2/5/25 Report - Treasure Hunter Still in Jail Over Missing Gold. Bathtub Beach Resilience Program. Useful Web Sites and A Few Problems.

 

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

Tommy Thompson with Gold Coin from S. S. Republic.

Treasure hunter jailed for refusing to turn over gold coins scores legal win.
Tommy Thompson's case dates to his discovery of the S.S. Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, in 1988.

A former deep-sea treasure hunter who has served nearly a decade in jail for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of missing gold coins has had that term ended by a federal judge in Ohio, but he will remain behind bars for now...

Thompson has been held in contempt of court since Dec. 15, 2015, and also incurred a daily fine of $1,000. In his ruling, Marbley assessed Thompson's total civil contempt fine at $3,335,000.

Thompson's case, dates to his discovery of the S.S. Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, in 1988. The ship sand in December 1857 along with 425 passengers and crewmembers and 30,000 pounds of federal gold from the new San Francisco Mint to create a reserve for banks in the eastern U.S. The ship was located by Thompson and his team more than 7,000 feet below the...

Here is the link to that story.

 https://apple.news/ApaHFj_tWSf-KihuuyceUMg

Thanks to DJ for the lead.

---

I found a website about the MacArthur Blvd. Resilience project.  The web site shows the elevations of the dunes, parking lot and highway (above) and then the elevations and other changes after the project (below). 

You can also see the water height during calm conditions and during a big storm.  

The project involves increasing the elevation of the highway as well as a seawall buried under the dunes.

Very good web site.

Here is the link about the project.

MacArthur Boulevard Resilience Project | Martin County Florida

The site that actually led me to the above site is the Bathtub Beach web site (link below)  

That site provides a the following timeline.

If it is too small to read, you can go use the following link to visity the site.

Bathtub Beach | Martin County Florida

Bathtub Beach is open again.  That caused me some confusion because on the site above there is a notice saying the parking lot is closed.  Maybe they missed updating that part of the site, but Mark G. sent this link from a news agency saying the park is open.

Here is that link.  https://www.wptv.com/news/treasure-coast/region-martin-county/bathtub-beach-in-martin-county-back-open-after-18-month-restoration-project.

The headline of that article reads Bathtub Beach in Martin County back open after 18-month restoration project.

Thanks to Mark G. for that link.

Here is the web cam site.

Bathtub Beach Webcam

Besides the web cam view, that site has a lot of other useful information.

===

I recently discussed talked AI as a useful research tool.  I used Copilot and ChatGPT as examples of AI systems that are available to many people.

I continued to test those systems out from time to time and haven't always found them accurate. They are useful but need to be used cautiously.  I've received a few responses that were contradictory.  

In another case, the system was just factually wrong, and in others, the AI system just didn't find the answer even though I thought it should have been able to easily answer the question.

The point is that you can't just assume that the response you get is correct even though the systems do in many cases come up with a good answer.

Another problem I keep running into is the lack of dates on web sites.  Since the internet is constantly changing, it is often important to know when something was posted.  You will find things that are contradictory and be left wondering which is right.  For example, I looked one beach web cam and saw a pretty picture of a beautiful beach and blue sky.  The trouble is that it was in the middle of the night, but I found nothing obvious that told me when the image was captured.

In another case, I saw a notice on a site that I would presume is correct and up to date, but the notice conflicted with other news reports.  The notice had no date on it, so I presume it was an old notice that was not updated in a timely fashion.  When publishing stuff on the internet, no matter if it is a authoritative site of a hobby blog, publication dates can be very helpful if not necessary for correct interpretation.

Things get published or posted on the internet and can remain for a long time. It can be important to know when it was published.

One problem I have with my older posts is that some of the links no longer work.  In many cases that is because the original site has deleted.  That is an inconvenience you will run into particularly when browsing older posts.

---

Source: Surfguru.com.

It is beautiful weather to be out metal detecting.  You don't have to stick to the ocean beaches.  There are alternatives.  It is good to explore new areas and detecting sites occasionally, especially when your old standbys don't seem to be producing anymore.

I've had a lot of good hunts at swimming holes and inland beaches and waterways.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net