9/12/12 Report - Wreck of the USS Hatteras, Old Button & Gold Found.

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



Typical Treasure Coast Beach Yesterday



After I had been to the beach yesterday, I came home and the wind really picked up and came in from the Northeast.   That was a dirty trick.  I was there too early.  I doubt that it was enough to move all of that built up sand anyhow, but I would have liked to have been there after the wind instead of before. 

Here is what one beach looked like yesterday before the wind picked up.   There is a lot of sand on the front beach and I suspect that it would take more than what happened yesterday to move it significantly.  Nonetheless, there may be some new spots worth detecting today.  I've been showing that finds of various kinds have been coming from the Treasure Coast beaches even if there haven't been any treasure coins recently that I know about.

The remains of an iron-hulled Union gunboat, the USS Hatteras, was recently uncovered in the Gulf near Galveston after a storm and was discovered by an underwater photographer.  The hatteras was sunk by the Confederate CSS Alabama on Jan. 11, 1863.

Archaeologists are attempting to map the wreck site before the wreck disappears again.

Here is the link for more on that story.

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2012/09/10/archaeologists-scramble-to-3-d-map-civil-war-shipwreck-off-galveston/

William M. found another nice early 19th Century button.   It looks like it could be a Dragoon button. 

He used white powder to better show the details for the photo.  I think you can see the eagle.

Nice find William.


The other day I dug what looked like part of the metal part of a shotgun shell.  Embossed on it was Orton Red Meteor.   A little research quickly revealed that it was from a flare, not a shotgun shell.

14K Ear Ring

And here is another gold find from the Treasure Coast.  This is a nice heavy ear ring.  High quality I would say.   

Some ear rings are as heavy as some finger rings.       


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/11/12 Report - Beach Conditions and Finds

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

One beach this morning that had been freshened up a bit.

Well, the change in wind that I was waiting for happened but didn't improve the beaches.  There are still some old cuts out there that the water hit just enough to freshen up a bit, but not much, and some new things appeared in front of those cuts.

Although most of the big shell piles are gone, and the shells that remain have been there for a while, there were still some shells and a few miscellaneous objects in and around the remaining shells.

We now have Tropical Depression 14.  It appears to be following Michael and Leslie to the North and away from us.

I don't expect any significant change in the surf for the next few days.



Bones apparently from an old Native American burial site were recently dug up by a construction project near Sebastian Inlet.

Here is the link provided by Joan T.   Thanks Joan.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/sep/11/construction-workers-find-ancient-bones-while-in




Seven inch long tapered iron object.



Anyone have any ideas what this might be?  It definitely appears that it was constructed with a taper - not corroded into that shape.

I did see a picture of a wood spindle of the same size and shape but don't have any idea if they were ever made of iron.

14K Ring.

And here is another find.   You can see what it is.

If you find a lot of men's bands but few small ladies rings, you could be using too much discrimination.

Ladies rings with gem stones are often very small.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/10/12 Report - Waiting for the Wind to Shift & Gold and Gem Stones From the Beach

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

14K Ring

I mentioned the other day that the number of surfers and other beach goers recently should provide some new finds on the beaches.  That has proven true.  Here is one example.

There is a large variety of things to be found now.  I've seen everything from Native American pot shards, to black glass shards and fossils as well as modern items.

I saw one piece of Native American pottery in a shell pile that a person had stepped on and broke.  Nothing unique or anything, but still unfortunate.   99% of the public would not have noticed it.

I also saw a large piece of what is called black glass.  Black glass can be quite old.  When you look through it when there is a bright background, you will see that it is actually olive green rather than black.  Sometimes you can see some nice big air bubbles that show it was hand blown.

Ceramics and glass shards are two of the first signs that you will see that indicate that  a site has been heavily used in the past.  After that are iron items, including nails, spikes etc.

It helps if you learn to tell something about the age of thins such as glass and nails

I heard of one person who had his metal detector stolen from his car.  Just a warning.   Be careful.

Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, if you take electronics to the beach with you, don't put them in a container that will overheat in the sun.  I've found that some clear plastic waterproof boxes will heat up in the sun to the point that some electronic devices will be ruined.


Michael and Leslie are both well north of us now and not of much interest anymore.   There is however a new tropical depression forming in the mid-Atlantic that we'll need to keep an eye on.   It has a ninety percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours and appears to be moving directly west, towards the West Indies at this point.

We'll have three to five foot seas today, and not much change for a week or so.  Just a little variation. 

I'm most interested in what, if anything, will happen when the wind shifts this afternoon and starts coming out of the north and northeast.   I'm not really expecting much at this point, but will have to wait and see.

Low tide this evening is around 10:40 PM.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide @comcast.net

9/9/12 Report - Still Some Nice Waves.& Club News

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



Leslie and Michael continue on their way into the North Atlantic, but there is a new low pressure area coming off of Africa that has a 40% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next couple of days.  Its a long way off, so it will be days before it affects us.

Today the seas are running 4-6 feet along the Treasure Coast, a little higher in the morning than afternoon.  It also looks like the surfing will be good again, as the wind continues from the West. 

The wind is predicted to shift around noon on Monday.   At this point it looks like that is our best hope for improved beach detecting conditions although the seas will be gradually decreasing through the week, being back to one or two feet by next weekend.

Today it would be a good idea to look at areas where there are rocks or obstructions to the normal flow of sand.  The high waves yesterday could have removed some sand around the obstacles during the most recent high tides.



Bernie C. of the St. Lucie Metal Detecting Club says, 

Our Bi-monthly meeting is this coming Saturday September 15th 2012. The meeting will be held at my house: 1256 SE Palm Beach Rd, Port St Lucie at 6pm. Bring your favorite beverage. Also don't forget to bring your new and old finds to the meeting as we will have a show & tell along with item discussions. We will also be talking about hunting locations, equipment, hunting rules and state laws. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and having a great time. We will be ordering pizza from the clubs favorite restaurant, Roma Pizza. This is the closest to NY Pizza you will find in Florida. I may even throw together my specialty salad as requested..


There should be some very interesting finds on display and maybe a surprise also. Don't miss it.

Here's an update on the club progress. As of today we have 85 members that's 74 local and 11 out of town.

Our September hunt is in the planing stages. September 29th is the date.


That is about it for today.  I was going to post a photo and some other things but was having trouble and gave up on it for now.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/8/12 Report - Head High Waves and Good Surfing on the Treasure Coast

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

Green Turtle Beach Near High Tide Showing Old Cut.

Today there were a lot of surfers out -  more than I've seen in quite a while.  There was good reason too.  The waves were breaking really nice.  The best looking surfing waves I"ve seen  in quite some time.  That is the result of Leslie and a West wind.  

Despite the overhead waves, I didn't see anything happening to the beaches along South Hutchinson Island.  At high tide the water was just getting up to the base of the old cuts.  I didn't see anything that would lead me to believe that detecting conditions are improving yet.  Nothing!

The surfers and beach goers undoubtedly dropped a few things.

There were a couple of small spots worth scanning with a detector, but not much hope of treasure coins in my opinion.  The few small cuts that I did see were in new sand above a lot of newly piled up sand.

Of course there might be some better spots out there, but I didn't find them today, and I didn't see enough hope to spend too much time looking.


South of Ft. Pierce Jetty. A Little Action at High Tide Line.

 There are still things washing around in the low tide one - shells and that sort of thing but nothing really new.

I've I'm posting a few photos to give you an idea of what I saw.

Yesterday I gave an opinion of the previous day's mystery object and said that it could be a sounding lead.   I also gave a web site link provided by John L.   If you went to that site, you might have noticed that the mystery object was not made exactly like those pictured at the web site.  What I forgot to mention is that we think that the mystery object could have been improvised out of materials on hand. I don't think I made it clear, even though Trae provided excellent pictures, that the mystery object was made of a sheet of lead folded over and beat together.  But what I want to point out now is some of John's additional comments concerning the improvised sounding lead.  Here they are.

Surfers & Bathers Enjoying Six Foot Waves at Walton Rocks.

What makes me think it might be a leadline is the fact that it is a crude one that likely suffered from the owner/maker's failure to properly guard against chafe of the line in and around the hole/attachment point.


A common mistake is to just tie a knot in the line at the hole. Unfortunately any movement of the line in the hole would invariably chafe the line, eventually severing it, resulting in the loss of the lead.

Leadlines that were not homemade, addressed this problem efficiently as you can see from the leather wrapped around the hole in the photos on the link sent previously.

Thanks once again John.

We have to remember that no matter how well provisioned these ships might have been, many of the losses came as the result of the very extreme circumstances of storm, shipwreck, and being stranded on strange shores, making improvisation very common and necessary.



A black lab trained to find bones for archaeologists, has found 600 year old bones buried nearly two meters.  That seems astounding. to me.

Here is the link to that story.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/this-dog-has-a-nose-for-archeology/story-e6freoof-1226463394595




To sum things up, even though the seas are relatively high, I'm not expecting much improvement in beach conditions until possibly later Monday when the wind shifts around and starts coming out of the Northeast. 


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/7/12 Report - Sounding Lead, Shark Tooth & Other Finds

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



William M. found this shark tooth.   In my 1/20/2010 post, I posted a shark tooth identification guide.  If you look at that guide, you'll see that this tooth is from a Sand Shark. 

Find and photo by William M.

To find the identification guide, simply go back to the 1/20/10 post, or enter "shark tooth" in the search box on this blog.

The search box will take you through years of information that has been posted in this blog.

Yesterday I posted a photo of a few articles recently fond in the Keys and asked if anyone had any ideas about what the lead item might be.  I had an idea, but it was only idea, and I wasn't very sure of it.

I received an email from John L., whose nautical expertise made quick work of identifying the Wilcox Crittenden strap and ring in my 6/15 post.  John thinks it could be what I would call a sounding weight for determining the depth of water.  That was my first thought as well.

John also sent the following link to a nautical history web site that describes the construction and use of lead lines.   The web site has some good photos of lead lines.  Take a look.

http://www.navyandmarine.org/planspatterns/soundingline.htm

You might also want to go to the main page of this web site and browse around.  

http://www.navyandmarine.org

You'll find a lot of good nautical history information.


Someone else emailed me asking if I could help identify some finds.   I can't guarantee success, but I'll generally try.  If I can't do it, very often one of this blog's readers can.

Some finds are easier to identify than others.   A lump of lead without any markings, for example, would be very difficult to identify as anything other than a lump of lead.  The more complete the item is and the more markings or clues it has, the better the chance of success.  Also, good photos help.  If you send fuzzy photos of one view of an object, the chance of success is reduced significantly.

Finds and photo by Bernie C.

Bernie C. has been making a lot of finds.  Here are some, including a lot of fossils and coins.

Leslie and Michael are both staying far away from us and are headed into the North Atlantic, while a stationary low pressure are near New Orleans has a 30% chance of becoming a cyclone.  It could head back our way.

According  to the surf web sites, we may get five or so days of 5 to 7 foot seas.  While predicted peak seas are slightly reduced, the length of time that we'll have high seas is increased.  The cumulative effect of days of rough seas could be good depending upon the angles and other factors.  One key thing to watch for is the change in wind direction.   I think it was Tuesday when the wind is supposed to change from South to North/Northeast.   I would like to see days of North/Northeast winds.

Low tide will be around 7:30 PM today.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/6/12 Report - New Shipwreck Possibly Found, New Finds & Higher Seas

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

Finds and Photo by Trae R.

Here are some recent beach finds made by Trae R. down in the Keys.  He is wondering if anyone might have some thoughts on the identity of the lead piece.  It is a single piece folded over and drilled. 

The small piece of pottery looks to me like K'ang Hsi.   The items are from the vicinity of a 1733 wreck.

Nice finds Trae.

Beach detecting conditions haven't changed much on the Treasure Coast yet.  A lot of the beaches have filled a good bit since Isaac. 

There are still a lot of shells, sea glass, fossils, etc. on the beaches.  (See photo below.)


Maybe you don't look for those, but you can get a few dollars out of some sea glass and fossils.  They also provide valuable clues to what items are in the vicinity and how they are being distributed on the beach.

I have a lot of pictures of fossil and other finds to post some time but have too many other photos to post today.
The seas will increase Friday and Saturday, now predicted to peak  late Saturday and early Sunday at about seven feet.  We are once again seeing that the models used by the surf web sites have a tendency to moderate some as the time draws nearer to predicted high seas.

Green Turtle Beach Yesterday

It looks like the wind will remain mostly from the South during the period of high seas.  Not long to wait now.

In the mean time, my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating remains at a 1 (poor).

It isn't that bad for miscellaneous finds, but as you probably know, my rating scale gives the conditions for finding cobs and treasure coins.  Conditions for that remains poor.

From this scatter pattern it looks like the Dare, in their search for the Lost Merchant, might have found a shipwreck.  Notice the grouped hits towards the middle of the map.

Picture from Mel Fisher organization via email.

The photo shows both mag and sonar hits.




I'm eager to see what this weekend might bring.  I hope it is not a fizzle.

If you have any thoughts on Trae's lead item, let me know.



Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net