Help identifying beach find.

[elle]

Firstbiggestmost,

I'm not sure exactly where in Vero Beach you found your artifact, but the Spring of Whitby was built around the time period you are suggesting.
The bronze bell with her name and date of 1801 was found in 1965.
In my research, I believe this ship was stolen or seized to be used for illegal activities in the waters of the New World.
Many times, parts of rigging materials were sold, stolen, and reused.
For instance, many sheaves made in South America were found on 1715 ships. These were purchased from trade fairs and carried by means of the trading routes throughout the many ports to outfit vessels.

Laura

 

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[firstbiggestmost]

Firstbiggestmost,

I'm not sure exactly where in Vero Beach you found your artifact, but the Spring of Whitby was built around the time period you are suggesting.
The bronze bell with her name and date of 1801 was found in 1965.
In my research, I believe this ship was stolen or seized to be used for illegal activities in the waters of the New World.
Many times, parts of rigging materials were sold, stolen, and reused.
For instance, many sheaves made in South America were found on 1715 ships. These were purchased from trade fairs and carried by means of the trading routes throughout the many ports to outfit vessels.

Laura

Thanks for the info I received some info from the Portsmouth Blockmills in England. Their "Block" expert Belives that the DR stands for December And the 94 would be the year. He thinks it would be Dec. 1794 based on the the style of the coak And he believes that the other marks stand for Walter Taylor who was the main manufacturer of sheaves for the Royal Navy at that time. So the "Whitby" would be in the right time period. I have read that the design of the sheaves remained unchanged for hundreds of years so I'm also exploring the possibility that the marks could be Dec. of 1697 and the the makers mark is LM. I appreciate all the replies.

 

[mad4wrecks]

That artifact definitely looks machined, which would date it to the later part of the 18th century.

Tom

 

[armchairQB30]

Firstbiggestmost,

Have you stopped by the McLarty museum yet? Dont you live near it?

 

[firstbiggestmost]

That artifact definitely looks machined, which would date it to the later part of the 18th century.

Tom

Tom,
From what I have read the coaks were cast, not machined, from the time they started using brass on the sheaves. The wooden part of the sheaves were machined. First using horses, etc. to power the saws. It wasn't until 1799 that steam power was used to power some of the machines and it wasn't until 1803 that Brunells assembly line was completed, and a few more years after that until production got into full swing. So prior to 1799 the processes of making sheaves was basically unchanged for a couple hundred years. I feel that my pulley sheave is from at least 1794 based on the style of the coak, and the date, but it could be older because the style of coak had been used for so long. Either way its a good find!

 

[firstbiggestmost]

Firstbiggestmost,

Have you stopped by the McLarty museum yet? Dont you live near it?

LOL give me a chance It might take a few days to get over there, but I will post what I find out. Thanks again for the tip. HH.

 

[mad4wrecks]

It is a spectacular find! I have also been following it on the treasureguide blog.

 

[armchairQB30]

<---------------------Grabs POPCORN!!!!

 

[firstbiggestmost]

I finally made it to the McLarty Treasure Museum to check on Armchair's lead. Thanks again Armchair.
From what I saw today it is very possible that the sheave I found was made in 1694. The display case is screwed shut so they couldn’t let me inspect their sheave closely, and I had to take the pictures through the glass.

Their 1715 fleet sheave is very similar to the one I found. It has three lobes on the coak. It is marked with the Broad Arrow. It is marked with the WT in the same font as mine.

The McLarty sheave has some minor differences from mine but that is not too surprising considering that they were basically hand made and that there were a few different manufactures of the brass coaks. The admiralty made some, and the private makers made some.

Their sheave is marked ALS 63 if I remember right. I thought the markings would show up on the pictures so I didn’t bother to write it down, but the pictures didn’t turn out that great so Ill have to call and verify the markings. I am 99% sure about the 63. Another difference that you can see in the side angle photo, is the back of their sheave has a kind of lip extending from the pin hole. I don’t know if the flanged coaks would have been used as the end of a series in a multi pulley block. With the smooth coaks in the center? Anyway not an exact match but very close.

I’m still waiting to hear back from the Royal Navy Museum, hopefully they can shed some more light on things.

HH.

 

[armchairQB30]

<--------------Is known for bringing in the sheaves!!!!!!

 

[firstbiggestmost]

The Park Ranger at the McLarty Museum was nice enough to send me a better photo of their sheave. Thanks Ed.

So much for my memory the marks are AL 93.
Ed mentioned that this sheave was also a beach find and that it might not be from the 1715 fleet.
Thanks for looking & Happy Hunting.

 

[divermark]

Interesting lot and the Bonhams Auction in London UK this week.

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/publ...ItemNo=4484064&iSaleNo=17819&iSaleSectionNo=1

infact its an interesting maritime auction check it out here:

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r

 

[firstbiggestmost]

Interesting lot and the Bonhams Auction in London UK this week.
http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/publ...ItemNo=4484064&iSaleNo=17819&iSaleSectionNo=1

Thanks for the links.

Ever since I saw the Mclarty sheave it has been driving me nuts wondering if some of the crud on my sheave was hiding a second arrow mark on the brass coak. Curiosity won. It turns out that their is a second arrow on the coak.
Thanks for looking and HH.

 

[firstbiggestmost]

I received some new information from some great people in the Royal Navy Historical Trust that has cleared up some questions I had about my sheave.

First, the sheave is definitely from 1794. Walter Taylor was in bussines from the 1740's to 1803. So no chance of 1694 or 1894.

Second, the "DR 94 " does refer to date of manufacture. In 1775 Walter Taylor started using a replaceable bushing between the shell and the sheave. This innovation led him to mark each sheave with the date of manufacture, and to replace any block that should fail in service.

Third, what ship? I'm still working on that one Maybe Spring of Whitby? Any other Ideas?

So my first shipwreck find is a December 1794, Walter Taylor Co. made, Royal Navy pulley sheave, from HMS , Awesome!

HH.