Pensacola wreck

[mad4wrecks]

I found this interesting posting on another shipwreck forum and thought I would post it here. One of the people that answered the post actually suggested they place it on TreasureNet to ID their artifacts, but I don't think they ever did. From 7/15/06:

I have come across a publicly undisclosed shipwreck in Pensacola Bay, FL and I retrieved two items that I feel may help me to at least date the find. Each of the items appear to be solid bronze - a 9-inch spike and what appears to be a 24" long X 2" supporting rod.

My question is, does anyone know of a good website that can help give me a clue as to the period of these items based on their design?

The entire outline of the ship barely pokes out of the sand by a foot and it appears to have been burned to the water line. Also, there is strong evidence that at least another 8-10 feet of the hull remains buried in the sand. The hull is approximately 135 feet in length and 32 feet maximum beam. The exposed timbers are showing a tremendous amount of shipworm activity but when I dig down into the sand, the timbers are in near pristine condition. There are large fragments of copper sheathing all over the place that have at least 100 years of oyster and barnacle growth on them. There are also many, many large and small flints as well as "fitted" balast stone blocks. There are two mast stumps that are visible towards the deeper portion of the wreck.

Oh, did I mention that this entire wreck is located only 50 yards from shore in 6 feet of water? It is interesting to note that this portion of the bay has historically and is currently very industrialized in nature. The location of this wreck appears to be nestled in small pocket of waterfront that has never been developed or dredged. Water clarity in this area is generally poor and the wreck can only been seen above water if you are practically on top of it.

Ok...yes I am very excited about this but I don't really know what I'm dealing with yet. I have no intention of looting this wreck.

Pcolaboy

 

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[Subzerodiver]

Man that is awesome. Good Luck...

 

[pcolaboy]

Hey that's me!!!

Thanks for taking the time to post this for me. I finally got registered on here.

I've obtained a bit more information from this wreck since that posting. According to a marine archaeologist in our area, they believe this wreck is that of a schooner that sank (one of dozens) during a severe hurricane in 1906. However, the only 'science' that they have utilized to date the wreck is from the findings of bottles in the sand. What a joke.

Why would there be an enormous amount of hand sized flints on a merchant vessel from the turn of the century? There are several photographs of shipwrecks along the Pensacola Bay waterfront. A few of these photographs do show the area where this wreck lies but in the picture, there is no shipwreck near that spot.

As soon as I get my digital camera replaced, I will be posting some photos of my finds.

Pcolaboy

 

[fldiver]

Those flints you're finding might actually be ballast stones. They can tell you a lot about a ship in conjunction with other information, and the bottles are very valuable for not only dating the wreck but also verifying a wreck when compared with ship manifests. All information is helpful, you just gotta know how to use it. If you can get some pics up there are some good folks here to help you out.

 

[pcolaboy]

Those flints you're finding might actually be ballast stones. They can tell you a lot about a ship in conjunction with other information, and the bottles are very valuable for not only dating the wreck but also verifying a wreck when compared with ship manifests. All information is helpful, you just gotta know how to use it. If you can get some pics up there are some good folks here to help you out.

I would normally agree with flints being used as ballast, but I've never seen ballast smaller than a baseball and these were all gathered in one place far away from the ballast pile. It was as if there used to be some sort of container for these flints all of which are about 3-4" long , 1/2" thick in an oval shape. Some of them appear to have strike marks on them and one even appears to have a groove worn into it.

Speaking of ballast stones, we have several areas where the old sailing ships used to take on or dump ballast when they were in port. This has always been an interesting dive following storms since alot of antique garbage is usually uncovered. Besides find a few old bottles, I came across a freshly uncovered ballast stone that had very little encrustation on it and had a peculiar texture. Upon returning home, I took a small chisel and hammer to chip off a piece of it to try and identify the type of stone. On the first whack of the chisel, the stone split neatly in two pieces revealing that not only was this a fine example of obsidian, but also that there is flakes of gold within the glass. VERY COOL LOOKING!

Hope to have pics very soon.

Pcolaboy