5/13/20 Report - Archaeology of Manila Ports. Passing of Eugene Lyon. Fort Pierce Reef. USS Nevada.

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

Rocks Being Moved For Construction of Reef.

Source: WFLX.com (link below)

St. Lucie County has begun construction on a reef inside the Fort Pierce Inlet just off Raccoon Island.  The reef will create a deeper than normal area inside the lagoon that will be assist development of juvenile fish and serve as a sand trap for beach grade sand.

Here is the link for more about that.  (Thanks to DJ.)

https://www.wflx.com/2020/05/12/st-lucie-co-creating-artificial-reef-inside-fort-pierce-inlet/

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Deepwater searchers have located the wreck of the famed USS Nevada off the coast of Hawaii.

A team consisting of U.S.-based archaeology firm SEARCH, Inc. and robotics company Ocean Infinity announced the discovery on Monday.

USS Nevada was located 65 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor at a depth of over 15,400 feet...

Here is that link.  (Thanks to Douglas.)

https://gcaptain.com/searchers-locate-wreck-of-unsinkable-uss-nevada/

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Dr. Eugene Lyon, an international expert on Spanish Colonial Florida and the Spanish maritime system, died on May 3, 2020 in Vero Beach, Florida.,.

Most of us probably know him for his work in the Spanish archives to identify the Atocha and Margarita. 

Dr. Lyon received the grade of Orden de Isabel la Católica (Official of the Order of Isabella) from King Juan Carlos of Spain, and the grade of Comendador in the Order of Christopher Columbus from the President of the Dominican Republic. The City of St. Augustine granted him its highest honor - the Order of La Florida. In 2003, the Florida Historical Society gave him the Jillian Prescott Award for lifetime service to Florida history. In 2005, he received the Mel Fisher Lifetime Achievement Award...

Here is the link for more. (Thanks to DJ.)

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/staugustine/obituary.aspx?pid=196167090

Condolences to all friends and family.

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If you ever found a blue and white fine porcelain shard on a Treasure Coast beach and wondered if it is Kanghsi or if you just want to know more about the Manila galleons and Spanish trade with China, you'll want to read Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaports and Early Maritime Globalization. 

Source: Academia.edu link below.

You'll find photos of many types of artifacts, including Spanish colonial coins, cannons and, of course, an extensive collection of porcelain as well as shipwreck distribution patterns.

Source: Academia.edu link below.

Here is that link.

https://www.academia.edu/41712660/The_Chinese_Porcelain_from_the_Port_of_San_Blas_Mexico?email_work_card=title

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Today we'll start with a 2 -4 foot surf increasing a foot or so by the end of the day.  The surf on Thursday and Friday is now expected to be around five or six feet.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

1/3/19 Report - A Great Web Site for Conducting Research on Finds. Tools on Galleons. Calm Surf This Week.

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

Source: MaterialCulture18t.wixsite.com/18thcmcrc

In addition to the recreation, exercise, and finds, metal detecting has provided an enjoyable and broad education.  I've learned a lot about a variety of subjects, including but not limited to numismatics, metallurgy, history, and geology.  Research provides a lot of the education.  I highly recommend metal detecting as a way to interest young people in any those fields of study.

Given the range of things one encounters in the hobby, you'll never master it.   There is always a lot left to learn, so research is very important, both before the hunt and after the find.

I was researching some finds recently when I discovered a really super web site: The 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction.


Welcome to the website of the 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center. This little project of our's was created to serve the community as a reference library for the study of everyday objects used by the inhabitants of North America, her mother country, England, and those countries of Continental Europe who, in one way or another, had an impact on the 13 British Colonies in North America between the years 1600 to 1785.

The material presented within this "Virtual Encyclopedia" is for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES only. We have not received any financial gain by this endeavor. We are greatful to the countless museums, libraries, auction houses, and private collectors from around the world for making their material publicly available so that we could categorize it and present it to you within our slideshows...

So much quality education is provided freely by amateurs in various fields.  If the agencies of government and education were half as effective, we would be much farther ahead.

There are many categories and sections included in that web site.  One category included bottles and cases such as that shown at the top of this post.

The wedges below aren't new finds.  When I first found the top one I referred to it as a chisel.  It is not, and one of my readers quickly informed me of that.

A Couple Treasure Coast Beach Finds.

A wedge is used to separate things.  A chisel is made to lift material from one thing, and therefore they will often have a beveled edge.

I know the one on the bottom looks something like a spike, but that is just the angle of the picture.

I don't have any idea of the age of these wedges.

In 1607, the Spanish crown required carpenters and caulkers who worked on the galleons to provide their own tools.  The 1607 ordinances required each carpenter to provide his own hatchet, saw, three sizes of auger, a claw hammer, a sledge hammer, and two chisels.

Each caulker had to provide a mallet, five sizes of caulking irons, a centering chisel, a rave hook, a sledge hammer, a claw hammer, and oakum remover, and three size of auger.  (Source: Six Galleons for the King of Spain, by Carla Phillips.)

Looking in the 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center you'll find a lot of pictures of tools, including this beautiful 18th century auger.

Here is another illustration of carpenters tools from the same excellent web site.

Those are just a few examples of what you can find on the 18th Century Material Culture web site.  I'll add it to my reference links on the first page of my blog.

Although the web site focuses on 18th Century American and English artifacts, I think  it will be useful in researching artifacts of the 18th century no matter what country they come from.

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The surf is predicted to be only one foot for a few days.  That means that you might find some easy shallow water hunting.

Enjoy browsing the various sections of the Material Culture web site.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/6/18 Report - 1854 Gold Sovereign. Coin Care and Grading. Fantastic Nested Weight Set From 1715 Fleet.

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

Two Sides of Same 1854 Gold Sovereign.

Photos submitted by Sebastian Steve.

I got this got a message from Sebastian Steve some weeks ago.  He talked about a few different coins.  I'm just posting part of that message below.

… But let’s take a look now at a “real life” situation... the pics of the “loose” English Sovereign, 1854 (Shown above.).  A little different now...isn’t it?  At least the obverse (front).  Heavily soiled from laying loose for over a century in two feet deep of rotting, mostly organic detritus.  You had better have your “eagle eye” out that day... when the dark side of the Sovereign slides by in the murky darkness! 

But what an amazing contrast to the reverse!  Both sides of this “loose” (not mounted) coin are -untouched-.  No cleaning was done, the amazing difference in the two sides was simply “Mother Nature”... nor would you want to EVER clean a valuable, old shipwreck coin!  For that matter any original, untouched coin!  You will instantly ruin its collector’s value...and any grading firm such as NGC, will label it as “CLEANED.”  99% of serious investment coin collectors will not buy a cleaned coin...ever. 

One swipe of your dirt covered fingers can cost you literally thousands of dollars on coins like the Double Eagles.  I even went to the point of changing out my bag to a small wrist worn pouch.  Why?  Because the coin no longer had to free-fall through two feet of open water in the bag and collide with other finds.  Anal?  Not really...not with uber soft gold at stake.

Now if you have a coin that already shows substantial wear when you find it...and you clearly want to mount the piece as jewelry...then it’s your call.  But don’t expect to -ever take it out later- to sell as a collectors coin.  It just won’t fly! 

Now...the coin when sent in to a grading firm... (or through your local coin dealer) will have on its label “CLEANED & X-JEWELRY.”  That’s right...BOTH MARKS OF DEATH!  Right in bold type on the front of the encapsulation.  You might as well save the grading fee.  Really. 

This is why it always absolutely “kills me” to see on UTube, a video of a detectorist rubbing his soiled, just dug coin on his rough jeans, to ascertain the date!!!  Worse yet...sometimes you can actually HEAR the rubbing!  Don’t do it!  PLEASE....  Wait until you get home and carefully soak the coin in plain ole soapy water.  What if it’s a KEY DATE?  Or in MINT condition under the hard dirt.  You just never know what you have till it’s gone.  I rest my case.

Thanks Steve!  Great coin and good reminder concerning caring for coins.

I always cringe when they advertise uncirculated coins on TV and then show them being dumped from bags on the table.  Good way to reduce the value quickly!

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Complete Nested Weight Set Found During the 2016 Salvage Season. 

Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

I posted this photo and talked about the weight set in my 11/11/16 post, but wanted to add some relevant information that I just found in Carla Phillip's book Six Galleons for the King of Spain.

The most expensive household items on board were probably the copper cauldrons weighing 40-45 pounds each and used for cooking or for melting tar for repairs.  The copper, imported and priced by weight, showed an increase of nearly sixfold on the north coast between 1540 and 1628, from 1.2 to 7 reales per pound.  The price had risen to 9 reales in 1639.  Far less expensive but equally important were the sets of measure of wood and tin, and the scales used to dispense daily rations.  Each ship carried several sets of measures and at least one scale with counterweights, the measures costing 2 to 4 reales a set in Seville in 1626, and the scale about 50 reales.  Hatchets, funnels, brooms, plates and cups, ladles and other utensils, jugs and jars, and a long list of other items completed the household equipment.  As extensive as the list appears, it was really the bare minimum need for shipboard life, a spartan version of normal life on land.

I always like to find out how much things cost when they were used.  It helps give you an idea of the worth of the reales or escudos back when they were lost.

Knowing about the variety of items on board also might be useful when trying to figure out what a find might be.

I just got some new photos of the cups from Jonah after he cleaned them up and repined and dolled the locking mechanism. 

Those are amazing.

Thanks Jonah.

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This post took me a lot of time.  It shouldn't have, but I had trouble getting the coin illustration the way I wanted it and then I lost what I already typed on the nested weights and had to do that all again.  Now the computer seems to want to be contrary so I'm going to give up and wrap it up.

The high tides are nice and high on the Treasure Coast.  Unfortunately the hot southeast winds are back and the surf is only about two or three feet.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/21/18 Report - The People of the Treasure Galleons and Those Who Salvaged a New World Wreck. Internet Domination.

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

In 1634, the galleon Los Tres Reyes was wrecked  at the entrance to Cartagena harbor on Aug. 4.  Local boats were recruited to do the salvage.   The work was done mostly by black slaves, and even though they were clearly designated as slaves, they were paid three reales a day for their work.

That seems to be a pretty good amount.  Just for comparison, a first class seaman at the time would be paid about 44 reales per month - a little over one reale per day.  And a cabin boy or page on a galleon would be paid about 22 reales per month.  Wages went up rapidly from the 1500s into the 1700s, so the amount would be much higher in the 1700s.  Most wages nearly doubled from 1514 to the early 1600s.

Pages were the lowest paid of mariners.  They were often orphans with no better choices in life, or wanting to learn and develop a career as a seaman.  Above the page was the apprentice seaman and common seaman.

The highest paid of a fleet was the captain-general of the galleons, who around the year 1630 would make about 5000 reales a month.  In descending order from there was the admiral of galleons, captain-general of merchant fleet, admiral of merchant fleet, joint captain sea and land, sea captain, master, master or rations, pilot, contramaestre, diver, guardian, master gunner, water bailiff, dispenser or provisions, notary, chaplain, carpenter, caulker, cooper, gunner, drummer, barber/surgeon, and then the common seaman.

That information is taken from original source documents in the Spanish archives and published in Carla Rahn Phillips' book, Six Galleons for the King of Spain.  That book follows the building and life cycle of six galleons built in the early 1600s, including costs, logistics, events, etc. 

I think we often forget that people of the treasure fleets.  This book puts the treasure fleets into a more complete and realistic context.

I have some personal observations from the 1715 Fleet beaches that I've wondered about over the years.  One is the high percentage of half reales found on some of the wreck beaches relative to the small number of small denomination cobs salvaged from the nearby wrecks.  One thing I've wondered is if the half reales  (and some trade goods such as silver rings, which have not been found on the wrecks) were used as payment for the salvage workers.  I have no evidence to support that idea.

The lack of silver rings found on submerged wreck sites by treasure salvage crews  is a bit puzzling because silver rings have been found on Spanish colonial archaeological sites.

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Google, who has cooperated with China to develop a repressive government-controlled internet for China while suppressing conservative expression in the US, says China is well on its way to developing a dominant internet to rival that of the US.  US tech companies have been willing to give up their intellectual capital to have a piece of the Chinese market.  China is making a serious move to be THE world leader, and a big part of that is control of the information super highway.  The interenet, as you probably know, was originally developed by the US Department of Defense.

Here is a link about that.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/20/eric-schmidt-ex-google-ceo-predicts-internet-split-china.html

The internet is a indispensable tool for detectorists and treasure hunters.  As someone who was into detecting before the internet was common, it has changed things dramatically.

Before the internet, research was much more difficult and there was very little sharing of information.  A lot of the detectorists back in the eighties, especially those detecting for modern jewelry, were very secretive.  Some of the best detectorists hunted mostly before sunrise and, were seldom seen and never told what they found.  Some of that is still in me, although I've certainly opened up a lot.

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Source: nhc.noaa.gov

There are four areas of weather to watch in the Atlantic now.  I'd watch the one down by South America with most interest.

The  Treasure Coast surf won't change much in the next week or two if the predictions are correct.  I'd like the weather to cool down.  We often get a nice fall storm when the weather changes.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net