=against the wind;We tried a little Door Knocking yesterday. This house was built in 1861. It was part of a 600 acre farm. I'm told that the tower was used by the owner to keep an eye on his field hands.
Turned out we had both met the owner at a breakfast we attended. He has a metal detector and isn't letting anyone else on his property to search. Thus far, he hasn't detected.
Follow up to AARC's post # 343. That 10-pack of muskets would have surprised the heck out of me.
A fishing trawler made an interesting find last Thursday. The Newfoundland Lynx, an OCI (Ocean Choice International) trawling vessel based out of St. Johns, NL, was fishing for scallops just within the 200-mile limit off the coast of Nova Scotia when it unexpectedly hauled up a crate of Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-muskets. The find was brought to the attention of the Newfoundland Provincial Archaeology Office by the OCI’s Operations Manager and the rifles are currently undergoing conservation treatment.
According to a military historian, the rifles appear to be three-band Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-muskets and were in what was left of the original crate as they were packed in the Tower of London sometime in the 1850s or 1860s. They were a standard British military firearm during this period, and were the very first standard British rifle.
The P53 Enfield was a popular choice among militaries and militias associated with the United Kingdom and its colonies, seeing use in a great number of wars. It was also highly favoured by both sides of the American Civil War.
I got the biggest laugh a couple of days ago. My youngest quoted a phrase I used when they were an early teen. "Don't do anything you wouldn't want to have to explain to the paramedics."
In 1621 the English East India Company dispatched the ship Trial to the Indies. During the vessel’s outward voyage in May 1622 the vessel was wrecked on a then unknown reef off the coast of Western Australia (now known as Ritchie’s Reef, which contain the infamous ‘Trial Rocks’). This wreck was found in 1969 and is Australia’s earliest known shipwreck. In 1621 the English East India Company dispatched the ship Trial to the Indies. During the vessel’s outward voyage in May 1622 the vessel was wrecked on a then unknown reef off the coast of Western Australia (now known as Ritchie’s Reef, which contain the infamous ‘Trial Rocks’). In 1969 an expedition was mounted to locate the wreck site of Trial. On the first day of the search around the rocks, a wreck site was located and tentatively identified as that of Trial. Although four museum expeditions have visited the site since, no evidence has been found to identify the site conclusively, although circumstantial evidence indicates that the wreck site is that of the Trial.