Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
There were treasure hunters long before there were metal detectors.
By the 1540s Indians along the coast of Florida, where many of the Spanish treasure ships wrecked, were diving on the wrecks and recovering significant amounts of gold and silver. By that time the Spanish had been using first Indians (the Lucayans from the Bahamas were particularly prized for the task) and then Africans to dive for pearls around the islands near present-day Venezuela. The Spanish began using these divers to recover treasure from shipwrecks. The Spanish kept salvage ships with crews of African divers on-call in major ports around the Caribbean, ready to sail as soon as word of a wreck was received. In the course of the 16th through the 18th centuries the Spanish recovered more than 100,000,000 pesos worth of treasure by such means. Spanish salvage efforts had varying success. Although the Spanish carried out salvage operations on the wrecks of the 1715 Treasure Fleet for four years, they recovered less than half of the treasure recorded as sent on the fleet. On the other hand, the Spanish recovered more treasure from the 1733 treasure fleet than had been officially registered on it.
... Later in the 17th century the center for English "wracking" in the Caribbean shifted to Port Royal in Jamaica, William Phips went there to recruit the divers he used to salvage treasure from a Spanish wreck on the north shore of Hispaniola where he recovered the largest amount of treasure from a single wreck before the 20th century. (Wrecking (shipwreck) - Wikipedia)
For me, the best treasure story that I ever read was written in the 1840s - again, long before metal detectors were invented. I'm talking about Edgar Allen Poe's The Gold Bug, which I' highly recommend as a good read, especially for detectorists and treasure hunters. Not only does it involve seeking and finding treasure, but it also teaches the basics of solving simple substitution codes. During the 1840s there was a lot of interest in secret writing and codes. Poe capitalized on that.
But what kinds of tools were being used in the days before metal detectors?
They might be more elaborate than you would think. In 1716 Edmond Halley of the Royal Society published notes and experiments on methods of furnishing air for people working underwater.
Here is a picture of a very early diving bell.
You might find Halley's thoughts interesting.
Here is a link if you want to read it.
I did an old post showing some of the salvage techniques used in earlier centuries. Here is that link.
As interesting as the history is, that isn't where I was going with all of this. I want you to think about alternative methods and tools that you can use today to find things that you might not find with a metal detector alone. I think I'll just list some ideas today and follow up with more details some other time.
Of course you might visually survey large areas. You can do that more quickly than metal detect the same amount of area. Look for clues to previous activity and evaluate how the area has been changing. Where has it been eroding or developing in the recent past, over the years and over the centuries. Look for clues such as broken glass or bricks or other items that will remain close ot the surface. Develop your eye-balling skills.
You might dig test holes, or trench an area. That shouldn't be done randomly. Systematic sampling can be used very effectively in some cases.
Sifting is a great technique when you don't want to miss anything. If you didn't read it or don't remember it, check out this old post.
There are a variety of types of sifters. Sifters are used a lot on the Peace River. here are beach sifters, such as the Merkitch sifter, and others.
We know about dredging, mailboxes, airlifting and other water hunting techniques. With the new battery powered tools, some of those techniques can be made smaller, modified, and made more portable, as well as more quiet. I'll talk more about that sometime.
The basic idea of grappling hooks can also be used on a smaller scale. Towards the end of last year I developed a technique for finding bottles submerged in shallow sand. It worked well sometimes when conditions didn't look promising at all. I was able to find bottles that I would definitely miss by just doing a visual hunt. I'll probably talk more about that in the near future. I've been working to refine that technique.
Of course, you know about magnet fishing. Magnets can be used in a variety of ways. A yard magnet can help. I've written about using those for site preparation on some types of sites.
You might want to find items other than metallic items. Some of my all-time favorite finds are not made of metal, such as the wax seal imprint found on one of the 1715 Fleet beaches. It would have been very easy to miss. Think of gems, (I recently mentioned using an ultraviolet light to help find some gems.) bottles, fossils, wood, paper money, etc. etc. There are techniques that will help with all of those things.
As you probably know, emeralds are dredged and sifted on the Atocha site.
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| Source: 2.2-Carat Emerald Found in Wreck of Ship Sunk in Hurricane off Florida Coast | The Weather Channel My main point today is that you can find a lot of good finds in addition to your metal detector finds. Many of those other techniques can be used while you are metal detecting, and some can be used alone. |
So antifa is surfacing again. Before the last presidential election, they had too disappear because of the backlash. They also had to disappear, or disguise themselves, so the "violent" perception and label could be pinned on the conservative protest. Now that is over, so they are starting to reappear again.
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The surf is not big today, but the tides are pretty big today.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net