No experience & help needed - searching in river

[sunkentreasure]

Hello All,

A friend and I are thinking about searching for a old safe which has been in a river for about 40 years. Unfortunately, neither of us has any experience in this type of work so I will ask all to forgive questions which may be naive in nature and just help me to find my way.

The safe is not extremely large as we believe it was meant to be carried out by two men. However, it is likely much sediment was deposited as the river is in an area that was highly industrial with much waste material poured into it. I believe this also made it highly corrosive. At this point I do not know if would be completely buried beneath the sediment or not. Nor have I tried to calculate how much corrosion has taken place.

Is it possible to determine if the safe is buried beneath the bottom of the river?

If it is completely buried what instruments will be required to search? A magnetometer?

Is side scan sonar any use if this is the case?

If it is not buried or partially buried what method and instruments are needed?

Any help will be appreciated. Recommended books or articles will also be helpful.

Thank you,

ST

[Mackaydon]

ST:
Welcome to Treasure Net!!
Books are written on each subject you asked about.
Initially, I'd reaffirm the 'safe' story and its "x" marks the spot location; then do a newspaper of the day 'search' to determine if it has already been recovered.
Second, I'd inquire as to the ownership of the contents. Who might claim it if you retrieved it?
Third, I'd determine if I would be trespassing on private land to get to the closest land access point.
Don...

[cornelis 816]

All you need is a good PI metaldetector. Even if the item is burried quite deep into the mud this detector will give you the location where it is . After that just start digging ( or use a suction dredge ) . Side scan sonar is not of any use in this situation neither is a magnetometer . Cornelius

[Salvor6]

Sunkentreasure I found a safe in a river in Tennessee. I found it just by accident, visually under a bridge in the Smokey Mountains. I notified the Sheriffs Dept. but they were not interested. I announced to the newspapers that me and my buddies would raise it up the following weekend. The next Sat. we hired a wrecker with a boom crane to come over. The Sherrifs Dept, police, the local TV news reporters and newspaper reporters showed up while we retrieved the safe. They blocked the bridge off when we brought the safe up and we cracked it open. There was nothing inside but some waterlogged papers. We found out it was stolen from a rangers station 20 years ago. I suggest you use a mag since all safes are made from steel. You can locate it from a long distance with a mag. Pinpoint the safe with a pulse induction metal detector.

[GOHO]

My advice is to use a magnetometer to map your area of interest. Then once that survey is completed you will have the locations of all the iron objects on the bottom. Then start eliminating the anomalies one by one with your metal detector.... No Matter how much metal is lying on the bottom it always helps to know where it all is!!!! Without a mag survey you are blind to where your iron objects are...

Good Luck!!!

[Eric Willoughby]

I have a deep seeking 2 box detector and a dredge. I sent you a Private Message, lets go get it.

[JT]

Not all rivers are created equal. Some may have a bottom that's hard sand, clay, or marl...others may have a bottom that's covered in a thick layer of mayonnaise-like mud. Bad (zero) visibility may reduce you to crawling on the bottom and literally feeling your way around.

You mentioned that the safe may be in a highly industrialized stretch of the river. There's likely steel, cables and debris all on the bottom...that may make detecting or using a mag almost impossible.

You have your work cut out for you...

[FISHEYE]

Safes are made out of sheet metal and filled with concrete with no re bar or reinforcement inside the concrete.The door will be the thickest metal along with the latch and lever handle to open it.If the metal hasnt totally rusted away a mag will find it.Most old safes were not water tight,coins and bullion will be ok,but paper documents and paper money will be like goo.

[bigscoop]

Rivers are usually defined/classed as being either "a navigable waterway" or "none navigable waterway"...and there are different state laws governing what you can and cannot do on each. Add to this that some rivers and/or sections are even protected under federal law. Given this, the first thing you need to investigate is how your chosen river is defined/classed under state and Federal laws and if your activities can be legally conducted at all? What you chose to do after acquiring this information is up to you but you certainly need to have this knowledge so you can weigh the possible risk beforehand because the courts will automatically assume that you had the opportunity to make yourself aware of these laws, restrictions, policies, etc., before you acted. Good luck in your adventure, and just be smart about how you proceed.

[diggerww]

Figure out how much you think the equipment will cost, the cost of being onsite over the water, the cost of food and expenses for the search.

Take this money an put it in a CD at your local bank.

Even at 0% interest, you will be far ahead...

[LM]

Figure out how much you think the equipment will cost, the cost of being onsite over the water, the cost of food and expenses for the search.

Take this money an put it in a CD at your local bank.

Even at 0% interest, you will be far ahead...

.. with the forever-nagging question in the back of your mind of what might have been, if you just had the courage to go and do it.

No sir. I say take the risk. There is no fun in bank CDs. The story told by Salvor6- about the safe in the TN river- was worth whatever expenses were incurred...

When we're lying on our deathbeds appraising the lives we've lived, none of us will recount those times when we prudently socked away our money and took the 'safe course of action' but we would all remember that time when we cut loose and went to look for a sunken safe.

[sunkentreasure]

A quick thank you all for moving me forward with much greater rapidity than I was achieving on my own. I will have more questions but this is a great start and you are making me feel much more hopeful. I should have a much better description of the area that will need to be searched in time so that I may be more specific in my questions.

We realize that there is a great chance that nothing of value will be found but that is not our primary motivation. Thank you so much for the legal/rights advice as I had been wondering about some of this.

I am often away from the internet so sorry for the slow reply.

ST

[JackInFlorida]

Take this money an put it in a CD at your local bank.

WOW, this sounds like fun. I'm going to sell all my equipment and just sit on the couch eating bon bons.

If you're into this so that you can get a set of books to balance, you might consider a different hobby.