So much for the editorial which, admittedly, has nothing to do with the maritime world, ships, the ocean, or anything we typically bring you. Sorry, but I had to vent. Now, on to today's news (maritime)!
From Histecho.com (an archeological on-line publication), the following:
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A possible old Peruvian artifact was
found by an undersea treasure hunter near Melbourne beach which could have been
transported by the doomed 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet.
Mike Torres, chief technology
officer at Seafarer Exploration, said. I found the item on Jan. 14 at the
pre-dawn darkness. “I thought it was scrap. I thought it was a NASA scrap,
honestly. I thought it was a piece of an aircraft,”
The circular copper relic has a
picture of a bird-like figure and is about 10 inches in size, bordered with
intricate patterns, John de Bry, director of the Center for Historical
Archaeology in Melbourne Beach, said the object may have once been gold-plated.
De Bry has studied the 1715 Plate
Fleet — which takes its name from “Plata,” the Spanish word for silver — since
the late 1960s. Eleven of the 12 ships in the fleet were lost in a hurricane on
the coast of East Central Florida.
After examining the object Thursday
at his home office, de Bry suspects it is the top portion of a headdress from a
burial site dating to the Moche civilization, which flourished in Peru from
about 100 to 700 A.D. — centuries before the Inca Empire.
“The close proximity of a 1715
shipwreck — especially one that might be the Concepción from Tierra Firme,
South America — seems to explain the presence of this particular artifact,” de
Bry said, peering through a magnifying glass at the metal artwork.
Seafarer Exploration is a Tampa-based
company that explores, documents and recovers historic shipwrecks. Since 2014,
the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research has permitted the firm to search
for artifacts in the Melbourne Beach area.
In 2004, divers discovered an iron
cannon that may have belonged to the fleet off the Melbourne Beach shoreline.
Subsequent expeditions yielded silver platters, a flintlock pistol, ship
timbers, and other artifacts.
Torres called Jan. 14 to find the
most significant in his company’s history.
He declined to divulge details about
the shipwreck location. He also said he has no plans to sell the object and
declined to speculate on its value: “How would you price that? I don’t know.”
Seafarer Exploration has contacted
archaeologists with Columbia University, Harvard University and Tulane
University.
Torres said spectrometer
measurements show the metal artifact is 90 percent copper and 7 percent
iridium, with trace amounts of gold and silver.
Torres — a former adjunct
professor of aerospace engineering at MIT — said he employed
satellite imagery and new software that he developed to pinpoint Concepción’s
twin debris trails. Each debris trail stretches about 1.5 miles.
He said he discovered the mystery object during his software’s first field
test.
The 1715 Spanish Plate
Fleet carrying gold and silver met disaster when a fierce July hurricane
struck Florida’s East Coast.
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Now that's much more interesting than getting the flu-like symptoms of Covid-19! Should more info appear on the ongoing exploration of the Concepcion's wreckage, we will try to bring it to you.
Until then, maintain your "social distance" and wash your hands - often!
Fair winds,
Old Salt
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