The Merchant Royal was in port in Cadiz when it learned of a Spanish ship that was overburdened with this treasure.

[Blak bart]

One thats not so old, but still a beautiful one from a couple months ago....was so fouled that we had to bring it ashore to untangle.

Here's a strange one of a different pattern....possible drag basket for conchs/shell fish ? Still researching this one from a few months back.....point is if your a fisherman with any type of bottom gear your gonna get anchors....and lots of them !!

 

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[: Michael-Robert.]

This one is quite a story, but I feel I need to talk with D. before I make it public. Problem is: D. is now 92 years old. I last spoke with him on the phone about 3 years ago. He sounded just the same as many years ago and very exited about the wreck of the "Santa Rosa", a Portuguese galleon of 1726, also with many tons of gold on board as well as probably a lot of pebble sized diamonds.
He had a side-scan picture of the wreck site and was looking for key persons to help him with the salvage.

Time to make that call before its to late....

 

[ARC]

View attachment 2130999
One thats not so old, but still a beautiful one from a couple months ago....was so fouled that we had to bring it ashore to untangle. View attachment 2131000
Here's a strange one of a different pattern....possible drag basket for conchs/shell fish ? Still researching this one from a few months back.....point is if your a fisherman with any type of bottom gear your gonna get anchors....and lots of them !!

I know your "strange anchor"... but my brains filling cabinets are dusty.... it will come to me sooner or later... its not an anchor.... and perhaps i am thinking of this for i may have seen one of your pictures of it before ... but ?

 

[releventchair]

Fishermans stories huh 🤣🤣😂....its us fisherman that have found more than just a few treasures. If not for the fisherman many of the greatest wrecks would still be undiscovered.....I still fish with the grandson of Reggie roberts.....he's the fisherman who found the capitana of the 1733 fleet in 1938 !! Later he showed this wreck to art mkee and the whole modern day era of shipwreck salvage started !! Being a life long fisherman, and having found many many wreck of all ages in shallow, and deep water, I understand all to well the importance of us "poor fisherman" in the treasure world !!

Let me give you a couple examples. We have found wreck while trapping lobsters, and I've found a spanish wreck while longlineing. It's as easy as pulling gear and having a Chinese tea cup on 3 consecutive hooks.....obviously my gear is laying across exposed boxes of China on the bottom ..... well let's not give depths out....let's just say deep. By the spacing of my hooks, I'm able to get an estimate of width, and we are a fishing boat.....I have 120,000 $ side scan .....I can see the mound clear as day !!

I'm not gonna go crazy with stories here....the point is, fisherman find wrecks regularly, and often times over the years we end up identifying them through our catches, sonar, and even diving on them in my case. You boys know how to use an octopus to salvage a wreck? They are very intelligent and curios animals that have specific habits....one of which is removing man made objects from there shelter. We have been placing 2 traps on an unknown wreck for about 4 years now....it has a residential population of octopus, and they have been loading our traps with objects and treasure from this wreck. We put our traps here for silver ware.....silverware, pottery, and EOs are loaded in our traps each week, and probably have 35 pieces of sterling silverware 🍽 from this wreck over 4 years. All put in our traps by angry octopus......put a grain of salt on that and chew on it for awhile !!

This thread would be DOA, without the "fisherman snagged anchor" to speculate about !! Remember the little wreck "el cazador" yup....fisherman found it !! The only thing to wonder about fishermans stories is just how many you don't know about, just how much has been brought up without a word being said, just how many snags do we fish that have treasure, and just how many secret ops have gone on that no one sees or hears about ??

If you've fished in and on the water here in the islands, you've probably found something of importance to the so called "salvors" you think that no one ever snagged an artifact off the atocha main pile before it was found ?? Fisherman snags helped fisher find that pile....thats the unofficial story. That pile was covered in fishing gear.

If you guys think that the crew of that fishing boat hasn't been back to drag that site again you are mistaken.....they could have said nothing about that anchor.....like we do when we snag one. If there was rumor about merchant royal surrounding that anchor.....I would drag that site over and over until I knew for sure....fact of the matter is us fisherman know very well how many lost anchor ⚓️ are out there......that anchor could be one of thousands in that area !! We catch anchors every week, and get 2 or 3 older anchors every year.....most are photographed, and cut loose again.....some become so fouled in gear that they must be recovered to un tangle from our gear.....often I will dive the shallow numbers in the summer to check....this type of stuff has been going on with fisherman since the beginning, and will always continue in the islands regardless of permits and laws....you can't unfind something once you've seen it....its just what happens as a fisherman.

The importance of fishermans discoveries should never be taken lightly....

Alright.
But I struggle trying not to ask how much of a fight a teacup puts up...

Hooked a collapsable wire fish basket in murky water. Fortunately an empty one.
Unknowingly played it like an accordion straining my 8 lb. test and a my being a kid's cinch knot. Over rode the drag and reefed on it till line was near breaking point and it would slide just a little. Release tension and it would keep tension while taking some line.
I was thinking I had hooked a snapping turtle of which the lake hosted and we had eaten some of and it was holding it's ground..
About ten feet and twenty minutes later the rim of the basket broke water on an edge.
So , a fish basket can fight pretty good on light tackle. Sluggishly though!

 

[: Michael-Robert.]

He found the wreck.
Today, with all the modern navigation instruments, people have little understanding how difficult it was to locate and return to shipwrecks many miles from shore, when You only had a sextant and a compass to define your position.
After many dives, the wreck lies in 55m depth, only few valuables were recovered. This included a fair amount of a precious stone called Rubellite.
https://bengems.com/en/stones/rubellite/
The largest crystal was something like 2600 carats.
I made a few dives myself.
There were some large Rock Crystals as you mentioned, but they were damaged by the fire. The British cruiser had lobbed a few large caliber grenades into the castle of the Wakama, to speed up the sinking.
In 1940, Rock Crystal was used to produce the highest quality camera lenses.
D. got excellent documentation, but the ship is surrounded by a lot of mystery. In the end, a large salvage vessel came from Germany and dismantled the wreck.
As far as I know, no diamonds were found.
Could it be that the information about the box of precious stones Rubellite was distorted to become diamonds?

D.'s next target was a shipwreck from the time of WW1, with something like 11 tons of gold on board.

I know of several WW2 ships with tonnes of GOLD. Start with the PHILIPPINES A.O.
FIRST THREE TARGETS now as follows (ship names have been XXXX out for security reasons);

1) JAPANESE HEAVY CRUISER XXXX MARU: Scuttled on Dec. 18, 1944 w/ cargo of 200 MT that we need to survey for: 305 feet deep. ROV or Saturation Diving operation. Scuttled on Dec. 18, 1944.

2) JAPANESE FIRST CLASS CRUISER XXXX MARU: Scuttled on Nov. 25, 1944 w/ cargo of 200 MT that have the WWII coordinates for: Approximately 130 feet deep. Air Diving operation. Scuttled on Nov. 25, 1944.

3) JAPANESE LANDING CRAFT XXX MARU: Scuttled in late 1944 w/cargo of 180 gold bars (60 to 80 kg each). cargo, the exact coordinates are known for: 200 feet deep. ROV or Saturation Diving operation. Scuttled in late 1944.

Last time I kept up with these(2014) there was no salavage or recovery operations yet. ** (Tony@ TSEATC.com) lacked funding but had skills and resource access.

I always wondered why Nation States do not go after these....

There is show much treasure left in the PH both land and sea from WW2.
And Spanish time periods.

 

[treasurediver]

Alright.
But I struggle trying not to ask how much of a fight a teacup puts up...

Hooked a collapsable wire fish basket in murky water. Fortunately an empty one.
Unknowingly played it like an accordion straining my 8 lb. test and a my being a kid's cinch knot. Over rode the drag and reefed on it till line was near breaking point and it would slide just a little. Release tension and it would keep tension while taking some line.
I was thinking I had hooked a snapping turtle of which the lake hosted and we had eaten some of and it was holding it's ground..
About ten feet and twenty minutes later the rim of the basket broke water on an edge.
So , a fish basket can fight pretty good on light tackle. Sluggishly though!

There we have it. A real fisherman story.
I have one of my own:
1981, Bob Marx had convinced me to sail to the Bahamas to search for his dream wreck. With my 72ft Staysail Schooner a 4000 miles trip was no problem. Salvador Brazil to Miami nonstop.
We were 3, taking turns on the wheel 4 hours at the time 24/7. A good lookout for shipping and flotsam.
We saw and avoided floating tree trunks, containers, pallets and longlines.
Getting to the windward islands, the wind become more irregular. In the light winds we were moving only slowly. Being basically a sailing vessel, we had an autonomy of easily 12,000 miles under sail but only about 200 miles by engine, kept for entering harbors and emergency.
So, when we passed near the island of Monserrat, I decided to make a quick stop to top up the diesel tank to depend less on the fickle winds. Fuel up, a quick P'tit Punch and off again.
As we were leaving, a fisherman waved and pointed below the stern of the boat. We waved back and sailed on.
We always had a fishing line out to complement our food reserves what we did not eat immediately went into the freezer.
Sailing up the old Bahamas Channel, every night we hooked some big fish on the 200 pound line. The line broke several times. WTF was going on?
Once we were tied up at a marina in Miami, I lowered the skiff on the stern davits. This is when I saw a line, maybe 1/4 inch, stretched from our rudder towards the channel. It was a piece of longline about 400ft long entangled on the rudder.
How long had we been dragging that line along. So that was what the fisherman had pointed at in Monserrat!

 

[releventchair]

There we have it. A real fisherman story.
I have one of my own:
1981, Bob Marx had convinced me to sail to the Bahamas to search for his dream wreck. With my 72ft Staysail Schooner a 4000 miles trip was no problem. Salvador Brazil to Miami nonstop.
We were 3, taking turns on the wheel 4 hours at the time 24/7. A good lookout for shipping and flotsam.
We saw and avoided floating tree trunks, containers, pallets and longlines.
Getting to the windward islands, the wind become more irregular. In the light winds we were moving only slowly. Being basically a sailing vessel, we had an autonomy of easily 12,000 miles under sail but only about 200 miles by engine, kept for entering harbors and emergency.
So, when we passed near the island of Monserrat, I decided to make a quick stop to top up the diesel tank to depend less on the fickle winds. Fuel up, a quick P'tit Punch and off again.
As we were leaving, a fisherman waved and pointed below the stern of the boat. We waved back and sailed on.
We always had a fishing line out to complement our food reserves what we did not eat immediately went into the freezer.
Sailing up the old Bahamas Channel, every night we hooked some big fish on the 200 pound line. The line broke several times. WTF was going on?
Once we were tied up at a marina in Miami, I lowered the skiff on the stern davits. This is when I saw a line, maybe 1/4 inch, stretched from our rudder towards the channel. It was a piece of longline about 400ft long entangled on the rudder.
How long had we been dragging that line along. So that was what the fisherman had pointed at in Monserrat!

Ugghh.
The boat bucked a bit pulling a skier till I stopped and raised the anchor with around 3 bushel of weeds on it....

Another boat I still own ; a now ex wife was holding the painter of still upon my return from parking the truck.
Too bad the bilge/drain plug wasn't in it.

Ohhh!
Friend handed my left over "slicks" to put on that same boat's trailer bunks. Cool! It'll launch my little boat quicker and easier.
I unhooked safety chain and hold downs and started backing down a concrete ramp until I hit the brakes for some reason. Boat shot off the trailer onto the concrete quite effectively.
So I winched it back on and being nearly wet I left the safety chain off the bow, again. Just don't touch the brakes till she's deep enough. Oooops!
Who knew you could stand a boat on end with the motor previously tilted up and somehow stick the motors lower unit in between two cement sections underwater?
There it stood. As opposed to lying. At least it was in the water. And to my good fortune no witnesses with cameras.
Broke the latch for the tilt while freeing the motor. Reverse push vs pull operation to unlatch now as I used a long bolt and spring and pinned washer(?) to hold it after removing the stock plunger that broke. And went past the broken holed ear the plunger had gone through.. But it works.
Didn't break the skeg somehow. And generously applied touch up paint later.
Cut about half those fancy new slicks length off my bunks shortly thereafter. They do work slick though!

 

[treasurediver]

I know of several WW2 ships with tonnes of GOLD. Start with the PHILIPPINES A.O.
FIRST THREE TARGETS now as follows (ship names have been XXXX out for security reasons);

1) JAPANESE HEAVY CRUISER XXXX MARU: Scuttled on Dec. 18, 1944 w/ cargo of 200 MT that we need to survey for: 305 feet deep. ROV or Saturation Diving operation. Scuttled on Dec. 18, 1944.

2) JAPANESE FIRST CLASS CRUISER XXXX MARU: Scuttled on Nov. 25, 1944 w/ cargo of 200 MT that have the WWII coordinates for: Approximately 130 feet deep. Air Diving operation. Scuttled on Nov. 25, 1944.

3) JAPANESE LANDING CRAFT XXX MARU: Scuttled in late 1944 w/cargo of 180 gold bars (60 to 80 kg each). cargo, the exact coordinates are known for: 200 feet deep. ROV or Saturation Diving operation. Scuttled in late 1944.

Last time I kept up with these(2014) there was no salavage or recovery operations yet. ** (Tony@ TSEATC.com) lacked funding but had skills and resource access.

I always wondered why Nation States do not go after these....

There is show much treasure left in the PH both land and sea from WW2.
And Spanish time periods.

Investment Opportunities

The Southeast Asian Treasure Connection

www.tseatc.com

That is the big league. Big dreams. Big treasure. Big problems.

 

[: Michael-Robert.]

That is the big league. Big dreams. Big treasure. Big problems.

When you dream, Dream Big!

 

[Crow]

Its the Philippines there are billions of tons of gold everywhere. if you ask the locals. There is treasure to be found in Philippines. But not one scale one imagines. One of ships was searched by US navy divers after the war they found nothing. Still the rumors persist.

But to the locals every ww2 Japaneses ship was carrying gold. Its a national obsession over there. Every street corner has buried gold. It hard to take any one serious over there now.

The facts show other wise. Japan looted. they did had some treasure but no way near the level people imagine. Those war ships will be a bitter disappointment. that is why they was very few takers.

Crow

 

[: Michael-Robert.]

Its the Philippines there are billions of tons of gold everywhere. if you ask the locals. There is treasure to be found in Philippines. But not one scale one imagines. One of ships was searched by US navy divers after the war they found nothing. Still the rumors persist.

But to the locals every ww2 Japaneses ship was carrying gold. Its a national obsession over there. Every street corner has buried gold. It hard to take any one serious over there now.

The facts show other wise. Japan looted. they did had some treasure but no way near the level people imagine. Those war ships will be a bitter disappointment. that is why they was very few takers.

Crow

Crow, I know otherwise....wink. One of my projects, out of four, was 12.5kg hunk of cheese with a large 1944 7up bottle full of uncut rock candy. Turns out the rock candy was more valuable than the cheese.
So much involved which cant be discuss here, or maybe anywhere.

 

[Crow]

Crow, I know otherwise....wink. One of my projects, out of four, was 12.5kg hunk of cheese with a large 1944 7up bottle full of uncut rock candy. Turns out the rock candy was more valuable than the cheese.
So much involved which cant be discuss here, or maybe anywhere.

I am hearing ya. Never leave yourself open for incrimination.

I was there in 1985 and 1986 I was just a wide eye young punk. my older brother lived and worked there in the 80's with his first wife. Those bar girls got me into a lot of trouble back then. Haunted the treasure hunters bar, booze and wild women cheap.

There was many treasure hunters used to meet tell stories some true some BS. take your pick. Back then there was all a rage a about certain hospital ship. There the usual infighting bickering between treasure hunters and shifting allegiances..

I know Tony he was commercial driver united states naval diver. I think he was based in Singapore. He used to post here on treasurenet. There is quite a few who posted here in the early days. But time catches up with everyone.

Klaus used to post here but has passed away. He would be well into his 90's if he was still alive today.his hunting ground was Indonesia until laws chased from one country to the next.

Crow

 

[Crow]

Treasure hunting is hard mistress to please there is talons for your welcome and bloodstains for your pains. My treasure hunting flirted between a real job in the exploration mining industry earning money and blowing that money treasure hunting.. That the nature of the beast. you lose a lot and occasional pull some thing off on rare occasions.

I call it the university of hard knocks. Only those know who experience similar life, where I am coming from when I say that.

Lady luck finally felt sorry for my sorry ass for being on the wrong end of the ram rod. It only took over 30 years. But hey I outlasted many who came and went. I do not know weather to be proud or ashamed.

Treasurediver I know the name of vessel you allude to that your friend is interest in. It was Spanish Ship with terrible loss of life. They call it the Spanish or Brazilian Titanic. Depending on who you ask?

Hey It raining here 3pm tropical thunder storm right on cue. Stinking hot and humid. I am on my third makers mark. My apologies if I am waffling.

I got sucked into the black hole of treasure hunting and spat out on the other side. With half my feathers missing my beak bent dazed and confused WTF happened? Some how I came out on way in front. Yet here I am having absolutely no longer need to be involved in treasure hunting?

But its drug once ya get the taste regardless of pain suffering and humiliation ya come back for more. I had rampaged like a drunken pirate around the world, living like if there was no tomorrow , that never comes. Philippines, Indonesia. PNG .Australia, New Zealand, pacific and South America as many other places. I would breeze in breeze out some times officially Working for some times treasure hunting for both.

But tomorrow has came the world has changed amigos becoming less free, as technology is progressively tightening the noose around our lives. People like me will legislated out of existence. My new life awaits me! I am retired or I keep deluding myself I am retired? But these days I have much more to lose than to gain?

Suns back out and I have things to do.....

Crow

 

[KaiCor]

This one is quite a story, but I feel I need to talk with D. before I make it public. Problem is: D. is now 92 years old. I last spoke with him on the phone about 3 years ago. He sounded just the same as many years ago and very exited about the wreck of the "Santa Rosa", a Portuguese galleon of 1726, also with many tons of gold on board as well as probably a lot of pebble sized diamonds.
He had a side-scan picture of the wreck site and was looking for key persons to help him with the salvage.

You definitely need to talk to him. If he is 92 years old, there is a high risk that this story will be forgotten. I mean no disrespect, but people don't live forever. Hurry up.

 

[KaiCor]

There we have it. A real fisherman story.
I have one of my own:
1981, Bob Marx had convinced me to sail to the Bahamas to search for his dream wreck. With my 72ft Staysail Schooner a 4000 miles trip was no problem. Salvador Brazil to Miami nonstop.
We were 3, taking turns on the wheel 4 hours at the time 24/7. A good lookout for shipping and flotsam.
We saw and avoided floating tree trunks, containers, pallets and longlines.
Getting to the windward islands, the wind become more irregular. In the light winds we were moving only slowly. Being basically a sailing vessel, we had an autonomy of easily 12,000 miles under sail but only about 200 miles by engine, kept for entering harbors and emergency.
So, when we passed near the island of Monserrat, I decided to make a quick stop to top up the diesel tank to depend less on the fickle winds. Fuel up, a quick P'tit Punch and off again.
As we were leaving, a fisherman waved and pointed below the stern of the boat. We waved back and sailed on.
We always had a fishing line out to complement our food reserves what we did not eat immediately went into the freezer.
Sailing up the old Bahamas Channel, every night we hooked some big fish on the 200 pound line. The line broke several times. WTF was going on?
Once we were tied up at a marina in Miami, I lowered the skiff on the stern davits. This is when I saw a line, maybe 1/4 inch, stretched from our rudder towards the channel. It was a piece of longline about 400ft long entangled on the rudder.
How long had we been dragging that line along. So that was what the fisherman had pointed at in Monserrat!

It's strange that you didn't notice such a long piece of longline. 400 ft is a huge piece!

 

[Blak bart]

It's strange that you didn't notice such a long piece of longline. 400 ft is a huge piece!

Here's an example of what I'm talking about : 400 feet of long line is a nice piece, now imagine 15 miles of line stretched tight over the bottom with 1500 hooks !! We fish right through the heart of pennikamp state park, and biscayne national park !! These park designations mean nothing to us as we hold the necessary federal permits to fish these waters park or no park !! Thats right surprise surprise!! We are allowed to longline in the parks believe it or not !! I might lay that longline out twice in 24 hours.....day after day after day for years and years !! Im also a treasurehunter, beachcomber, etc.etc.etc we catch stuff....not just fish !! Ill take a picture if we try to sell anchors next week at the nautical flea market....we will have a hundred modern anchors for sale this season from fishing !! Now as a fisherman with the latest equipment, I can almost see in my minds eye the exact lay out of some of these wrecks, and after years of snagging stuff, .....yes I swerve over the good wrecks, and slow down, and pile on lead and hooks !! Because I might get another "bite" from a tea cup 🍵 or maybe a clump of fused coins, or some other artifact. Now imagine 25 good wrecks that you've found, and then snagging some things each time you set on them !! Nibble, nibble, nibble.....like a rat does cheese 🧀

Now it's the off season, and it's warm, and it's clear, and now your diving speciman shells(another form of treasure for me) and you decide to check some numbers where these "catches" have come from !! Just saying!! The fisherman, little mouse, can often just quietly nibble away at the cheese 🧀.....growing fat and comfortable with very little attention. Its often the case when hunting real mice, that you split open a wall to exterminate this vermin, pirate, mouse, and holy sh!t....this little sucker has a huge stash of cheese in his comfortable little hidey hole !!

You can never underestimate the craftiness of the poor little mouse/fisherman.....in fact....he might be nibbling on great big blocks of cheese that no one even knows about??

How many gold ones does it take, and how much money 💰 does a little mouse family need ? Here's a scenario.....man finds cache of gold coins.....hundreds we'll say. How many does it really take to make a good haul.....well it really dosent take to many with the right numismatic value to realize a big win !! 3 or 4 of the right mint marks, and other rarities and a person could theoretically retire on easy street, and still have the bulk of the cache still intact for future withdraws.

There are many different approaches to this game we play....let's face it...its a game !! Sometimes ya win some, and sometimes you lose....learn to play it good and you might master several techniques of the game, both at land and sea. In today's day and age it's adaptability, and hunting different treasures as they present themselves because here today, and gone tomorrow is how it works now. Wait to long, and mother nature, or mankind will hide it for another thousand years. So continue on gentleman this little mouse will sit and listen (and maybe learn) to the big dogs, and tales of big treasures.....but pardon me if I run off to investigate....I mean go fishing....there's a little crumb of cheese ill have to try and nibble this month....ya see this mouse is still hungry like the crow is !!☠️🫡☠️🫡

 

[Blak bart]

I will throw one out there for fun from the fishermans files ......you boys ever had a plate full of Royal Red shrimp ?? Beautiful little tasty suckers, but extremely difficult to catch on the bottom in 1200 feet....but with the right feel and adjustments you can get that shrimp net door to skim the bottom at 1200 feet !! There was a beautiful wreck out there called the tortuga wreck.....you guys must know the one....the other boat with the atocha, santa margarita, and Rosario. Yup....fisherman got treasure from that deep wreck first....and probably still do !!

 

[treasurediver]

Here's an example of what I'm talking about : 400 feet of long line is a nice piece, now imagine 15 miles of line stretched tight over the bottom with 1500 hooks !! We fish right through the heart of pennikamp state park, and biscayne national park !! These park designations mean nothing to us as we hold the necessary federal permits to fish these waters park or no park !! Thats right surprise surprise!! We are allowed to longline in the parks believe it or not !! I might lay that longline out twice in 24 hours.....day after day after day for years and years !! Im also a treasurehunter, beachcomber, etc.etc.etc we catch stuff....not just fish !! Ill take a picture if we try to sell anchors next week at the nautical flea market....we will have a hundred modern anchors for sale this season from fishing !! Now as a fisherman with the latest equipment, I can almost see in my minds eye the exact lay out of some of these wrecks, and after years of snagging stuff, .....yes I swerve over the good wrecks, and slow down, and pile on lead and hooks !! Because I might get another "bite" from a tea cup 🍵 or maybe a clump of fused coins, or some other artifact. Now imagine 25 good wrecks that you've found, and then snagging some things each time you set on them !! Nibble, nibble, nibble.....like a rat does cheese 🧀

Now it's the off season, and it's warm, and it's clear, and now your diving speciman shells(another form of treasure for me) and you decide to check some numbers where these "catches" have come from !! Just saying!! The fisherman, little mouse, can often just quietly nibble away at the cheese 🧀.....growing fat and comfortable with very little attention. Its often the case when hunting real mice, that you split open a wall to exterminate this vermin, pirate, mouse, and holy sh!t....this little sucker has a huge stash of cheese in his comfortable little hidey hole !!

You can never underestimate the craftiness of the poor little mouse/fisherman.....in fact....he might be nibbling on great big blocks of cheese that no one even knows about??

How many gold ones does it take, and how much money 💰 does a little mouse family need ? Here's a scenario.....man finds cache of gold coins.....hundreds we'll say. How many does it really take to make a good haul.....well it really dosent take to many with the right numismatic value to realize a big win !! 3 or 4 of the right mint marks, and other rarities and a person could theoretically retire on easy street, and still have the bulk of the cache still intact for future withdraws.

There are many different approaches to this game we play....let's face it...its a game !! Sometimes ya win some, and sometimes you lose....learn to play it good and you might master several techniques of the game, both at land and sea. In today's day and age it's adaptability, and hunting different treasures as they present themselves because here today, and gone tomorrow is how it works now. Wait to long, and mother nature, or mankind will hide it for another thousand years. So continue on gentleman this little mouse will sit and listen (and maybe learn) to the big dogs, and tales of big treasures.....but pardon me if I run off to investigate....I mean go fishing....there's a little crumb of cheese ill have to try and nibble this month....ya see this mouse is still hungry like the crow is !!☠️🫡☠️🫡

Another fisherman story? Or is it a shipwreck story?

When we were anchored in a protected bay It felt like home.

When the bay had a history of 500 years of shipwrecks and naval battles, it felt like paradise.

Dealing with the authorities for permission to work on some of shipwrecks felt like hell.

After a day in hell, I often grabbed an airtank, and a “goodybag” and made a quick dive to the bottom of the bay. Hidden in the “goodybag” I had a hook and a metal detector. It is amazing what all one finds with a metal detector on the bottom of a 500 year old harbor.

The hook would help me to gather something for dinner. A lobster, or an octopus usually. It also helped to distract the observers who spied on me with binoculars from the top of the breakwater. When I proudly displayed my dinner on the way back to the boat, they cheered.

On the bottom of old harbors one always finds lost tires that were used as fenders. After a few months the tires became covered with barnacles and other marine growth and integrated into the underwater landscape.

If there were some freshly eaten shells around the tire, it was an indication that the tire had become the home of an octopus. A quick sweep with the hook inside the tire. Then the hook together with the octopus into the “goodybag”. Holding the octopus through the bag, with one twist releasing the hook and then “turning the octopus inside out”, little time was wasted.

Except, when the sweep with the hook was too slow. Then the octopus had the time to hold on. These critters have an amazing strength. Then I had to get the knife out and stab the octopus between the eyes.

But this one octopus held on with a few arms and protected his face with coral rocks with some more arms. Wait, with one arm over his face he was holding a clay pipe. A quick stab and into the bag. A clay pipe? Where does this come from? I pass my hand inside the tire and lo and behold, there are 2 more clay pipes.

An octopus clay pipe collector for dinner.

 

[Crow]

Another fisherman story? Or is it a shipwreck story?

When we were anchored in a protected bay It felt like home.

When the bay had a history of 500 years of shipwrecks and naval battles, it felt like paradise.

Dealing with the authorities for permission to work on some of shipwrecks felt like hell.

After a day in hell, I often grabbed an airtank, and a “goodybag” and made a quick dive to the bottom of the bay. Hidden in the “goodybag” I had a hook and a metal detector.

The hook would help me to gather something for dinner. A lobster, or an octopus usually. It also helped to distract the observers who spied on me with binoculars from the top of the breakwater. When I proudly displayed my dinner on the way back to the boat, they cheered.

On the bottom of old harbors one always finds lost tires that were used as fenders. After a few months the tires became covered with barnacles and other marine growth and integrated into the underwater landscape.

If there were some freshly eaten shells around the tire, it was an indication that the tire had become the home of an octopus. A quick sweep with the hook inside the tire. Then the hook together with the octopus into the “goodybag”. Holding the octopus through the bag, with one twist releasing the hook and then “turning the octopus inside out”, little time was wasted.

Except, when the sweep with the hook was too slow. Then the octopus had the time to hold on. These critters have an amazing strength. Then I had to get the knife out and stab the octopus between the eyes.

But this one octopus held on with a few arms and protected his face with coral rocks with some more arms. Wait, with one arm over his face he was holding a clay pipe. A quick stab and into the bag. A clay pipe? Where does this come from? I pass my hand inside the tire and lo and behold, there are 2 more clay pipes.

An octopus clay pipe collector for dinner.

I am amazed they are intact. usually when found they are broken.

Crow

 

[Blak bart]

Another fisherman story? Or is it a shipwreck story?

When we were anchored in a protected bay It felt like home.

When the bay had a history of 500 years of shipwrecks and naval battles, it felt like paradise.

Dealing with the authorities for permission to work on some of shipwrecks felt like hell.

After a day in hell, I often grabbed an airtank, and a “goodybag” and made a quick dive to the bottom of the bay. Hidden in the “goodybag” I had a hook and a metal detector. It is amazing what all one finds with a metal detector on the bottom of a 500 year old harbor.

The hook would help me to gather something for dinner. A lobster, or an octopus usually. It also helped to distract the observers who spied on me with binoculars from the top of the breakwater. When I proudly displayed my dinner on the way back to the boat, they cheered.

On the bottom of old harbors one always finds lost tires that were used as fenders. After a few months the tires became covered with barnacles and other marine growth and integrated into the underwater landscape.

If there were some freshly eaten shells around the tire, it was an indication that the tire had become the home of an octopus. A quick sweep with the hook inside the tire. Then the hook together with the octopus into the “goodybag”. Holding the octopus through the bag, with one twist releasing the hook and then “turning the octopus inside out”, little time was wasted.

Except, when the sweep with the hook was too slow. Then the octopus had the time to hold on. These critters have an amazing strength. Then I had to get the knife out and stab the octopus between the eyes.

But this one octopus held on with a few arms and protected his face with coral rocks with some more arms. Wait, with one arm over his face he was holding a clay pipe. A quick stab and into the bag. A clay pipe? Where does this come from? I pass my hand inside the tire and lo and behold, there are 2 more clay pipes.

An octopus clay pipe collector for dinner.

Yes....some claim that the octopus 🐙 is not from this world, and is actually alien to this planet ? They are highly intelligent and work in very mysterious ways. This is proof in point of my earlier post.....fisherman have learned to pay attention to them and there habits.

The first experience with octopus and treasure was a real eye opener!! I had been hired to slowly replace an older crew mate....he was a remarkable man, and was still working on the deck of a commercial lobster boat in his 70s.

One day on deck he starts screaming "TREASURE" !! I look over, and I see the tell tale sign of an octopus using a lobster trap as a home.....like I said these animals work on another level of intelligence, and this would be like me moving into the grocery store !! These creatures will live in the trap, and greet each lobster that comes in the trap, and eat them. They procede to make the trap home by decorating the inside of the trap with select items from the bottom. The traps will some times be filled with many pounds of rocks/EOs. These octopus work on the same principle as a detector, and are fully capable of finding encrusted metal objects.....which they prefer over normal coral rocks !!

This is something that can only be figured out by a guy who has seen this type of thing over and over in his 50 years at sea. I don't know how long it took the old man to figure out that the rocks in the trap were all EOs, but somehow he figured out to stop the boat and drift, as we smacked open the rocks in the trap to expose spikes, silverware, Pottery, and yup....even a coin or 2. And guess what....we got clay pipes also !!

I also love to eat these octopus, and they are a real treat !! But we had a couple treasure salving octopus, that we let go and caught many times....I have the numbers on this English wreck, and it's just a bit deep for scuba, so it remains a curiosity at the moment.....we do specifically put special traps down here called condos.....they are bigger, and the octopus prefer them as homes.

It was always a treat to take a break and drift for 15 minutes cracking EOs and searching for more silverware 🍽 !!

I have not fished on this boat in 5 years, but they still send me pics of silverware when they get it....and yes we do have an idea of age, and have looked up the hallmarks.....my last find was a small pickle fork !! Never underestimate the fisherman....we quickly made custom gear to accommodate our special octopus friends ..... we had the hopes of making them comfortable and giving them the best chance at loading our traps with treasure. If I were on the boat that drug up the anchor associated with the Merchant royal....I would modify my gear to drag the spot for treasure.....a separate drag customized to skim the first foot or 2 of bottom sediment....reinforced main line and brails, would alow me to tear large chunks of heavy material without damaging the terminal tackle !! And by now, I would have made 400 passes over that bottom in a giant grid.....remember that these fishing boats will have all the fantastic sensors that a treasure boat has, and sometimes even better systems than some salvage vessels have.....no problem to chart plot and mow the bottom clean if necessary !!