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Discussion of diving methods and equipment available prior to the development of BCDs beyond the horse collar. This forum is dedicated to the pre-1970 diving.
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treasureman
Master Diver
Posts: 412
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:53 pm
Location: Ottawa Canada
Contact: Website

Another tale of treasure

Thu Oct 06, 2005 6:40 pm

Aye..sit back me harties while the treasureman opens his logbook and tell ye of more booty from davey Jones Locker.

twas not long ago when a long pier reached out from the shoreline in Ottawa , and went out 300 ft from shore. In the 1950's, it was part of the Old brittania beach. A favourite haunt for soldiers, and their families. The pier stood over 20 feet higher than the water level, and kids of all ages ran off the sides and jumped into the clear river water.

fast forwrd to day, the water is not so clear, and the pier is gone. The city fathers decided that spending 75,000 dollars to repair it was too much, so they spent 30 million to build a concrete wall instead.

I has taken my metal detector (baracuda )down to where the old pilings were located, and began my solo dive to rescue the treasures from the icy fingers of the cold watrer.

I had several hits, but most were sounding like trash.

One hit was faint, but it was solid. Treasure I thought to myself. I began to dig with the handscoop, then search the hole with the detector. This went on for over half an hour as the hole began to get deeper and deeper. 15 inches so far, and still a solid tone, but no treasure.

I swept the hole and the refuse pile to make sure i did not scoop it out. The hole still had a solid hit.

The baracuda detector is a high energy pulse machine and it bites down real deep . with a frequency depth of 3 feet, I knew i would soon bottom out. As i dug deeper and deeper, the energy pulse went deeper and deeper.

Finaly after digging an area 4 fet wide and over 3 feet deep (I had to make the hole wider to accomodate my bulk as i dug deeper), a copper coin popped out It was a 1847 half penny Nova Scotia Token. Now what would that be doing here so far away from the east coast. How did it travel from Salt water to fresh water?

I foung a gold wedding band that dive 14 kt, and melted it down , and formed it into a band which now holds the coin. of course my daughter ever with the eye for the finer things in life claimed the coin and bezel for her own. I think she has a bit of Anne Bonie in her. Every time i come up from a dive, she is there in a pyrate stance, legs apart hands on her hips "well dad did you find anything.

I have thought about holding out on her, but something in the back of me head tells me she would keel haul me if she had a ship, so i fess up and show her the recently acquired booty.

every year brings me a couple of handfulls of rings, coins, and occassionaly some historical artifact.

treasure diving is fun, but the real fun is working your way trhough the archives of the area you are going to dive to learn about the past. After all, our future is where our past has been.

As long as silly people mix suntan oil with cold river water and horseplay there will always be an abundance of treasure to fire my imagination, and keep my daughter in more gold than Mr T has.

when i think to all the rivers, lakes etc that were part of the civil war, as well as the galleons that went down in the carribean, I feel like i got the sharp end of the stick I am up here in the frozen north, while all you fellas got all this treasure in your backyards.

I am looking at this time for the paymaster barge which went down during the war of 1812 between Us and Upper canada. The oficers were paid in gold, the men in script coin. It began its journey from the tay river, went to the big rideau then into the rivers until it went to the st lawrence river and on to Old fort henry. Well documents show uit left Tay river basin, but it never made it to the next stop on the way20 mile down river. Nor ecords show the barge men having ssigned in as they were supposed to.

So since 1969, I have been scouring the bottom of the Tay river in search for the elusive pay barge, and the gold coins it carried. perhaps it was burned and sunk and the paymaster scarpered off..who knows.

Half the fun is the search , the other half is knwoing the history.


Each year I bring up many bottles from the bottom of many rivers. Most are over 200 years old and worth a fair amouhnt of money. I clean them, then have them sterilised in an autoclave, and towards Christmas I brew up a nice Pinot Noir, let it age six months, then bottle this nectar in these 200 year old bottles, and give them out as presents. So far most of the recipients have Gourmet taste in wine, some are gourmand, and cant appreciate it. One fella threw out the bottle after guzzling the wine. he went dumpstre diving when i told him the bottles were over 200 years old and worth some 3oo dollars each.

Just thinking of this wine makes me want some Ardbegh. Time to go and have two fingers worth

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