Silver Buttons, Coins and Summer Days

With the stretch of weather the Sea Reaper has been waiting for, MRR’s Capt. Josh Abt and the Sea Reaper crew were able to make a 7-day trip to Motivation, Inc.’s site of the Santa Margarita. Josh and crew continued to use a combination of prop wash and air lift excavation techniques that has proven successful during this year’s expeditions to the famed Fisher family’s site.

MRR diver, Dale Gannon, recovers an 8 real during the first excavation of the trip.

The trip started off on a positive note, as an 8 reale was recovered out of the first excavation with divers being in the water less than ten minutes. Things got exciting when an ornate silver button was recovered, ending the first day with 3 silver buttons, a silver coin, and some split shot. Split shots are a type of ammunition that has two halves and a piece of wire on a protrusion off one end of each half. When fired, they would open and do damage to anything they hit, including other people and sails. The bigger the hole in a sail, the less wind it could grab, which made the vessel slower and more sluggish.

MRR diver recovers a silver coin.

As the days on site continued, the divers were able to put more silver coins on the back deck of the Sea Reaper. The area that was worked also produced several split shot and musket shot. On the last day before returning to port, the crew started recovering what appears to be lead tacks—a new artifact to research, as nothing similar has been found in the past on the Margarita.

MRR member and Capt. Josh examine artifacts on the documentation table.

These items are what make our job exciting. Working with groups like the Fisher’s Motivation, Inc., which publish such findings on their online data base for peer review and academic study, only makes it better. The Fisher family company, including Motivation, Inc., has done more for the positive evolution of the historic ship wreck industry than any other company working today. It is MRR’s pleasure to work with Motivation on the Santa Margarita. There will more exciting finds to come.

When the Sea Reaper returned to port they had recovered 3 silver buttons, 13 silver coins, 7 split shot, 2 musket balls and an assortment of 49 different parts of lead tacks. The Sea Reaper is now heading north to join the Seatrepid on the 1715 Fleet for the height of the Treasure Coast season.

Things are going to get exciting!!!