Shipwreck treasure.
It is inevitable after being in diving and visiting many treasure wrecks over 44 years, that i am going to come across shipwreck treasure. I have dived the Campen; Admiral Gardender; Earl of Abergavenny; Coronation; Association; Eagle; Hollandia; Phoenix; Colossus; Schiller and many more. Below are a few items of treasure I have come by as a result but for differing reasons.
My trail of shipwreck treasure finding started with the Colossus and Schiller. I found my first ever shipwreck coin on Colossus. It was this copper portuguese coin. After it, I found a few more similar and my first silver on the wreck too.
Colossus sank in 1798.
Then I dived on the Schiller for a while and found my first gold coins and boy what coins to find as your first gold- they are huge and very heavy. The Schiller sank in 1875 with 30 barrels of these coins on board. Most were salvaged but some still turn up time to time.
Some of the Treasure from the Phoenix. This is one of 18 wrecks I have found pretty much on my own over the years. I can see this site from my lounge window. After diving the wreck for two years I had no idea this treasure was there, until one day I turned up to find all the sand over the site had disappeared. This lead to finding the first bit of treasure which then lead me to the rest. Later the sand returned again- but had I not bothered that day it could all still be down there today and me no one any the wiser. Until that point the wreck had been a bit of a disappointment in regards to artefacts. I believe this is contraband gold jewellery- and also in the picture Im holding a hoard of Charles II gold coins. I found many silver coins too. This is all set to go to auction by law.
The Phoenix sank in 1680
I covered the story in another post. Diving in very deep water away from the wreck on East'ard Ledge. I was clearing pots for a fisherman when I came across some old onion bottles dating from circa 1710. I picked up a few coins from the spot too, which date from the same period. The closest wreckage was up on eastard ledge which is east of the Association. Some beleive the wreck on Eastard ledge to be the Romney but this has never been proven. Others believe it is just more of the Association which is on the nearby Gilstone Ledges. There have been so many wrecks around those rocks that its hard to pull one from another. I believe I have found a trail to either the stern of Association or to the Romney itself. Some believe that the stern of Association went off into deep water and going by the few items I found and where I found them -it is either debris simply pushed down from above- or as I like to believe- the trail to something much bigger even deeper down. My items were found in over 40meters of water but whatever else may be down there is going to be in over 50m. Theres a lot of sand out there so it could be nearby but just buried. Time will tell. These wrecks sank in 1707.
I declared these as (Possibly) Association
Copper ha'penny coins from the wreck of the Bassenthwaite. This was a wreck I found in 2017 and these coins helped to date and thus identify the wreck. These coins were minted for one year only- which was 1837. The Bassenthwaite sank in 1836 carrying these coins as part of a large cargo consignment to Quebec. They never made it.
When I first started diving Scilly in the early 90's I helped the salvage team to place moorings on the Hollandia and other jobs. They had found a large mound of silver pillar dollar coins on this wreck years beforehand. I was gifted a couple of these coins for my help at that time as a thank you. These were the world currency of the time. I never actually found any coins on this site so I cant really include them but I did spend a lot of time on this wreck helping out and since then have produced a site plan of it- upon during which I found a nice part of her ornate ships bell. Nice big silver coins these.
The Hollandia sank in 1743
Bassenthwaite 1836
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