10/21/24 Report - Some Last Week Finds From the Treasure Coast. 18th Century Pirate/Scientist William Dampier

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Oriental Coin Find by John H.

John H. sent these find photos along with the following email.

I really dont have much to share after the North wind/ N swell event on wednesday night. I found two st st rings and one little piece of 14k. I expected to find more for the conditions but I guess it wasn't to be. I did find some odd things for S. Florida. A Chinese coin and a around 1986 NY subway token. Most of the people I encountered were not finding anything either. I saw at least six people metal detecting at around 10pm to 1 am. on various beaches in Jensen/ Stuart. Most of the beaches did not stay cut for even one high tide and it was over. I tried to find out some history on the coin but there is a lot of misinformation on Ebay and google lens was not much help as I don't read Chinese. My guess is that it is a very common coin, I found a lot of common zinc pennies to go along with it. Hope the rest of you did better than I, John

Token Find by John H.

Find by John H.

Thanks for sharing John.

I got word that a maravedi, reale and another 18th century item was found at Wabasso last week.

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I found a good article by Sam Kean of the Science History Institute, on a complex character that wore many hats.  William Dampier, Revered and Reviled, by Sam Kean, is the title, and the subheading is "The pirate-turned-naturalist-turned-pirate-again inspired generations of British writers and scientists."

Below are a few excerpts.

...His troubles started in June 1676, when a hurricane destroyed his logging camp and washed away his equipment—axes, saws, machetes. Loggers in that era had to provide their own tools, and Dampier had no money to buy more. So, as Dampier later wrote, “I was forced to range about to seek a subsistence.” This was a euphemism. “Ranging about” meant piracy. He joined a crew of ruffians and set sail...

Dampier and his crew spent the next several years waylaying ships and raiding settlements along Latin American coastlines. It’s not always clear what role Dampier played during these attacks. He recorded priests being stabbed, prisoners being tossed overboard, and Indigenous people being picked off with rifles or tortured for intelligence. And there is indirect evidence that he partook in at least some atrocities: once, during a fierce storm when he feared dying, Dampier looked back with “Horrour and Detestation on Actions which before I disliked, but now I trembled at the remembrance of.” He hadn’t been to confession in years, and scores of unnamed sins apparently weighed on his soul...

Every so often, Dampier’s crew made a decent score: gems, bolts of silk, a stock of cinnamon or musk. One time they seized eight tons of marmalade. More often the pirates struck out and spent the night outdoors with nothing but “the cold ground for our bedding and the spangled firmament for our covering.”...

Throughout these journeys Dampier took copious notes on everything he saw, stuffing them into bamboo tubes for safekeeping. When he finally returned to England in 1691, he began preparing a travelogue. A New Voyage Round the World appeared in 1697 and was a smash hit. Some historians even credit it with launching the entire genre of travel writing. After its publication, Dampier received an invitation to lecture at the prestigious Royal Society in London, the world’s premier scientific club. He also dined with several eminent statesmen, including diarist Samuel Pepys. The bigwigs wanted to talk natural history, of course, but some of them no doubt felt a frisson of pleasure in knowing they had a real-life pirate at their table...

Here is the link for the article, which contains much more of interest.

William Dampier, Revered and Reviled | Science History Institute

William Dampier died in March of 1715.

You can find his book A New Voyage Round the World online if you want to read that.

You can also find out more about his academic work.

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Sourcea; nhac.noaa.gov.

As you can see Oscar is still headed the other way.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

We got some pretty good surf on Sunday.  The tides are still pretty high too.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net