G.I.B.
Gold Member
- Feb 23, 2007
- 7,187
- 8,537
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- CTX 3030 / GTI 2500 / Infinium LS / Tesoro Sand Shark / 1 Garrett Pro-pointer / 1 Carrot / Vibra Probe 580 (out on loan) / Lesche M85 / Mark1 MOD1 EyeBall
- Primary Interest:
- Other
Seven weeks in a Honduran prison: The untold story of the 'Aqua Quest'
Tampa Bay Times Article
Click the above link for the full story.
In part:
On May 1, as he prepared to leave for a long boat trip, Robert Mayne took a last look around the living room of his house in Tarpon Springs. It's where he keeps mementos from his recent shipwreck diving expeditions.
There's a fist-sized chunk of copper ore, cargo from a ship that sank in a 1924 hurricane off North Carolina. There's a lead ingot from a World War II munitions freighter that was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Virginia. Hardly as flashy as millions in gold and silver, but finds such as these have sustained Mayne over decades in the salvage business.
Mayne walked out of his house and drove a couple of minutes to the Aqua Quest, his 65-foot boat. A blunt-prowed trawler, it gets docked at the seldom-seen industrial west end of Tarpon's touristy Sponge Docks district.
Summer, when the seas are calmer, is the high season for outfits like Mayne's. Using historical records, magnetometers and luck, boats like the Aqua Quest hunt up and down the East Coast hoping to strike it rich.
"We don't like the term 'treasure hunters.' We call ourselves a marine archaeology recovery company," said Mayne, 60.
Tampa Bay Times Article
Click the above link for the full story.
In part:
On May 1, as he prepared to leave for a long boat trip, Robert Mayne took a last look around the living room of his house in Tarpon Springs. It's where he keeps mementos from his recent shipwreck diving expeditions.
There's a fist-sized chunk of copper ore, cargo from a ship that sank in a 1924 hurricane off North Carolina. There's a lead ingot from a World War II munitions freighter that was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Virginia. Hardly as flashy as millions in gold and silver, but finds such as these have sustained Mayne over decades in the salvage business.
Mayne walked out of his house and drove a couple of minutes to the Aqua Quest, his 65-foot boat. A blunt-prowed trawler, it gets docked at the seldom-seen industrial west end of Tarpon's touristy Sponge Docks district.
Summer, when the seas are calmer, is the high season for outfits like Mayne's. Using historical records, magnetometers and luck, boats like the Aqua Quest hunt up and down the East Coast hoping to strike it rich.
"We don't like the term 'treasure hunters.' We call ourselves a marine archaeology recovery company," said Mayne, 60.
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