The Baltic.......

[SADS 669]

Great video, we should all be so lucky to find even one piece described in the video.....

 

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[old man]

Nice video. Thanks.

 

[TheRingFinder]

Thanks SADS - Very interesting.

 

[aquanut]

Fantastic! Go find one Kevin!

 

[Mackaydon]

Parts of that video were taken during the discovery and original salvage ops, and other parts of the video were taken long after the original discovery. There is a long story and a short story. The short story is while my boat, the 'R/V Explorer' was in Nassau, we were approached by Nick who thought he had a wreck site. We decided to investigate after making a deal with Nick and Geo. Mosko (who assisted us with the permit). Upon arriving at Nick's site, only part of one of the masts (as shown in the video) was visible.
No one had any knowledge of the name of the vessel until I found floating in the water column a single board with the words "Brig Baltic, Galveston". It took me some time in the archives of Nassau to find an article from an insurance company stating that the 'Brig Baltic', bound from NYC to Galveston, TX had been lost exactly where we found it. I had correspondence with the insurance company and even sent them a cup and saucer in return for additional information which they provided (owner, insured value, etc.) The treasure was divided between Mosko, Nick and my group. When we believed we had totally salvaged the vessel (but still leaving hundreds of empty beer bottles in the hull), we sanded the vessel back in with the blowers from the "Explorer". Most of that video was taken, perhaps, years later. How I focused in on the date of the vessel is another story--but I did date the wreck (before the archive visit) to within one year of the sinking by finding a box top for fresh herring --with at date stamp.
PS: That's me in the blue trunks at the 5:12 mark,with part of my crew during the original opening of the site.
Great memories.......thanks for the video, SADS

Don......

 

[SADS 669]

Let's do it again with another one??

 

[Mackaydon]

SADS,
Sometimes I wish I still had the R/V Explorer, but as soon as I think of the cost to maintain that vessel, I change my mind.
Don....

 

[SADS 669]

BOAT......bring out another thousand......I know how that works.....

Are you going to the cookout?

 

[Salvor6]

Don where is the R/V Explorer now?

 

[Mackaydon]

Salvor6,
Last I heard she was moored on Florida's west coast getting a retrofit for vacation divers. If you are serious regarding her whereabouts today, I can put you on to the last owner I'm aware of; just request a PM.
Don.

 

[Blak bart]

Great video, we should all be so lucky to find even one piece described in the video.....

Hey sads I just found your thread on the baltic and have a good story to add to it.sorry to bring such an old post back to the top but I had to comment. About the same time you posted the video of mr. Maillis I was rediscovering this wreck. I hadent joined the t-net yet so I was not using it to research the baltic. I found information through other sources including project elutherea. I wanted to find the wreck because it sounded like an easy snorkel for my bosses kids. After finding most of the research that our esteemed colleague mr mackey had done, and with help from some of the locals on spanish wells I had narrowed my search. IT took me 4 days of looking by kyayk with a glass bottom bucket but i finally found the old girl. She sits much like she looked in the video, fully intact and sanded in. Its a great snorkel and a nice picnic on the beach afterword.i didnt know it would be so close to the beach and missed it several times looking to deep. IT was exposed quite a bit when I first rediscovered her. she had a complete outine showing and all the bulwarks were exposed along with heavy bow timbers and mast stumps showing. Much of the steering components were fused together in the stern in a large conglomerate. The rage was in full effect when I first arrived with 15 foot waves breaking across the devils backbone. This must have been what uncovered her. SHe slowly sanded back in and was almost completely covered when I went back in august. Strangly the locals had forgotten its exact location and could not point it out to me.i had great success finding wrecks over there this year including 2 mystery wrecks. ONe was a flattend ballast mound on the inside of the backbone in the sand and the other was much like the baltic with ribs sticking out of the sand about 2 miles north of ridley head. I also found what project elutherea calls the man o war wreck. ITs very intersting. Large ballast mound fused together and very old. Much confusion about this one with no one really certain about its origin. I detected the beach adjacent the baltic and dug a lot of stuff. Pottery shards , iron, bronze, and copper fasteners and nails some cargo hooks and lots of glass and sail grommets.here is a pic of some of the stuff.
One of the first things I did when I joined the net was to ask mr mackey if he was indeed the same person that salvaged the old girl. HE gave me all the same info you have posted in your thread including the video. Thanks again don my bosses kids enjoyed the story alot and I was tipped nicely for the adventure. Its a great video that everyone should see.!!