3/2/25 Report - 1715 Fleet Finds From the 2024 Salvage Season. Flintlock, Coins, Crate, Keys, Jug. LIDAR. Wedgewood Teapot Find.

 

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

Encrusted Flintlock Found by Captain Perna
and the Crew of the Mighty Mo During 2024 Salvage Season.
Source: Virgin Islands Free Press.  See link below.

A cocked flintlock, 200 encrusted silver coins, a pair of brass keys, and part of a wooden box were found during the 2024 1715 Fleet salvage season by Captain Perna and the crew of the Mighty Mo.

Among the latest finds over the summer: 200 silver coins, a flintlock, an unusual tan vase and a mysterious set of bronze keys, according to a news release from 1715 Fleet – Queens Jewels LLC.

Even more startling, Captain Mike Perna and shipmates Milan Kalelkar and Levin Shavers found “the remains of a wooden box that has been submerged in the ocean for over 300 years.”

The artifacts were recovered along a mile-long “trail of shipwreck scatter” created when as many as a dozen treasure ships spilled their cargo...

Vase Found During 2024 Salvage Season
Along with Coins and Other Items.
Photo by Mike Perna as
published in the Virgin Islands Free Press (See link below).

Here is the link for the rest of that article.

A cocked flintlock and 200 silver coins found on 1715 shipwreck off Florida – Virgin Islands Free Press

And here is a link on the same finds.

https://1715fleetsociety.com/march-2025-treasure-of-the-month/

Thanks to DJ for the lead on that story and the lead.

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LiDAR is one of my favorite tools as an archeologist (said Nolan Johnson, Nebraska State Historical Society archaeologist).  What is LiDAR you may ask? LiDAR stands for “Light Detection and Ranging” and is essentially lasers from space, an airplane, or an earthbound scanner. In a nutshell, lasers are bounced off of the ground surface back to a fixed receiver, creating detailed elevation maps. So many individual data points are collected that LiDAR can see through and around vegetation, which is what makes it so valuable to archeologists.

He then gives some examples, such as the one below.

.Here is the link for more from that post.

https://history.nebraska.gov/an-archeologists-favorite-tool-lidar/

Thanks to DJ for that link.

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I found this Wedgewood teapot some time ago and had it sitting around for a while.  I hadn't done the research, but being Wedgewood, thought it might be good.  It has a broken spout, so I really didn't think much of it, but found in in an area where I thought it could be pretty old.  I just got around to looking into it.

Found Wedgewood Teapot.

The marks on the bottom are small and were covered with dirt.  I cleaned it off a little and could see the marks "WEDGEWOOD" and "MADE IN ENGLAND."   That is convenient, but not surprising.

Bottom of Wedgewood Teapot.

 

But when I looked at the enlarged photo, I noticed another mark (near the left edge on the bottom).  Upon inspection, I'm pretty sure it says 1954.

That isn't as old as I expected, but I now think that is the date.

That is another example of how closeup photography and enlarged images can help you spot information that otherwise might be missed.

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Source: SurfGuru.com.

Nothing exciting there.

The best thing, as far as I'm concerned, is the higher PM tides.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net