Incredible Metal Detecting Discoveries: True Stories of Amazing Treasures Found by Everyday People (4 page)

Sailing through the
Caribbean and along the east coast of Florida is a great experience
during the warmer summer months. The days are long so there is plenty
of time under the sun for easy navigating. The waters are cool and
inviting and the ocean breeze is soothing enough to lull you right to
sleep.

Yes, sailing in the summer
is great except for one thing, one very big and very dangerous thing.
The summer months belong to hurricane season and these Spanish
sailors did not have the convenience of a smartphone in their pocket
to warn them about approaching bad weather.

On July 30
^th
,
the fleet came head to head with a massive hurricane. Just imagine
for a moment what that must have been like. Being born and raised in
Florida makes it very easy for me to imagine just how scary those
moments must have been for these Spanish sailors. For those of you
who have never had the pleasure of living through a hurricane, let me
give you some food for thought.

Your average hurricane
will create constant winds well over 130 miles per hour or 241
kilometers per hour. These are not gusts of wind. These are constant
destructive winds. These powerful winds can last anywhere from a few
hours to a few days. Powerful winds like these are down right
frightening to experience on land. They are powerful enough to move
vehicles, snap giant trees like toothpicks, blow the roof clean off a
house and create all types of deadly high speed projectiles. You
don't want to be outside in this type of wind let alone on the deck
of a ship in the Atlantic ocean.

The wind is not the only
problem either. Hurricanes create torrential amounts of rain. The
rain mixed with the powerful wind can not only make it difficult to
see, but it can be very painful!

Let's not forget the
occasional lightning strike. Lightning is attracted to tall objects
like trees and ship masts! This all sounds pretty bad doesn't it?
Well it gets worse, much worse.

Hurricanes can also spawn
tornadoes. Notice that word is plural? Not only do you have to deal
with the dangerous winds, torrential downpours and deadly lightning,
but you also have to deal with the possibility of multiple tornadoes
all at the same time! Living through this type of experience on land
is difficult. Surviving it on a ship is next to impossible.

Boats have one more thing
to deal with. They have to deal with the fury of the sea. I have seen
the ocean during a hurricane with my own two eyes. It is bone
chilling. It will make you realize just how small you are in the
grand scheme of our wonderful planet. What was once a blue oasis of
inviting water is now a massive mess of water and waves that have no
logical pattern.

The ocean comes to life
and the waves can surge as high as 50 feet. One wall of water after
another smashes into itself, the land, the trees and anything else
that is unfortunate enough to get in its way. You can't stop moving
water. Waves of this magnitude will destroy anything in their path.

Now
that you have the details. Try to imagine what it must have been like
for these Spanish sailors in their ships that were already overloaded
with massive amounts of treasure. Devastating winds, torrential
rains, lightning, tornadoes and the fury of the sea sank every single
ship in this convoy. Every piece of treasure these ships were
carrying was now scattered along the east coast of Florida. The
treasure loss is one thing, but thousands of innocent lives were lost
as well.

The
lone survivors made camps along the beach where they started
salvaging as much treasure as they could. The Spanish would later
take part in a recovery mission that would last 2-3 years. They built
a large camp along the shores of the ocean, and with the help of
local Indians they were able to recover a large amount of the
treasure.

The Big
Discovery

The
treasure has managed to make its way all over the state of Florida.
Pieces of it have been found far inland where local Indian tribes
carried it along their daily routes, but the real history started to
get uncovered in the 1950s when Kip Wagner found a piece of eight on
the beach after a hurricane.

Kip
put two and two together, consulted some older charts and maps and
picked up an early model army surplus metal detector that was
primarily used for locating land mines. Kip was able to locate the
original Spanish recovery camp where he unearthed gold and silver
coins, relics and pottery. The next logical step was to try and get a
bird's eye view of the area.

Kip
rented an airplane to help spot the wreckage of the ships. From his
airplane view, he could see what looked like ships under the ocean.
Kip, along with the state of Florida began salvaging the area by
boat. They dove the waters and located hundreds of thousands of coins
and other treasures. All of the coins they managed to pull from the
ocean were in excellent condition.

This
entire area has become a huge source of treasure for many eager
treasure hunters. There are countless great stories from the past,
and there are more being made every single time the weather in the
area takes a turn for the worst.

Get Your
Share of the Treasure

There
is nothing stopping you from claiming your share of treasure in this
amazing story, but there are a few things to consider before you
embark on your treasure hunt. A waterproof metal detector that has
been designed to work on the beach is going to be your best bet at
finding any coins, but you can't legally use a machine in the waters
here. You can only detect on the beach from the edge of the dunes
down to the low tide line. You can't use a metal detector in the
water, and you can't use one in the dunes either.

You
should also plan your visit around any type of weather event. It
could be a winter Nor'easter, or it could be a summer tropical storm
or a hurricane. These types of weather events move a lot of sand and
help to expose the older heavy gold and silver coins beneath. People
do find coins and other pieces of treasure during any time of the
year, and there have been people who have found treasure using
nothing more than their eyes.

If
you do go after a storm event, you can bet that you won't be alone.
Eager treasure hunters descend upon this beach in droves. There are
so many of them that you may find it difficult to swing your coil!

Where
Should You Go?

The
Treasure Coast starts just below Sebastian Inlet and extends almost
all the way down to West Palm Beach. Just remember to fill in your
holes, stay out of state parks, the dunes and the water. This is one
treasure story where you get to be the star. Have fun and get some
treasure of your own!

I
could give you a more detailed map with very specific GPS
coordinates, but an old pirate friend of mine would most likely keel
haul me, and I don't feel like spending my final moments strapped to
the hull of a pirate ship.

Florida's fabulous
treasure coast is not the only coastline rich with treasure history.
Just about any shoreline can have buried treasure. There are
countless shipwrecks and past civilizations on pretty much every
coastline in the world.

This awesome story takes
place in the southern straits of Florida on a little chain of coral
ridden islands known as the Florida Keys where the clear blue waters
were a favorite among pirates and early Spanish explorers whose ships
were almost always overloaded with treasure.

Enter the Treasure
Hunter

20
year old Mike DeMar a former resident of Seattle, Washington moves to
Key West, Florida to pursue a lifelong dream of finding buried
treasure. He joined up with a salvage company by the name of Blue
Water Ventures Key West, a joint venture partner of Mel Fisher's
Treasures.

Blue
Water Ventures Key West had been actively searching an area of the
keys for over three years. They were searching for a galleon so
overloaded with treasure that it weighed 480 tons. Like many other
shipwrecks of this era, the galleon was carrying a little too much
treasure.

A
ship plump with treasure and a fierce storm always wind up becoming a
deadly scenario and that is exactly what sealed the fate of this
galleon. On board the ship were 143 passengers and an unfathomable
amount of treasure.

Just
four months into his treasure seeking adventures, Mike would make the
find of a lifetime. It makes sense that this guy would find treasure
in the ocean. His last name means “of the sea.”

Equipped
with scuba tanks and waterproof metal detectors, team members scour
the bottom of the shallow waters. They have made plenty of
discoveries in the past and they know this area is rich in more than
undersea life. Mike was in 18 feet of water when his metal detector
signaled something buried beneath the sand.

Mike's
first thought was an old beer can. It would not be the first one they
had found. Unfortunately beer cans litter the floor of the ocean and
they are something you have to deal with when you are hunting
treasure.

Using
his hands, Mike started to fan the bottom. With each wave of his
hand, a small layer of sand was pushed aside until he had revealed a
hole about 1 foot or .3 meters deep, and there it was staring him
right in the face. An ornate golden chalice that was over 350 years
old.

Initial
reports say the chalice is easily worth a million dollars. That is
£595,593 for you British folks. This incredible find is proof
that lifelong dreams can come true as long as you put forth the
effort to pursue them!

You
can see this magnificent golden chalice for yourself at the following
web address:

http://www.melfisher.com/goldchalice.asp

The golden chalice found
off the coast of the Florida Keys is certainly not the only golden
cup in existence, and it is definitely not the only golden cup to be
unearthed. This great find takes place across the pond in the
historic town of Sandwich, England. Just curious here, but what do
you think they eat for lunch in Sandwich?

In
2001, Cliff Bradshaw was searching a recently plowed field with his
metal detector. It just so happens that Cliff is an “amateur”
archeologist who has a fond interest in the Anglo-Saxon period.

For a
period of over a year he carefully searched through a field where he
was regularly finding artifacts. He knew his finds were not just
random. He knew that this field must have had some sort of historical
significance for the Anglo-Saxon period. If he was correct, then
there had to be an ancient Anglo-saxon burial mound nearby.

Cliff
noticed a slight raised area in the field. This had to be the burial
mound. He immediately started searching the outside perimeter of the
mound. He knew he would have a better chance of recovering treasure
in the shallower sides of the burial mound.

It
did not take him long to locate his first target, an Anglo-Saxon
gilded brooch. It was buried a mere 8-10 inches or 20-25 centimeters
below the surface. Of course this find excited him immensely. He
continued to slowly search the outer perimeter of the burial mound.
This is where he made the important discovery of what would be called
the Ringlemere Cup.