Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
2020 started off as a good year for beach hunting. A good number of reales were found on Treasure Coast beaches January through March, and then came the beach closures.
Now the 2020 salvage season has begun. The calm surf allowed an early start to the salvage season and at least one eight-reale was found off of Douglass Beach already. The 1715 Fleet find was made by Queens Jewels, Jason and Joey Gooch working on the M/V Blackwater salvage vessel.
Congratulations!
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Two Tine Fork or Skewer.
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As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to go back and look at some tableware that I found in the past and never researched much.
Here is a peculiar two-tined fork or skewer. I believe it is probably a skewer rather than a fork simply because of size and feel. It also shows very little wear, but it could have been repaired. I'll show you why I think that might be the case.
There are no maker's marks or anything like that on this one. It does not appear to be very well made. There is some obvious asymmetrical grinding on the back near the base of one tine.
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Wood Fork Handle With Wood Pins.
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The rivets are not metal. Wood pins hold the handle to the tang. I haven't seen that on any other tableware that I've found. Mostly they seem to have metal rivets.
The handle appears to be a relatively soft wood and very square - not nicely shaped for the hand.
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Poorly Fitting Tang and Handle.
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Notice how square the edges are and how poorly the tang fits into the handle.
My opinion is that the fork or skewer was either not made by a company that made tons of them or else it was repaired - maybe both.
I'd guess it is old, but don't know much of anything about this one. It lacks any identifying marks. The use of wood pins makes me think it is probably older, but it shows little wear as it is.
I don't think I'll ever find out much more about this one.
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I've found a lot of silverware over the years. Some came from the beach. Many of those were in very poor condition. A good number also came from inland sites where some were dug and some were evidently secreted. They were generally in better condition. It is very common to find silverware at home sites.
I recently started researching some of my old silverware finds. Yesterday I posted a photo of a spoon with a maker's mark I couldn't identify. Mitch King said the mark is that of the AB&Co., England. I don't have the dates on that company yet.
Thanks much Mitch!
Spoons have been around for thousands of years, but forks, which took over for knives and fingers, came later.
Forks were the last of the flatware tools to be added to this gastronomic arsenal. The early Greeks were known to use forks, and one was carried to Italy by a Greek princess in 1071. There is some disagreement about when tined instruments first appeared in inventories on the continent. Many credit Catherine de Medici with bringing them from Italy to France in 1553 upon her marriage to the future King Henry II, but gold and silver forks, used only for eating mulberries and other foods that stain the fingers, are listed in the inventory of Charles V of France (1338-1380).
Nevertheless, by the 1600s, fork usage had spread all the way to England, where a gentleman traveler by the name of George Coryat credits himself with the momentous introduction. This may have been a bit of a boast, as Queen Elizabeth I counted them in her inventory. Even so, forks were not readily adopted in England. The Church had frowned on them, ruling that they took glory from God who gave us fingers to eat with, and were seen as effeminate in many corners. However, King Charles I of England declared them “decent to use” in 1633, and the fork slowly but surely gained acceptance at the table...
You might find the following linked article on the history flatware interesting. It is the source of the above excerpt.
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Here is the title and abstract of an article about an early 18th century British West Indiaman wrecked near Soldier Key. If you know the area around Key Biscayne you'll be familiar with a lot of the history and shipwrecks in that area. Actual treasure chests were recovered from Key Biscayne, not to mention many other treasures. I spent a lot of time in that area when I lived down south.
A FINE WRECK IN SHALLOW WATER: INVESTIGATION INTO, AND CONSERVATION OF, A HEAVILY DISTURBED 18TH CENTURY BRITISH WEST INDIAMAN, THE SOLDIER KEY WRECK
Allen Donald Wilson
In the summer of 2012, a team of archaeologists excavated a known shipwreck site in the
submerged bottomlands in north Biscayne National Park. This site had been excavated
previously by John Hall, a professor from the University of Miami, in the early 1980s. Hall never
produced a report on the excavations and did not curate the artifacts recovered. The purpose of
this 2012 research was to document any remaining material culture, determine the best way to
preserve the site, and ultimately to use whatever remaining hull structure and portable artifacts
were available to determine the nationality, previous ports of call, and potentially the name of the
Allen Donald Wilson
In the summer of 2012, a team of archaeologists excavated a known shipwreck site in the
submerged bottomlands in north Biscayne National Park. This site had been excavated
previously by John Hall, a professor from the University of Miami, in the early 1980s. Hall never
produced a report on the excavations and did not curate the artifacts recovered. The purpose of
this 2012 research was to document any remaining material culture, determine the best way to
preserve the site, and ultimately to use whatever remaining hull structure and portable artifacts
were available to determine the nationality, previous ports of call, and potentially the name of the
vessel as well as how the ship came to wreck in that location.
The excavation revealed the midships to stern portion of a British West Indiaman that
dates to the early to mid 18th century. The sparse artifact assemblage suggests that the vessel
was coming from Jamaica en route to England when the ship succumbed to a hurricane.
However, a large number of ships wrecked in the region during the time period the Soldier Key
Wreck would have sailed. Unfortunately, no name could definitively be ascribed to the ship.
dates to the early to mid 18th century. The sparse artifact assemblage suggests that the vessel
was coming from Jamaica en route to England when the ship succumbed to a hurricane.
However, a large number of ships wrecked in the region during the time period the Soldier Key
Wreck would have sailed. Unfortunately, no name could definitively be ascribed to the ship.
Here is the link.
This one is in Biscayne National Park and I do not know of any treasure from the wreck being reported. Still it is an interesting read.
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The past couple of days I posted links to some very good studies. One was a major study on near-shore shipwrecks and another was on privateering. You won't want to miss those.
It looks like the surf will be building for a few days and maybe get up to five or seven feet.
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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com
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Happy Mother's Day,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net