Belt Buckles 1733 fleet

[Bonehead]

Belt buckles from 1733 fleet, salvaged by my dad off FL Keys early 60's

 

[mad4wrecks]

Bonehead, welcome to this forum. I am enjoying your photos. Any stories to go with them? Many of us here are fans of Diving to a Flash of Gold and it would be interesting to learn what happened to Don and Marty in the years after that classic book was written.

Best Regards,
Tom

 

[signumops]

Double up on that! Flash of Gold... owned 3 copies over the years. Friends borrow it and never return it. I even rectified the charts eventually. Tell us more!

 

[BeachComber7]

Nice!!!

 

[Bonehead]

Marty is still alive and well making custom jewelry. Nautical Jewelry- pendants, necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings- solid gold My mom just told me she recently talked to him on the phone and he wasn't aware my dad passed in 2002 from throat cancer. My dad moved to the Algarve in Portugal during the 90's and sold Time sharing. I visited him for 7 months there. We actually dove off the coast and found 3 submerged cannons in about 30 ft of water. It was a big deal at the time, a lot of Federalies watching us and the site after word got out. I guess they thought we would "steal" them or something. People can swim over things for years and not know what they are looking at. I moved from Miami in 98 to Manassas, Va, my dad moved backed from Portugal to Manassas and remarried. Up until his passing, we fished, treasure hunted with metal detectors for civil war stuff and spent quality time. I miss him everyday.

 

[Salvor6]

What happened to Marty's museum in Miami?

 

[Bonehead]

Not sure on that one

 

[Darren in NC]

Wonderful update, Bonehead. Thanks for sharing. Any special stories that might be interesting to all who love history and hunting?

 

[Southern_Digger]

Great display of buckles...I remember Marty and have a copy of Diving to a Flash of Gold. Like to hear more too...

 

[Bonehead]

Alot of people dont know my dad and Marty painted a lot of the boats that were in the bay of pigs invasion. When they had the boatyard (DynaMar) named after my mom Dinah, and Mary Marty's wife. Mt dad said they had a bunch of ugly green paint and ugly blue paint. They mixed them together and got an really ugly color they called "gulf blue". They painted a bunch of these boats that had machine gun torrents etc (no guns though mounted). Of course they were not told that these were bay of pig boats but the invasion happened right after.

 

[Denniss]

Diving to a Flash of Gold is one of my favorite books, I re-read it every 2-3 years

Bonehead-Thanks for sharing with us


Signumops, what do you mean when you say, rectified the charts. I've followed some of your other projects on the forum, so I'm really curious. I'm sure most of the ranges are gone by now, palm tree next to red house etc.

I heard rumors when the book first came out that the state tried to prevent publication due to his pinpointing all the wrecks, does anyone know if this is true.

 

[MPH200]

Great book, I have a copy that still has the map. It keeps me motivated for my retirement. Thanks for the info.

 

[Southern_Digger]

Alot of people dont know my dad and Marty painted a lot of the boats that were in the bay of pigs invasion. When they had the boatyard (DynaMar) named after my mom Dinah, and Mary Marty's wife. Mt dad said they had a bunch of ugly green paint and ugly blue paint. They mixed them together and got an really ugly color they called "gulf blue". They painted a bunch of these boats that had machine gun torrents etc (no guns though mounted). Of course they were not told that these were bay of pig boats but the invasion happened right after.

I think my father may have known your dad and Marty and may have worked for/with them in the early 60's. My dad learned boat carpentry at age 14-17 working in Miami boatyards during 1940's, on civilian vessels seized by Govt., and being converted to PT cruisers for coastal patrol. Both of my grandfather and my great grandfather also worked at various Miami River boatyards. Both assisted with constructing the first roof over Tommy's boatyard in the 1930's and my granfather was involved in the relocation/reconstruction of the last Ft. Dallas structure from Miami River fort site to Lummus Park. My grandma's dad was a boatbuilder from Maine. I still have his ledgers and some interesting photos of boats he built and larger craft he repaired (circa 1885-1902). After service in WW2, dad worked in various boat yards, generally self-contracting. In early 60's he worked on fishing boats, pleasure craft, and once on President Kennedy's fishing boat. Some yard he worked at, and myself too, in summers, were Tommy's; Jones; Merrill-Stevens; Weston Hempsteads and on and on. I don't recall Dyna-Mar nor its location. He may or may not have worked there too. I worked part time with him while going to college. I cleaned and stripped the bottom of a shrimpboat which he recaulked. It was at Jone's boatyard. Soon after, that very boat was pictured in the Miami Herald bringing Mariel Refugees from Cuba and into Florida. My last Ft. Lauderdale job with him was to sand and reseal decks on Oceanography vessels at Directors Marina. Where was Dyna-Mar?

 

[Bonehead]

NW River dr on the Miami River. I'm sure my dad probably must have known your dad, how many guys were boat carpenters back then? My mom says the "White Hunter" catamaran that is in the book, was made by them at Dynamar. It had a glass or (plexiglass) bottom to spot wrecks.

 

[signumops]

Diving to a Flash of Gold is one of my favorite books, I re-read it every 2-3 years

Bonehead-Thanks for sharing with us


Signumops, what do you mean when you say, rectified the charts. I've followed some of your other projects on the forum, so I'm really curious. I'm sure most of the ranges are gone by now, palm tree next to red house etc.

I heard rumors when the book first came out that the state tried to prevent publication due to his pinpointing all the wrecks, does anyone know if this is true.

You're right, the ranges are irrelevant, however, the original book had a jacket sleeve containing two marked up charts, printed one on each side of the paper. The charts featured all of the targets discussed in the book with a bullet and number callout. Theoretically, the bullet marked the spot on the map where the target was located. So I scanned the charts in high resolution, reduced the images using ECW compression and exported them as G4 Tiff format (fax format). The charts have collars, but one can adjoin the other without obstructing targets. Then I set the charts into world space using my own software, MagTrakR, under the State Plane Coordinate System for Zone 901. MagTrakR supports typical Geographic coordinate readout in decimal minute notation in an auxiliary panel, doing the translation on the fly.

Then I collected the fixes for the 134 targets on the map using a tool I have built in to my software. Using these fixes, I built a CSV data table so I would have the key available for the charts, and I can load that table directly into the MagTrakR data editor window, so that I can ID the target by name while simultaneously viewing the map. The editor dialog can be minimized as needed.

Once you have a bullet in view, MagTrakR can build a GPS readable grid, of any size, based upon thousandth of a minute ticks, which is about 6.1 feet per tick in our latitude.

I've had some fun comparing Meylach's positions against those published by the state. There are only a few that I can validate independently to see who is fibbing.

 

[pvet7521]

Don

Like your father I too was partners with Marty, often asked what happened to Don , never got a good answer. I know first hand how Marty can be. I like the picture you post of your father sitting in Martys boat towed sub. He is smiling and looks happy. I which I could have been apart of those days. I believe Jim Conway past in 2002 also. By the way those charts are on the money not so much location but distance apart
Phil Vetrano

 

[Bonehead]

I think my dad and Marty had a little falling out for reasons I dont want to get into. I wish I knew more about the relationship at the time and when they parted ways. My mother is in touch with Marty...so that is cool.
Jim Conway took some amazing shots, including my avitar. I wish my pops was around to see all the interest in the salvage work they spent so many hours doing. We used to joke about being "certified'.. My dad and Marty had thousands of hours of underwater "time'..and were not "certified" hah