Wednesday, December 14, 2016

12/13/16 Report - Treasure In The Indian River Lagoon.


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

There has been at least one Exploratory lease in the Indian River Lagoon.  As far as I know, not much was found in that lease area, however there is evidence suggesting the possibility of wrecks in the river. 

We know that just south of the nuclear power plant a large piece of an old wreck was found in the river.  Some think that it might have washed over the island during a storm.

I can't imagine that there are no old wrecks in the river.  There has to be.  The question is if there are any treasure wrecks there.

Caches of Spanish reales have been found west of the Indian River, such as those found when a bulldozer uncovered a large cache while clearing a site for the Sebastian Walmart.

How did those cobs get there?  I don't think anyone knows how they got there, but I think they must have crossed the river at some time.  Who moved them or when remains unknown.

I imagine that the Spanish salvage crews used the river for many purposes.  As in later times, the transportation would have provided easy transportation.

My thinking is that there has to be some treasure in the river.  Any treasure that might be in the river would probably be more scattered and harder to get to.

I've been told by the guys that build docks on the river that the sand is about six feet deep near the western edge of the river.  That is a lot of sand.  There is also a LOT of junk in the river.  Whether it is centuries old or not, there has to be shipwrecks and some amount of treasure in the Indian River.

Part of what appeared to be an old Spanish shipwreck was found in the river.  There are other rumors of wrecks in the river.  Items found in the river or on the banks also suggest the possibility of wrecks.

I've heard of or seen various nautical items found in the river or on the banks.  Besides native American artifacts and 18th century buttons and anchors and other nautical items, I know of about a half ton of lead ingots that were  found along the river.  I don't know how old those might have been. Where the ingots came from is anyone's guess.  They could be old or more recent.

Although I've done a little (very little) research, I've not found any newspaper articles reporting steamships or other wrecks in the river either Indian River or St. Lucie County.  Perhaps there are some, but I haven't found them.  Maybe someone can point me to some that they have found.  I'd appreciate that.

As we know, the inlets have changed position from time to time and there were times when inlets opened or closed for a period of time.

We also know that the inlets were dangerous and were near impossible to enter at different times.  We know, for example, how the army payroll was lost near the old inlet.  Not only were the gold coins from the army payroll found, but also a number of muskets that were found.

There are also reports of buried treasure along the Indian River, such as that found many years ago at Sewalls Point.

Some old items were dredged up onto the spoil islands at one time.  One spoil island in the Vero area is known for the fossils that are found there.

Just after hurricane Matthew the east side of the river along A1A was damaged opposite the McLarty museum.  I made a mental note of that, but never investigated it any further.  I wish I had taken a photo.  Maybe it hasn't been totally repaired yet.

Much of the east border of the river is artificial and there are tons of sinkers and a lot of trash.  That is a problem, but a few old items have been found along the east side.

Remember any old artifacts found in the Indian River are the property of the state of Florida.

I'm sure there is a lot of history in the Indian River that we'll never hear about.  If you have any old newspaper articles or other documentation of treasure in the Indian River, I'd like to hear about it.

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We had a beautiful full moon last night.  We also had some nice low tides.  The surf is small too.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Monday, December 12, 2016

12/12/16 Report - Why I Like Metal Detecting. Expedition by Telepresence.


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

What do I like best?   Making a big find?   No that isn't it.  Not entirely anyhow.  I like finding ideas. And in the end, isn't an object an idea?   Actually it is a bunch of ideas - and questions.

If you haven't noticed, I like ideas.  I like thinking.  I like discovering.  As Pink Floyd said, "Thinking is the best way to travel."

A find is the center of a bunch of ideas.  A find can verify and justify a lot of ideas.  For example, at the most basic level, a find can verify that yes, it was there.  This thing was where I expected it to be, or maybe where I didn't expect it to be.

Every time I go to a particular spot that I like to hunt, there are people who say, "There is nothing there."  And sometimes I find things, which surprises them, but not me.  Sometimes the thing or things that I find are not interesting to them.  When that is the case, the find only supports their idea that there is really nothing there. More often than not, the find is more interesting to me and it confirms to me that there were things there, and there probably still are things there.

You might have noticed that I like many kinds of treasure - gold, silver, gems, iron, fossils, artifacts, bottles, sea glass, etc. etc.  I think that is because it is really that I am seeking ideas as much as the objects.  That is what makes objects interesting to me.  The fact that some  finds are valuable and other people sometimes appreciate them enough to pay money for them is just icing on the cake.  But that is just another idea.

Why do people like and collect and pay for some things that are not necessities.  They can't eat them, but they can sell them for food or shelter or get some sort of comfort out of knowing that they can sell them if they need to.   That is where it is for some people.  They want to accumulate wealth at one level or another.  It gives them the feeling, or should I say "idea" that they are safe, secure, worthwhile, successful, or whatever it is.  Nothing wrong with that.

For me, it is very much about ideas.  I like to discover how things work and how I can do things, especially different and better ways of doing thing.   I like to figure out how the sand is moving and how items got to be at one place or another and what they mean.  I like to hypothesize, theorize and then test my ideas.  I like to test my ideas.

For me treasure hunting is very much about creative problem solving. I taught myself computer programming back in the sixties and later developed training software for the first military GPS system for what was then Martin Marietta and a flight training simulator for Eastern Airlines pilots.  When it comes down to it, I analyze and solve problems - all kinds.  That is who I am.  It is all about creative problem solving for me.

It was nice when I could make a living solving problems, but now I metal detect because I still like ideas and solving problems and I'd always be doing that somewhere somehow.  It is always nice to get validation when other people will pay you for solving problems, but now I am content to do it for my own entertainment.  It is still about the ideas.  Some ideas are great finds - in more ways than one.

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Want to participate in an exotic expedition, but don't want to get out of your pajamas?  Expedition by telepresence is what you have been waiting for.  Actually that isn't the reason I mention it.  I mention things like this with the hope that guys and gals who are actually doing things will think about new ways of doing things.  I always encourage people to think about new possibilities and methods and how new or old technologies can be integrated into what they are doing.

Here is an excerpt from an article about telepresence expeditions.

The waves of Narragansett Bay break gently on the rocky beach at the University of Rhode Island’s School of Oceanography, as vacationing families jockey for prime sunbathing real estate. It’s not your typical research cruise environment—I feel a bit guilty about the brief respite out of solidarity for my sleep-deprived colleagues on Atlantis—but such is the life of the shore-side team.
During this 10 day long expedition, half of our crew of early career scientists has been on the Atlantis at any given time while the other half operates a mission control of sorts at URI’s Inner Space Center (ISC). We’re testing the utility of telepresence technology for sea-going research expeditions, trying to see how decision-making and analysis might be outsourced to get more done and leverage a broader set of expertise...
And here is the link for the the rest of that article.

http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/22/life-on-the-shore-based-team-the-other-half-of-a-telepresence-expedition/

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The surf is decreasing.  We're supposed to have another bump about Friday.  As I think everybody is learning, it is about as much about the direction as it is the size.  I'm eager to see what Friday and next weekend brings.  Until then, I'm lowering my beach conditions rating back to a 1 again.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net


Sunday, December 11, 2016

12/11/16 Report - Documenting A Quickly Changing Cut. Miscellaneous Finds.


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

Here are some before and after pictures taken by Joe D. of the same spot 48 hours apart.  It shows how quckly and vastly things can change.  The first three are "before" pictures showing how the eroded beach looked.








The next three pictures show the same location 48 hours later.  You can see the sand built up in front of the beach.



In the photo immediately above, notice what appears to be rocks at the top of the picture.  That will increase erosion.  When the waves shift, the erosion and sand will shift locations as well.



That is pretty impressive.  Cuts can come and go in a matter of hours.  What we hope for and occasionally get is a sustained eroding such as the legendary Thanksgiving storm of treasure history.

Joe said he found a couple of coin lines and commented on how quickly the new pennies corrode.

He also found 
      
* Regular shells
* Lots of iron
* Old red clay brick
* Old glass
* Fossilized shells
* Mis. rocks of granite, slate, quartz, sandstone
* Copper or brass sheeting 

Here is a picture o those.  There are a couple rings in there.



Joe D. also commented on finding a cremation tag.  I have menttioned those in years past, but Joe had a good question.  What should you do with those.  Joe thought he should throw it back, and I agree with that.  

Thanks much Joe for all the pictures and the report.

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Sunday the surf will be three to five feet.  The high tide will be good and high too.  The wind has shifted though and I'm not expecting continued improvement in conditions.  The cuts might fill some, but look for the cuts to shift a little too.

I might not get out to take a look, but I'm sticking with my 2 (transitional conditions) rating for now.  I would expect some of the cuts to shift north or south.  Remember, when sand accumulates it is leaving somewhere else.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Saturday, December 10, 2016

12/10/16 Report - Treasure Coast Beach Conditions: Rio Mar to Ambersands.


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

Looking North Towards Seagrape Trail Beach
 I went out to look at a few beaches this morning.  I started at Turtle Trail.  There were about a half dozen detectorists at Turtle Trail.

There was a cut running from south of the Turtle Trail access nearly to the Searape Trail access.  The cut ran about three feet at many places.

Just south of the Seagrape Trail access the cut started to disappear.  Around the Seagrape access there was a lot of sea weed.  There were also some layers of shells.

Looking South Towards Turtle Trail Beach.
Finds were far between from Turtle Trail to Seagrape Trail.  

Seagrape Trail was still closed.  The stairs down to the beach looked like they were not stable.  That might be the reason the access was closed.

Wabasso Beach This Morning.
Wabasso didn't look too promising.  There were very few people there, and I didn't see any detectorists.

Ambersands Beach This Morning.
Ambersands Beach didn't look very promising either.  As you might be able to see in this photo, down towards the bend it looked like there was a little more erosion.  

As you know, this beach was renousished not too long ago, and the beach renourishment sand is still very evident here and down at Turtle and Seagrape Trail.

Golden Sands was still closed, but Treasure Shores park was open.

The more brown sand wasn't too deeply buried down near the Turtle Trail access.

Ambersands Beach Looking North Towards McLarty This Morning
Rio Mar Beach This Morning
There was a two to three foot cut running along Rio Mar beach.  In front of that were scattered shells, a little dip and then a bar.

Targets near the foot of the cut were shallow.  Targets near the water line were deeper.

The surf is supposed to be about 3 - 5 feet again tomorrow.  Unfortunately the wind has shifted a bit and is now coming more from the east.  I don't expect much more improvement.  Hopefully I'm wrong.

I'm sticking with my "2" rating on my Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions Scale.

Remember, my new 2 rating is not as good a rating as my earlier 2 ratings.

I did find a good number of modern coins today, but not much of the older stuff.

Happy hunting
Treasureguide@comcast.net

Friday, December 9, 2016

12/9/16 Report - Improving Beach Detecting Conditions. Medieval Gold Pendant. Shipwreck-Eating Bacteria.


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

John Brooks Beach Early Afternoon Monday.
Another View of John Brooks Early Afternoon Monday.
Fort Pierce South Jetty Monday Afternoon.
We had a good north wind yesterday and today, and there is some erosion.

I looked out the window today and thought it looked like a good beach day.  It isn't what the snow birds call a good beach day, but it is what I would call a good beach day.  So many good detecting days in the past were cloudy, rainy, windy days.  It just has the right look, so I went out to see what was going on.

At John Brooks, to the north the last two high tides left cuts and beach conditions were improving.

I'm going to issue a "2" rating on my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Scale.

I'm using my new level two criteria, which is less demanding than my old critria for level 2 conditions. Under my new criteria, a level 2 rating indicates improving or transitional conditions. Cob finds are very possible but not as certain.

Conditions will vary from one location to another, and a lot of the beaches still are showing a lot of renourishment sand.

A few days ago I mentioned that I expected some improvement in beach conditions as winter weather moves in. 


Surf Predictions From MagicSeaWeed.com

As you can see, according to these predictions, the surf will increase this weekend, and if the longer range predictions are correct, the surf will increase again next weekend.  This is a common winter pattern   In the winter we have cold fronts that come through and occasionally they churn things up enough to improve beach detecting conditions.  We'll see if that happens.

The renourishment sand at Fort Pierce South Jetty Park is nearly all gone.  You can see that in the photo above.

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Archaeologists who say that it is better to leave wrecks hidden on the sea floor rather than salvage them could be very wrong.  A new type of proteo bacteria has been found that dissolves iron.  In fact it is attacking the Titanic.

One scientist in LiveScience had the following to say.

"In 1995, I was predicting that Titanic had another 30 years," Mann said. "But I think it's deteriorating much faster than that now. Perhaps if we get another 15 to 20 years out of it, we're doing good ... eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain."

Iron makes up a good bit of the mass of old shipwreck remains.  Many spikes and other connectors that hold ships together are made of iron.  When the iron goes, not only are iron artifacts destroyed, but the ship can fall apart and scatter.  We can not depend upon shipwrecks remaining intact as long as they are hidden on the deep ocean floor.  Leaving wrecks untouched for the indefinite future is not a good strategy.

Here is the link to the article in LiveScience.

http://www.livescience.com/9079-species-rust-eating-bacteria-destroying-titanic.html

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Here is an article about a gold medieval pendant find made by a young boy.  One of my all-time most read posts featured the report of this pendant being found.  The pendant has been studied and is now on display at the British museum.  This article is about that.

The article says, A 500-year-old gold reliquary, beautifully engraved with the names of the Magi and images of Christ and St Helena, which was found by a four-year-old playing with his father's metal detector, has gone on display for the first time at the British Museum...

Here is the link for the rest of the article.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2012/dec/21/medieval-pendant-british-museum

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If the wind continues from the north, the beach could continue to improve, especially with the higher surf that is predicted.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Thursday, December 8, 2016

12/8/16 Report - October 1715 Salvage. Listed Jewelry Finds From Rio Mar. GPS Coordinates For Wrecks, Obstacles and Dive Sites.


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

Here is an excerpt from a document referred to online as Exhibit 99.  The excerpt is a translation of a report written by Don Miguel de Lima y Melo on the 15th of October, 1715.

All of the cargos of the other ships were all lost, less a few leather bags off my ship, but this was little because by the day following the disaster the hold of my ship was completely full of water with over a codo and a half (27 inches) over the main hatchway. This was caused because we were unable to cut the rigging on the leeward side of the ship to dislodge the foremast. By the movements of the sea, caused by the mast still being erect, the bottom part of the ship opened and if this hadn’t happened I would have been able to recover all of the cargo on my ship.

However, for the first eleven hours following the ship wrecking, the ship was strong as it had been before the disaster which is the ultimate proof of its great strength.. I have been fortunate in bringing much of what was salvaged to the Havana, but the remainder is buried underground in my Real [camp] and I am hoping it could be picked up by the next schooners that arrive there. But sir, most of the cargo is badly damaged and wet due to the water entering my ship and in carrying the things from my wreck to the shore in a small boat… Only my small boat and another of the Capitana were the only launches which were left after the disaster...

There is some interesting and useful information.  What was salvaged was buried for safe keeping until it could be dispatched.  That would undoubtedly be back in the dunes.  And I'm sure that at least some small amount would be dropped or missed.

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/85684/000102826906000019/ex99-2ahc8k.htm

Here is another excerpt that you might find interesting.

The Carmen carried a number of wealthy passengers on their way back to Spain. It is likely that these passengers carried items in their luggage not declared on the manifest (contraband). This is supported by the fact that several recovered items from the site are not listed on the manifest. For example items recovered include:

1) an emerald teardrop
2) a three-carat ruby stone
3) a gold finger ring with amethyst


4) 8 gold rings
5) 5 gold earrings
6) 2 gold brooches
7) 2 gold flower ornament holders
8) a gold hat pin
9) a gold hair piece
10) 2 gold crucifixes
11) 3 pairs of gold cuff-links
12) 3 gold pendants
13) 3 gold wire pieces
14) a gold grooming spoon
15) a silver candelabra

And a partridge in a pear tree.

As you probably know, the Carmen is thought to be the wreck at Rio Mar.

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You might also find this web site useful.  It gives GPS coordinates for shipwrecks and all kinds of submerged junk along St. Lucie County.   It is useful for diving or fishin but you might find it useful for identifying things you come across.

Here is the link

http://www.floridagofishing.com/reefs/ce-reefs-st-lucie-county.html

Similar web sites give data for the other counties.

Here is the link or Indian River County.

http://www.floridagofishing.com/reefs/ce-reefs-indian-river-county.html

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Thursday and Friday the surf is supposed to be only one or two feet.   The surf is supposed to be two to four feet Saturday.  That could be interesting.  We'll have to see how it develops.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

12/7/16 Report - Shallow Water Bottom Conditions. Florida History Timeline.


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

Poor Sand Conditions In Shallow Water.

Gravel and Stones On Bottom.
The top picture shows shallow water conditions, that more often than not, isn't worth hunting.  There are exceptions of course, but generally speaking I don't like to see that kind of bottom.

Bottom conditions like those shown in the first picture were only a few yards from conditions like those shown in the second picture.

If and when you detect over a bottom like that shown in the first picture, it is better to swing your coil parallel to the drifts.

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I was able to see the night rocket launch from Cape Canaveral tonight.  One of the best I've seen. If I knew I was going to be able to see it that well, I would have taken my video camera out.

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The most recently completed Sedwick treasure auction realized over $2.25 million. You can now consign items for the Treasure and World Coin Auction #21, which will be held on May 3 and 4 of 2017. You can do that in a variety of ways.

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Here is a nice web site that gives a concise timeline of Florida history from prehistoric times up to the 21st Century.

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We'll have a small surf until this weekend when it is supposed to increase up to something like 3 - 5 feet.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net