1/11/24 Report - Land of Smokes Observed by Spanish in 1542. San Jose Holy Grail of Treasure Ships. Cleaning an Artifact.

 

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

• Above you see a photo of the San Gabriel Mountains in 1924, before there was climate change.  How could that be?  Maybe there were already arsonists like the 2 recently arrested in California.

I found an interesting article in which documents of a1542 Spanish Voyage referred to the San Pedro Bay as the 'Bay of the Smoke."

Below are a few excerpts from that articlle.

Still, the voyage -- commanded by a onetime conquistador named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo -- produced the first written observations of the Los Angeles area. They also bestowed on it one of the region's first European names: Baya de los Fumos, or Bay of the Smoke...

The smoke's origin remains a mystery. It may have been cooking fires burning in the many Tongva villages that dotted the Los Angeles coastal plain and interior valleys; in the sixteenth century, Southern California was one of the most densely populated regions in North America, and the area's inversion layer would have trapped campfire smoke then just as it traps automobile exhaust today.

Or perhaps the fleet had encountered the region during one of its now notorious Santa Ana episodes when hot winds from the east fuel violent conflagrations that turn the hills red and choke the area with smoke. If this latter scenario is correct, we find an interesting parallel in the account of the first land-based Spanish expedition through the Los Angeles area. Upon arriving at the confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco on August 2, 1769, the company of soldiers, priests, and servants endured another natural disaster that still haunts Southern California residents:..

Below is the link to that article which provides more information on early Spanish exploration of the area.

Why Did a 1542 Spanish Voyage Refer to San Pedro Bay as the 'Bay of the Smoke'? | Lost LA | Food & Discovery | PBS SoCal

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A fierce 1708 battle caused the Spanish galleon to sink—along with its $20 billion worth of gold, silver and emeralds.

For over three centuries, a Spanish galleon known as the “holy grail” of shipwrecks for its cache of spectacular treasure rested untraced at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. Then in 2014, the Colombian government announced it had found the San José under roughly 2,000 feet of water with assistance from British experts and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  By March 2024, the government announced a plan to begin lifting the treasures and what remains of the wreck from the seafloor

While the San José has become the focus of international wrangling over ownership of its cache of gold, silver and emeralds worth almost $20 billion, historians are interested to learn more about the early 18th-century battle that sunk the ship—and the 600 souls who perished on board...

Here is the link for much more about that.

How the San José Became the 'Holy Grail' of Shipwrecks | HISTORY

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Here is a YouTube video that shows the cleaning of a World War II helmet.  The cleaning process involved a lot of mechanical cleaning, scrubbing and towards the end a bit of acid.  It is not necessarily the ideal process but take a look.

Here is the link.

Witness the Transformation of a Battlefield Artifact | Watch

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And here is link to a YouTube video showing how one how one family responded to the wildfire destruction of their house and belongings.

Sachin Jose on X: "People find solace in singing 'Regina Caeli,' O Queen of Heaven, after witnessing the devastation of the fire in California. Video: Gianna Halpin https://t.co/ENfA4tCceS" / X

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Source: SurfGuru.com.

We are having a north swell, and some decent high tides.

I'd expect at least some erosion and cuts, but nothing huge.

Good hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net