As WaveJunky said, probably no time to remove cannon (time consuming and not an easy task). With the approach of the French in 1779, I doubt the British had much time to provide a blockade and likely made a quick decision to sink some vessels leaving no time to remove heavy cannon.
Both the Americans and the British purposely sunk some of their vessels to prevent the enemy from attacking during the Revolutionary War. Have an article about it on my website. Link is: https://www.anchorexplorations.com/revolutionary-war-shipwrecks-in-the
Jack Pennell found the Spanish cannon after a storm cut the beach in Boca and then donated it to the city and now at Gumbo Limbo park (nothing to date it back to 1641 but possible). The British cannon Darryl found was from a different wreck but in same general area. Photos of some artifacts from...
At least two 1641 ships wrecked off the coast of Cuba which does have "cliffs' along some of its coastline. Some info in book "More Shipwrecks of Florida." Please visit: www.anchorexplorations.com
Cannon wedges were usually made of wood. This is quite heavy, and no idea what the notches on it would be for. Think it's for something else, but I've been wrong before.
Knew I had it somewhere, but for anyone interested, the PLVS VLTRA Newsletter Vol. 20. No.3 -3rd Quarter 2002, has a great story on the Gorda Cay silver bars along with photos. Art McKee actually found his bars in 1949. The Smithsonian supposedly has one of his bars, but couldn't find it when...
This bronze type alloy wedge was found on a wreck in Bahamas dating around 1798 to 1815 or so. Believe it was a French ship. Lots of musket balls, cannon balls. Thought maybe some kind of cannon wedge but usually were wood and never seen one like this. Any ideas?
The Gorda Cay wreck has been known about for years. I'm sure Art McKee heard about treasure there which lead him to recovered silver bars in the 50's. Sandy Point, Abaco is not far away, and locals have dove on it over the years. They told us some interesting stories of cannons etc. related to...
Wonder what the wreck site looks like today since Disney took over the Island. We dove on it a couple times in the early 90's after the drug runners abandoned the island. Still a substantial ballast pile there back then. Who positively ID'd the wreck?
Interesting. Now doing my part with social distancing, so I have time on my hands for cleaning & sorting some shipwreck artifacts from years ago. Cleaned the encrustation off one of the lead bars similar to those in this post, from a shipwreck off Highland Beach, Fl found years ago. After...
Here's a nice website about the wreck with a photo of the pier built out to the wreck in 1906 and blown away I believe in 1907 or 8. Think divers Sidney Cook & Johnson recovered the majority of the gold back around 1870-71, and Cook's story of the recovery is quite interesting.
Manzanillo...
I got the info from the reputable Sea Technology Magazine which said 10,000 pounds of gold coins. Looks like it is actually 10,000 British monetary pounds of gold coins after looking at some other sites. Worth allot less than actual pounds. One article said they believe there are 400-500,000...
Enduarance Exploration of Clearwater has identified the remains of the S.S. Connaught off Boston. Supposedly had 10,000 pounds of gold. All passengers and crew were saved after catching fire in 1860. Will have to wait and see what they bring up.
Sad to say my friend Jack Pennell passed away last week. After a stint in the Navy, Jack started an outboard repair business and then opened Pennells Marina in Deerfield Beach, Fl. which is now run by his son He was one of the early divers here who located many wrecks around Florida and the...
I met him a couple of times and stopped at his home down in the Keys. He had recovered a small bronze cannon off Indian Key which we believe was originally salvaged from a wreck here off Hillsboro Beach back in 1836 and then lost off Indian Key soon after. We excavated the wreck off Hillsboro...
My friend and fellow treasure finder Carl Ward just sent me a copy of his new book called "Shipwreck in the Florida Keys 1733", self published by Carl. One of the original salvors back in the 60's. His group worked on the northernmost 1733 wrecks the POPULO along with Carl Frederick and others...
Lots of coins from 1715 era have been found on the beach by the old Chuck's Steak House. Wonder if someone has finally found the wreck those coins came from. We looked offshore back in the 90's but vis was usually lousy and sand was deep. Sounds like a real interesting find! Keep us posted!
Ok, got better info from the site that deals in makers marks and also got the photos of the marks off your platter base in the museum though pretty blurry. Marks on your plate were in much better condition and had the whole Gosa Lez inscription. It was the mark used by chief assayer "Nicholas...
Thanks Booty! I'll contact the museum up there and see if they'll get me that info. Do appreciate it.
Got a reply from an inquiry on a silver hallmark forum (gotta love the internet!) The Gosa Lez hallmark was used by the chief assayer in Mexico Diego Gonzalez de la Cueva. The second mark is the...