Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
In the still waters of Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, the long-lost bones of a ship lie buried in silt. For centuries, the wreck had no name. Now, after 25 years of international detective work above and below the waves, Australian maritime archaeologists are confident they’ve found one of the most storied vessels in history: HM Bark Endeavour, the ship that carried James Cook to the Pacific, New Zealand, and the eastern coast of Australia...
The Endeavour’s days of exploration were short-lived. Renamed Lord Sandwich, the ship was later used by the British during the American War of Independence. In 1778, it was deliberately sunk — one of 13 vessels scuttled in Newport Harbor in an attempt to block the advancing French fleet...
Here is the link for the rest of that article.
Captain Cook’s Famous Shipwreck Finally Found After 25-Year Search in Rhode Island
Many happy returns. You've heard that greeting, but maybe not in regard to metal detecting.
Detectorists return a lot of lost items - rings being among the most common.
Unfortunately, it often isn't easy to find the rightful owner, and it was even more difficult in the days before the internet, which is when the items in the find photos I recently posted were found.
It can be especially difficult to return items found on Florida's resort beaches. Those items were lost by people from other states and countries, and there stay in the area is often only a short vacation.
In my experience, it was much easier to find and return items when the owner was still at the location of the loss. I'd be metal detecting and see people obviously seeking something they just lost. That was the best case for finding a lost item. In some cases, they had barely moved from the spot or were still in the process of searching for the recently lost item.
I can't count all the times I was metal detecting and noticed someone frantically searching for something. That kind of situation provides a lot of hope for a successful recovery, but even then, the item isn't always found.
I can easily remember many of those cases. For example, I clearly remember a couple young girls standing in waist deep water. They said they lost their older sister's class ring, which they weren't supposed to have and they expected to be in big trouble. Thankfully they had barely moved from the spot and ot was a quick and easy find. It was within a few feet of where they were standing.
I clearly remember the emerald ring lost by a young lady not long before I arrived. Kids were flapping around in the shallow water searching for something. They told me what was lost. I cleared them away and I found the ring in short order. It was one of the few cases when I actually received a reward. After handing the ring over to the lady and proceeding on my way, the young lady ran up to her belongings and back down and quickly stuffed a twenty in my shirt pocket and ran off again.
It is surprising how often I would spend my time hunting a lost item for someone and then hand it over to them and not receive as much as a thank you. That happened more often than an offer of a reward.
There were a couple guys searching for a gold chain. One of them had just done a hand stand in the water and his chain slipped over his neck. What would you expect? Anyhow that was another quick recovery.
And there was an expensive engagement ring that I found. They were still there and had a good idea of where the ring was lost. That was another one that resulted in not only no reward but also no thank you. I wonder about people sometimes.
I was pretty experienced by that time. I outlined the search area in the sand and told everyone to stay outside the lines. That way I could run a tight grid without people getting in the way.
You have to be careful though. You will sometimes find nice items other than what was reported lost, And here is the shocker - people will try to claim items other than the one they lost. That happened to me on multiple occasions. That is why you mist have a good description of the item before conducting the hunt. Make sure to get specifics, including inscriptions or anything that will positively identify the lost item. Which brings up another purpose for outlining the area and ensuring that everyone is outside the boundary. It gives you space and time to inspect the item before someone claims or grabs it. Just because you are doing a good deed doesn't mean everyone else has good motives.
I've had people tell me they lost something and hoped I would hunt and find something they could claim. That is why you need a specific description and know how to tell if someone is trying to take advantage of you.
Of course, there are also those who playfully say they just lost something in order to get a reaction or start a conversation.
I can't count the many times I returned lost items, but the chances of a successful recovery are dramatically better when it is a very recent loss and the owner is still on the spot. But sometimes they are on the wrong spot. They don't always know when the item came off, how far it flew, or how far the last wave moved the item or moved them off the spot. People are sometimes way off on where they think the item is, especially when the item was lost in the water and especially on a rough water day. Big waves make gridding nearly impossible, which is one reason I developed my spirals search pattern.
There are many happy returns, but not enough.
Many items I've found were lost years or decades, or even centuries ago. That is especially true because I hunt don't hunt recent drops in dry sand very often. I rather search for spots where things have accumulated over time and then recently became available as the result of erosion. When you find items that were lost decades ago, finding owner, if they are still alive, can be difficult. Many lost items provide no clues. And many of the items were lost by tourists that had a short stay and returned to distant states or countries.
If you find an inscription on an item like 25/3/1998, you might wonder what is wrong with the date, but many countries, unlike the United States, put the day before the month. That is true of South and Central America (except Belize), Mexico, Africa, Oceania, much of Asia and most of Europe.
In more recent years I avoided crowds and hunted mostly very early, late or on bad weather days.
The find photos I've been showing lately were made decades ago and before the internet was available. You would go through the necessary steps and list the item in a lost and found and almost never find the owner. And some of my finds came from my own travels and metal detecting in the Caribbean or other countries or states. In more recent years, the internet has helped connect more owners with lost items, but still there are too few happy returns.
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Here is a link to information about the $16 million Jupiter lighthouse shoreline project.