1715 Fleet - Question?

[UrbanGrouper]

Hey all — does anyone know the northernmost beach on the Treasure Coast where silver or gold from the 1715 fleet has been found?

I just relocated to Orlando and I’m trying to figure out the closest beach to start swinging.

Thanks 👍

 

[newnan man]

I have a friend who walks the beach almost daily. She has found 2 Spanish coins in Indialantic Beach over the years. That is at least 20 miles north of any 1715 wreck. All the beaches north of Sebastian Inlet have been recently renourished with sand pumped from further offshore.

 

[Darren in NC]

Depending on who you talk to, the "northernmost" beach could be Amelia Island, FL, or beaches around Cape Canaveral (off limits now), or Melbourne Beach. But your best bet will be around Bonsteel Park, or between the McLarty's Treasure Museum and Ambersand Beach access. These are the northernmost areas where coins have been consistently found. But as mentioned, you need to go once the renournished sand has been eroded away. Even better to wait until during/just after a storm.

 

[Red_desert]

I have a friend who walks the beach almost daily. She has found 2 Spanish coins in Indialantic Beach over the years. That is at least 20 miles north of any 1715 wreck. All the beaches north of Sebastian Inlet have been recently renourished with sand pumped from further offshore.

Spanish ships fought battles with the French up near St Augustine. If I remember correctly, Spain had a little known outpost to the north, to help rescue survivors of shipwrecks.

 

[UrbanGrouper]

I have a friend who walks the beach almost daily. She has found 2 Spanish coins in Indialantic Beach over the years. That is at least 20 miles north of any 1715 wreck. All the beaches north of Sebastian Inlet have been recently renourished with sand pumped from further offshore.

Good to know, Thanks!

 

[UrbanGrouper]

Depending on who you talk to, the "northernmost" beach could be Amelia Island, FL, or beaches around Cape Canaveral (off limits now), or Melbourne Beach. But your best bet will be around Bonsteel Park, or between the McLarty's Treasure Museum and Ambersand Beach access. These are the northernmost areas where coins have been consistently found. But as mentioned, you need to go once the renournished sand has been eroded away. Even better to wait until during/just after a storm.

Thanks for the heads up, hurricane season is almost here.

 

[UrbanGrouper]

Spanish ships fought battles with the French up near St Augustine. If I remember correctly, Spain had a little known outpost to the north, to help rescue survivors of shipwrecks.

Interesting, thanks!

 

[UrbanGrouper]

Depending on who you talk to, the "northernmost" beach could be Amelia Island, FL, or beaches around Cape Canaveral (off limits now), or Melbourne Beach. But your best bet will be around Bonsteel Park, or between the McLarty's Treasure Museum and Ambersand Beach access. These are the northernmost areas where coins have been consistently found. But as mentioned, you need to go once the renournished sand has been eroded away. Even better to wait until during/just after a storm.

Darren, I had an afterthought. If the beach nourishment sand is sourced from the same area, just a little offshore, couldn't that pump some artifacts back on the beach. I wonder if anyone has found a coin that way?

 

[ropesfish]

Darren, I had an afterthought. If the beach nourishment sand is sourced from the same area, just a little offshore, couldn't that pump some artifacts back on the beach. I wonder if anyone has found a coin that way?

Beach sand is almost always brought in from somewhere else. Presently St Lucie County is trucking renourishment sand for the Jetty area from somewhere west of I95. In Indian River they usually either pump it out of the sand trap in the Inlet or truck it in, but a few times they have dredged it well offshore...like miles, and then pumped it on the beach. Remember, that if something heavy has been in the ocean for 300 years, it is laying on top of the hardest layer in the strata...could be clay but usually it's bedrock. It's almost never stranded midway in the sediment column.
Coins have been found in many excavation projects from Brownsville to Jacksonville, but while I hear reports of finds here and there, the findERs are very quiet about it.

Research terms (if anyone is interested) "sediment transport", sediment transport functions,
Resources for further research:

Sediment transport formulas for the coastal environment - Coastal Wiki

www.coastalwiki.org

Coastal Wiki

www.coastalwiki.org

Category:Physical coastal and marine processes - Coastal Wiki

www.coastalwiki.org

 

[ropesfish]

Hey all — does anyone know the northernmost beach on the Treasure Coast where silver or gold from the 1715 fleet has been found?

I just relocated to Orlando and I’m trying to figure out the closest beach to start swinging.

Thanks 👍

Coins from the period have been found here and there all the way to St Augustine with a notable find of gold coins N of the Cape. There are non-trivial chances of a 1715 wreck N of the Cape, including a 1715 period way wreck off Jacksonville. It has not been proven to be a Plate Fleet wreck.

 

[Red_desert]

Coins from the period have been found here and there all the way to St Augustine with a notable find of gold coins N of the Cape. There are non-trivial chances of a 1715 wreck N of the Cape, including a 1715 period way wreck off Jacksonville. It has not been proven to be a Plate Fleet wreck.

St Augustine Museum archives contain more information about it.

 

[Red_desert]

St Augustine Museum archives contain more information about it.

Yes — the St. Augustine area does hold archival material relevant to 1715 Fleet coins, but it’s not centralized in a single “St. Augustine Museum” archive. Instead, several institutions in and around St. Augustine preserve documents, artifacts, and research tied to the fleet and its coinage.

 

[Sandog]

Is Capron Shoal no longer the source of the renourishment project in Ft. Pierce?

Fort Pierce Beach Renourishment St. Lucie County Florida

On 2/18/25 USACE Jacksonville District issued Solicitation W912EP25B0011 for Fort Pierce Beach Renourishment St. Lucie County, Florida due 1/21/25

www.highergov.com

https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Congressional-Fact-Sheets-2025/Fort-Pierce-Beach-FL-C/ (includes map)

It looks like barges are hauling sand from a dredge south of the inlet and a ways offshore into the inlet to be pumped or hauled down to the beach.
I also watched as one piece of equipment took huge buckets of sand from just in the water line, and then dump it in front of the dune.

 

[Red_desert]

Is Capron Shoal no longer the source of the renourishment project in Ft. Pierce?

Fort Pierce Beach Renourishment St. Lucie County Florida

On 2/18/25 USACE Jacksonville District issued Solicitation W912EP25B0011 for Fort Pierce Beach Renourishment St. Lucie County, Florida due 1/21/25

www.highergov.com

https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/About/Congressional-Fact-Sheets-2025/Fort-Pierce-Beach-FL-C/ (includes map)

It looks like barges are hauling sand from a dredge south of the inlet and a ways offshore into the inlet to be pumped or hauled down to the beach.
I also watched as one piece of equipment took huge buckets of sand from just in the water line, and then dump it in front of the dune.

Is that considered the toe of the dune?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Is that considered the toe of the dune?

Maybe this will help.

 

[Red_desert]

Thanks! It appears a bucket of sand dumped in front of a dune could be considered the toe.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

No....

 

[Sandog]

Is that considered the toe of the dune?

Yes, I believe so.

 

[Red_desert]

Yes, I believe so.

At that point beach hunting probably will stop