uncovered thousands of fragments of a 400-year-old shipment of Chinese "export-quality porcelain" that was long buried in the Pacific Coast port of Acapulco.

The shipment of rice bowls, cups, plates and platters dates from the reign of the Ming Dynasty's 13th emperor, Wanli (1572-1620), and is believed to have arrived in Acapulco aboard the China Galleon, which regularly sailed between Asia and the New World...

Evidence even shows that starting in 1565, the return trips to Mexico were manned by Chinese crews, said Fonseca.

Here is the link.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-10/17/c_135761246.htm

I've talked a good bit in the past about Kang-hsi porcelain, which is sometimes found on 1715 Fleet beaches.  I've posted pictures of shards in the past and even provided information on how to identify Kang-hsi (See photo above.).  My 3/29/13 post is one that talks a little about Kang-hsi porcelain.

Obviously not all blue on white shards are Kang-hsi.  There was other pottery shipped in the Manila galleons that was not as fine as the Kang-hsi.  Lower quality pots were used for storage.

You can learn to easily distinguish between lower quality pottery and Kang-hsi.

Here is a link to a great but brief overview of the archaeology of the Manila galleons.

http://www.themua.org/collections/files/original/61b274c68e00272c5e50f0af53f5b140.pdf

That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net