Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Dredging Sand Near Normandy Beach. |
Thanks to DJ for submitting that.
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I mentioned recently about my wife finding a lot of my old research materials. A good number of the publications are from 1988 - 1990. That doesn't seem long ago, but it has been over 30 years. It feels like treasure history to me even though it really hasn't been that long ago.
In the third issue of Shipwrecks: The Magazine (1989) I found a lot of items that reminded me of my own experiences. I found, for example, a recounting of the discovery of the Jupiter wreck by lifeguard Peter Leo. People had been finding reales on the beach there years before the wreck was discovered by Leo, who spotted a cannon while on a morning swim.
One fellow I've told about before had found a lot of reales on the beach (before the discovery of the wreck) just south of the inlet, and had a jar full of reales stolen from the trunk of his parked car while he detected one day. The guy's first name was Steve, and I wonder from time to time if he is still around.
One day I stopped there and spent the afternoon digging up old coins. Steve showed up a couple hours later and vowed to me that he'd beat me to the beach the next time it eroded like that. There weren't as many people detecting that beach back then. He often had it pretty much to himself.
I remember the lifeguard watching me dig those coins. I don't know if it was Leo.
Anyhow, the article in Shipwrecks tells how Leo discovered the cannon and what he did next. Leo contacted Dominic Addario, and they contacted Mel Fisher's lawyer. Long story made short, they got custody of the wreck. Of course that is only the beginning. As of the time of the magazine article, they had found anchors, cannons, arquebuses, an 80 pound bar of silver, some gold coins and gold nuggets and more than a 1000 reales. Since then there has been a lot more. For me, reading the 30 year old article brought back some memories.
The same issue discussed other shipwrecks and treasures that might be familiar to you. For example, Ray Braum and John Durham are mentioned. Maybe you knew them.
Durham tells the story about how after a good storm he didn't go home for ten days, and, as he tells it, "did better with gold at one of the northernmost sites in less than an hour than I've done all my life." And the tine he found nine 8-escudo gold coins. He mentions crowds of people on the beach finding coins - some without a metal detector.
Some of the names mentioned are not names that are often mentioned today. I wonder what happened to those people.
There is a complete article on Herbert Humphries. You might know the name. Maybe you knew him and his copany, Marine Archaeological Recoveries, LC.
By the way, at one point MAREX, another one of Humphries companies, at one point made an agreement with Leo and Addario's JWI to finance and manage salvage of the Jupiter wreck.
That is just a small sample of what I read about in one issue of that magazine. There was more related to the Treasure Coast as well as other treasure wrecks.
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The amount of detailed information available on Hemingray No. 9 insulators is truly amazing. I posted a photo of one I found yesterday. There are numerous variations and details that provide date information. Some of the embossing was produced by hammering individual letters or numbers to the inside of the molds. That resulted in many varieties and errors, very much like you'll find on cobs.
For more information on that, here is a link.
HEMINGRAY No 9 PATENT MAY 2 1893 glass telephone insulator (glassbottlemarks.com)
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I also found a Ball mason jar and posted it recently. I found a lot of information on those kinds of jars too. Here is a little sample of what I found.
As can be readily discovered, there were many different “sets” of molds used over a period of many years, with this same series of (up to) 16 numbers used over and over again to identify the molds being used on a particular machine.
Thus, if a random sampling of these jars are studied (for instance, just looking at a selection of only those marked with a number “2” on the bottom), it may be seen that the numbers typically appears slightly different, in fact “unique” in their exact formation, from one jar to the next. It may take a while before exact duplicates are found – that is, finding two jars that were both made from one individual, specific mold.
This is one of the aspects of collecting these jars that can be fun and intriguing (or boring to some!) if you are “into” studying fine differences in these jars …. somewhat akin to the practice of collecting coins and comparing their minor “mold” or “die” variations...
Here is a link for more about that.Ball Perfect Mason antique fruit Jars ~ Basic Information & Summary (glassbottlemarks.com)
The one I recently found has a "5" mold number on the bottom.
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As you can see, there will be a little bump in the surf next week. the tides remain flat.
TreasureGudie@comcast.net