Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Shipwreck Spike in Wood. Find and photo by Bill T. |
Along with the two spike photos, Bill T. sent the following message.
I noticed on your 6-29-22 report you mentioned that very often spikes would be countersunk. The head would then be covered with a substance like tar that maybe would protect the spike from water and corrosion. Well it just so happens I found a small example of that some time ago. It was in the mid 1980's, way before I was into metal detecting. My thing back then was fossil hunting. I was mostly interested in shark teeth. I learned from a dredge employee that there had been recent dredging at the Savanna river and also Fernandina beach and St. Augustine beach. So I decided to do a weekend trip to all three. I found a few shark teeth at Savanna river and Fernandina beach, but nothing special. So on the way home I stopped by St. Augustine. After a good walk down the beach, I had a handful of small shark teeth. On the way back, I noticed a small piece of weathered wood with a square spike hanging out of it. It was the coolest thing I had found the whole weekend. In my hand was a lot of history in a small package. I'm guessing it's a piece of hull planking, maybe 4" thick. You can see that the spike had stretched and then broke about halfway along the shank. On the other side was the tar-like substance you wrote about covering the countersunk head of the spike, and lastly teredo worms had left their mark on the piece. I appreciate the find more now than I did back then, I know now how hard it is to find shipwreck spikes, especially a spike with so much history attached to it.
Bill T.
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| Covered Countersunk Spike In Wood. Find and photo by Bill T. |
As I've said before, when you learn more about a find, you appreciate it more. It isn't just about finding an object. It is more about thinking, learning and expanding your world from the inside out, then giving that to others.
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There was a child's playhouse on the Indian River Lagoon. It was a pretty big playhouse, being about five feet tall and six feet long and wide. It was heavy, had windows and a hinged door. It is made of a very heavy-duty composite plastic or fiberglass or something. It stood beside the river for years, but the hurricanes of 2004 blew it apart, and two walls ended up in the water several hundred yards north. That was about eighteen years ago.
One solid wall was removed from the water, and the other wall remained in the water for nearly two decades now. It has not deteriorated, other than now having some shells attached. The wall that remained in the water, did not move more than a few feet over the eighteen or so years, if at all.
There have been hurricanes and storms and a lot of tides and rough surf on the lagoon in the past eighteen or so years, yet the wall remains barely moved since 2004. I check its position every once in a while.
So what is the point?
It is another example of the power and effect of infrequent extreme conditions. In this case, conditions adequate to move that object significantly, occured only once in the last twenty years or more.
Most old beach treasures are found on just a few exceptional days. The Thanksgiving storm of 1984 is still talked about. That is one of those examples.
I have described how sand and other objects move on the beach. I talked about that a lot in the past, but not much lately. I also talked about objects like coins washing out and coins washing up onto the beach. I've provided examples, illustrations and explanations of how the amount of force of moving water required to move different kinds of objects, such as sand, clay, pebbles, and coins, differs for each type of object. I've described how the density of the object and the shape and other factors determine how the objects are moved by water, and the five different ways that coins move on a beach. The one thing that I have not personally been able to observe so well, is coins washing up onto the beach, which I now believe, and have believed for some years, occurs primarily during some pretty infrequently occurring conditions. During those conditions or crashing big waves and surf, make it very difficult or nearly impossible to observe the movement of those coins. Furthermore, I believe there are fairly rare preconditions, and after the movement of the coins, they can be quickly covered so that the immediate results of the process can be concealed.
Despite the difficulty of studying the movement of coins during unusually rough surf and beach conditions, I am convinced that the movement of the playhouse wall provides a fairly good picture of how old treasure coins are moved infrequently. I believe old treasure coins wash up in greatest numbers during fairly extreme and rare conditions, occasionally to remain in place for a while, unless conditions change and they are washed out once again, picked up the lucky detectorists, or covered up once again, only to be found some day in the future when they are once again uncovered by the forces of man or nature.
The playhouse wall is big enough to be easily observed and I monitored its location and movement for the last twenty or more years in a way that I could not monitor the movement of small objects such as coins. Certainly, the wall does not move exactly like the coins, but the underlying basic principles remain the same.
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Nothing of signficance on the National Hurricane Center map now.
We are having some nice low tides that you might be able to take advanatage of. The surf is running something like two feet.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net