DISCOVER THE 1715 FLEET 

Captain Jonah Martinez and the crew of the M/V Bottomline made a spectacular find on 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels’ Cabin Wreck site this past week. Carrying out methodical excavations in 4-to-6 feet of sand and shell overburden, diver Grant Gitschlag found an amazing, intact silver frame. The frame is quite large and is footed with two figures of birds, possibly eagles. It is in an overall remarkable state of preservation. The frame may well have been used for a painted picture o

Eric Schmitt and the crew of the M/V Aarrr Booty continued to make interesting finds during July at the 1715 fleet Douglas Beach wreck site. Among the artifacts they recovered were a number of large pewter buttons and a silver sowing thimbles, which, upon cleaning and conservation may prove to be two thimbles nested together. Even more interesting was a small, gold gilt, silver box. While most of the gold gilt has been removed by over three centuries of submersion within the

Andreas Kerner working aboard the M/V Hitting Bottom has been doing methodical metal detector surveys of the 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels’ Power Plant site. While the Power Plant site search is primarily focused on the recovery of artifacts dating to the late 16th or early 17th century, scattered debris from a number of other ship wreck sites are known to be in the area. Within the last week Andreas has recovered two coins, one gold and one silver, dating to the late 18th Century

Congratulations to Eric Schmitt and the crew of the Aarrr Booty for their find of a Bogota 2 Escudo at the 1715 fleet wreck site known as Douglas Beach. Using methodical excavation techniques, Eric and crew found the coin on June 29th, in an offshore area of the Douglas Beach site. Eric and crew are sure to produce more exciting finds as the summer salvage season progresses! #2018 #AarrrBooty #EricSchmitt #DouglasBeachWreck #1715GoldCoins

Andreas Kerner working aboard the M/V Hitting Bottom recovered two very interesting bronze spikes at the 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels’ Power Plant site. One of the spikes is pictured below. Very crude in appearance, these spikes might well date to the late 16th or early 17th centuries and could be related to the finds of silver paddies and Philip II 2 Reale silver coins that have been recovered in the same general area in the past. Also recovered was a lead seal of an unknown ori

Congratulations to Jason and Joey Gooch! Several weeks ago while conducting methodical excavations on the 1715 fleet Douglas Beach wreck site they made their first silver coin discovery. A beautiful Lima one reale dated (16)98, with the date clearly legible on both the obverse and reverse sides of the coin. #2018 #JasonandJoeyGooch #DouglasBeachWreck #1715SilverCoins