Treasure Ship- Blue Water Rose

6/9/09

The Blue Water Rose

The crew found a large quantity of artifacts this trip. They brought back 320 pieces of lead sheathing, 114 olive jar sherds, 28 barrel hoop fragments, 97 gold flakes, 10 silver coins, 1 iron tack, 1 bronze tack, 1 musket ball, 2 iron EOs, 1 blade fragment, 2 animal teeth, 2 gold flowerettes, 2 gold beads, 1 spike fragment, 1 piece of majolica, 13 EOs, 5 gold nuggets, 1 brass ring, 15 spikes, 1 iron EO, 2 possible pearls, 2 glazed ceramic pieces, 2 tacks, 1 animal bone, 2 sword handles, 1 blade fragment and they also found 561 ballast stones. Keep up the hard work guys!

Silver Platter and Other Artifacts Found on Atocha Site

June 5,2009Captain Andy and the crew of the Magruder just brought in a large silver serving platter which is 14 inches in diameter and its pre-conservation weight is 5.5 lbs. It is fully encrusted so we are very eager to begin the conservation process and determine whether it is silver gilt like the other one and if there are any discriptive markings that may lead us to discovering who owned the platter. They also found over 414 musket balls, 1 split shot musket ball, 2 lead bottle tops one with threads and one with a ring, 31 pottery sherds, 2 large spikes, 10 small spikes, 1 piece of lead sheathing and 11 Encrusted objects. The guys have been working what has been dubbed the Carpenter's Trail due to all of the carpenter's tools that were found on this branch of the trail. It is an entirely different area than where the Dare crew recently found their silver-gilt platter which is exciting because we have two areas of the trail that are very promising and are producing very impressive artifacts. They reluctantly came back into port today to replenish their provisions and fuel and will head back to the site on Monday, weather permitting. This summer is going to be exciting, welcome to Treasure Hunting Season, Today's the Day!

Did You Know?

Spanish silver coins are referred to as “pieces of eight” and were measured in reales. Their denominations are 8 reales, 4 reales, 2 reales, 1 real, ½ real and ¼ real. An 8 reales silver coin was roughly equivalent to one month’s pay for a sailor in the 1600’s.

Denominations of the 1600's coins were based on the “Onza” or avoirdupois ounce equaling 28 grams. Each denomination was to equal one-half of the next higher denomination. Due to the crude hand-struck minting process, no two coins look alike.

Gold coins were measured in escudos and were referred to as “doubloons”. The term dubloon originally came from the word “double” for a two escudo coin. Two pieces of eight (silver) equaled a one-escudo coin or a sixteen-to-one ration between gold and silver bullion. Gold coin denominations are 8 escudo, 4 escudo, 2 escudo and 1 escudo.

Treasure Hunting

I have worked with treasure hunters for quite a few year. You may own a metal detector and
sweep the sandy beaches and parks on the weekend. Or maybe dive a Spanish Galleon.
Treasure hunting is becoming one of the favorite pass times.
Looking for a piece of history or looking for expensive jewelry; you have to get out there and have a good time.
When you find a old coin and can't quite make out all the markings. Ahh; now you have to do research to answer the question; Is it valuable?

My name is Skip Voss and I would like to hear from you.