May 2008 News Letter

[PAPPY]

I would like to start the May 2008 News Letter by saying
WELCOME to all of our new forum members that have
joined us since the April News Letter. There have been
so many that it is hard to keep up with.
We are growing by leaps and bounds every month !
Getting BETTER AND BETTER !

THANKS to all that submitted news and articles for the
May News Letter.

I am now accepting articles for the JUNE 2008 NEWS LETTER.
Please send anything that you want to appear in the Letter to:
wvgranpappy@skybest.com

REMEMBER to include your forum user name with whatever
you send.

[PAPPY]

SARGES TOKEN

Submitted by: SARGE1STONE (Kevin)

Several years ago when I had my Spectrum XLT that I had to part with due to medical expenses, I went to one of my favorite places to detect that used to be a Fairgrounds and Horse Track from the late 1800's till about the mid teens.
After digging a few IH Pennies, I got a good signal about 4" down. I dug what I thought was a piece of scrap alum. or can slaw but I noticed it had an octagon shape to it. I then realized it was some kind of token, but, never payed much attention to it until recently when I started cleaning it up.
I'm finding out that it is a GREAT FIND ! It's marked KENTUCKY CLUB HOUSE, L.BERHEIM JR. SHAWNEE O.T. GOOD FOR 5c IN TRADE.
I thought it was an Indian Territory Token but after close inspection and cleaning the "I" is NOT there.
It's still nice to know that it is NOT in any token books yet to date!

[PAPPY]

Submitted by: EBCIII (Beale Carter)

Well, the last 18 days have really been a wild ride for me. On April 1,2008 I was hunting in a tot lot when I found my first gold ring. What a suprise and thrill ! I really never thought I would find any gold, much less a nice ring. Since that day I have found another silver ring, a silver dime, a buffalo nickel and a silver quarter in the same hole. I was on CLOUD NINE for sure ! I just knew the month could not get any better, BUT IT DID!

On April 19,2008, I was hunting a yard that I have hunted a bunch. I was hunting next to an old clothes line. I got a nice hit and thought Wheatie ! I had only found wheats in this yard before, no silver. I kneeled down to cut the plug. I popped out the plug and the target was still in the hole. I re-pinpointed and dug a bit further back. As I was looking in the hole I saw SILVER RIDGES ! I just knew it was a silver coin. It was way to big for a dime, I thought Quarter again. I reached in and gently pulled out the target.
I was a 1937 LIBERTY WALKER HALF DOLLAR !!!
I was so stunned, I just sat back and stared at that awesome coin. I really can not tell you how this last 18 days has felt. SO MANY FIRSTS FOR ME !!! WHAT A GREAT HOBBY !!!!

[PAPPY]

Submitted by: BUSTER (JOHN)

This will be a story about the guy who got me interested in metal detecting..JIM BALSBAUHG..He was my supervisor in the Air Force when I was stationed at Dover Air Force Base during the 90's.
He lived next door to me in base housing and one day he asked me if I wanted to go hunting. We hunted some and then I WAS HOOKED !
I ended up getting my first detector from Kellyco and I was OFF AND RUNNING ! We would hunt all over that base. There were plenty of old playgrounds and older places to look. A lot of those places have been torn down and new buildings have been put up now. We would go out on weekends and get some coffee and hunt and just check out new places to detect. We ended up going into downtown Dover and hunting a lot of old places.
Dover was around in the 1700's and there is a lot of history there. Well, he used an old Garrets machine that had no screen or any new attachments. He just went by sound. This guy would find all kinds of things. He once pulled up 4 silver quarters out of the same hole ! He had found all kinds of things.
I found a lot also but not like him. I was just starting out and still learning. I have found a lot of silver and older stuff while I was in Dover but not like this guy. I am not sure if it was luck or maybe he was that good. I remember when I found my first silver. He was there with me on that one. I found a Merc under a tree off to the side of a big lot across from an old church. THAT was the GREATEST FEELING, seeing that come out of the ground all shiny and new looking. He was also with me when I found my 1900 quarter and shield nickel. As I said, he was good at finding all kinds of things.
One time we had hunted in between some buildings in downtown Dover...Found a little bit...Not much..called it a day. The next day I went to Maryland to see my folks and he went back and found some old coins and a IH penny..he was good like that.
After awhile he moved out of base housing and we would still get together and hunt a lot. He is one of the best hunters that I have ever known and he showed me a lot about this hobby. He is still up in Dover hunting as we speak. I have not seen him in quite a few years. Hopefully he is still teaching and showing the ropes to another hunting partner.
I THANK HIM for all I know and for the things that he showed me...BUSTER.

[PAPPY]

Submitted by: BDA (Eric)

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON PIRATES

Pirates have received a bad rap in the history books and I've done a fair bit of research on the subject so I know of what I speak. I'm not trying to suggest that the pirates of the Spanish Main era were a bunch of choir boys in Sunday school but the topic of pirates needs to be put into perspective. I remember a history professor starting his course by writing in big hold letters on the rolling black boards at the front of the lecture hall "The Victors Write the History Books". The Pirates lost and the Old Guard won so the history on the topic of pirates is more than a little skewed from the reality of the day. Most of the pirates of the 1600's and 1700's (The Golden Age Of Piracy ) were from conditions in the colonies and the homeland were brutal for the common man, most of the money and power was concentrated amongst a few and the rest had to struggle. Many families would send there sons to sea in the hopes of making a better life for themselves as the land was held by the aristocracy and there was little future for the son of a working man, virtual serfdorn was the norm and the main reason the 13 Colonies rose up against the crown that exploited them. (Oppresive taxes were the vehicle not the roor problem).
Life at sea was an escape from the hardship of working for a rich landowner for many young men who were willing to take risks to rise above the position they were born to. In those days you were born to a position and the chances to rise above that station were extremely small. Even surnames indicated ones station. John Smith is a shortened version of John the son of the Smith and being a Blacksmith is all that young John could aspire to. Those with ambition or no other prospects would go to sea with the hope of rising through the ranks through ambition, skill, hard work and luck.
The sea is a cruel mistress and the dangers encompassed more than storms and hidden shoals. The navy was always on the lookout for new "recruits" and would stop merchant vessels on the high seas and press gang members of the crew into the navy. Being shanghaied was an ever present threat while on shore leave and many a crewman in His Majesty's Royal Navy joined up when they awoke with a lump on their head onboard a ship of the line. The reason that the British Navy and other navies as well, had to resort to such recruitment tactics was because conditions on board a naval vessel were harsh in the extreme. A brutal work environment, miserable pay, disease and harsh punishments for the least infraction of often rediculous rules made honest seamen fear being press ganged or shanghaied; no seaman worth his salt would join the navy of those days. Officers had to buy their commissions so leadership was based upon privilege rather than ability, young silver spooned sons of aristocrats not in line for inheriting the manor would be farmed off to the army or the navy. Morale under a bunch of incompetents who hadn't "earned their salt" as the saying went, was generally very low. Talking back to an officer who had issued a foolish order would earn an experienced seaman who knew better a lashing or a keelhauling, depending upon the whim of the Captain.
The Navy had to earn its keep and pay its own way so the system of seizing prizes was used to finance the Navy. Any ship that was a potential prize could be stopped on the high seas and if any evidence could be found to make her a prize, she would be seized. (Contraband, tax evasion, unfriendly port of registry, or whatever trumped up charges could be laid) The lion's share of the loot would be sent to the Admiralty, the Captain and Officers of the naval vessel would get most of the balance and the crew perhaps a stipend to pay off their bill to the navy for supplies such as uniforms and necessities that could only be purchased from the quarthermaster at inflated prices.
It was not easy to be a common seaman in His Majesty's Royal Navy. The idea of taking prizes did catch on however but without a Royal License it was called by another name "PIRACY"!
Merchants who had lost cargoes to the Navy and those seaman who had escaped their sentence in the Navy (the minimum term being 7 years), soon realized the opportunities to be had in seizing prizes for themselves, the loot being split amongst the crew without a share to go to the Admiralty. Needless to say, the Royal Navy was not impressed by this entrepreneurial challenge to their monopoly and responded with force against the new upstarts. They had a tough time of it for a long while as pirates are resourceful types by nature and therefore hard to catch.
Pirates were often more skilled as seaman, knew the local waters better, had higher morale and better fighting spirit than their counterparts in the Navy. Pirates were better paid, better dressed, better armed personally, better fed and generally better liked in port than naval seamen of the times. A pirate was a local merchant of sorts, bringing in goods at a lower price ( Without customs tax duty), spending his money locally and employing many of the local seamen.
The Captain of a pirate ship typically held his position at the discretion of the pirate crew who elected him based on his skill and good judgement, the crew owned the ship equally and they could depose him from the Captaincy if he showed poor judement, lacked skill or was just unlucky. One of the oldest forms of democracy as we know it today occured on pirate ships.
Pirates had a blood thirsty reputation but not all of it was well earned and they were no more blood thirsty than their naval counterparts. A typical encounter between a merchant ship and a pirate ship would go something like this. The priate ship would slip up on its victim flying false colors, then hoist the pirate flag (meant to inspire fear) and fire a warning shot across the merchants bow. If the merchant ship hove to, the pirates would board her with overwhelming odds of men and weapons; pirate ships would carry three to four times the number of men as merchant ship of similar tonnage. If the merchant ship fired back or made a run for it, there would be trouble if they were caught. The crew would be intimidated, the cargo hold and quarters searched for valuables, the passengers robbed. Before departing, the pirates would generally try to enlist the ship's carpenter, surgeon and other skilled seamen from the marchant ship as piracy was a dangerous business and the number of crew was constantly in flux, many of those invited would join willingly, others would be forced if necessary but this was the exception not the rule. The ship would be left to sail away, largely unharmed in order for it to secure another cargo that might be seized on the next passage. The pirate's business was intimidating and seizing vessels without a fight, not blasting their bread and butter out of the water, fighting only occured when chased down by the competition's warships ( aka The Royal Navy) or when a merchant put up a fight.
There are many stories told of pirates and the atrocities they committed, some are true but most have only a grain of truth to them. Pirates encoraged such rumors to bolster their reputation and make their quarry give up without a fight, even the flags that pirates flew from the topsails were designed to intimidate merchant captains into giving up without a fight. When the fight did come, pirates tend to be ruthless indeed. Crews that fought back might be slaughtered to a man, especially if the pirate crew had lost a lot of men in the attack, both as retribution and as a warning to other merchant captains who might contemplate resistance.
The 1600's and the 1700's were a difficult time in history, monarchical rule was severely oppressive to the commoner, therefore is it any surprise that men would turn to piracy and its limited freedoms. The fact Pirates are still romanticized in print and in film is proof that there was more to this group than mere bloodthirsty greed and black hearts.
So, you may be asking yourself, what does all of this swashbuckler history have to do with us treasure hunters today? Well, there are some interesting parallels, enough that those of us who hunt the ocean and the beaches go by the moniker of "Surf Pirates". I've been asked if metal detecting is "legal" by many people I've met on the beach and in the water. I've also been told on two occasions that metal detecting is "Stealing", once by the wife of a fellow detectorist no less. Many people have turned a jaundiced eye towards me as I swing my coil in the waves and there is a commonly held opinion by many members of the public that our hobby is for nonconformists only.
"Aren't you embarrassed to do THAT in front of all these people" I've been told while hunting at a crowded beach, as if I should be ashamed of our wonderful hobby and my participation in it. People whom I've shown my treasure collection to handle it as though it were illcit in some way and I find that truly comical.
Since 911 and perhaps before that, society has been moving back towards a more conformist attitude, everyone has to conform to the norm or they are suspect. If you don't know anything about metal detecting it's easy to arrive at misconceptions about the hobby. A friend of my wife's said to me while looking at a bowl full of gold rings "MY GOD ERIC, THEY'RE ALL PEOPLE'S WEDDING BANDS !" you would think I had gone into the water with a gold vacuum and sucked the rings off some poor victims finger !
I metal detect in the water because it is exciting, its good exercise, it's rewarding and because I just plain enjoy the hunt itself. I like showing up at a beach, having monitored the wind and wave action for the previous week, and reading the conditions, jump right in and follow my instincts to treasure. I don't ask people to wear their jewelry into the water but they seem to enjoy doing it. I've even warned people with particularly expensive pieces against swimming while wearing their jewels. People are going to do what they are going to do and they're going to lose what they're going to lose, whether or not I find treasure and whether or not I decide to return it is up to me. A gold band lost in the surf gone until it washes up on the beach and somebody eyeballs it or until I go out and hunt it down, there is no theft involved, it's gone until reclaimed.
Standing out from the crowd is what you'll do if you show up at a crowded beach with a detector in one hand and a sand scoop in the other. Ours is a solitary sport when hunting and you will be noticed as being different from the rest of the beach goers, it's all about one's individuality and if you don't have enough of it to go against the flow you will quickly leave our hobby, it's not for everyone.
So, if you can stand out from the crowd, not conform to silly social standards, take a detector in you hand and go out and grab you share of the loot. Your'e a SURF PIRATE. Fly those pirate colours proudly because ours is truly a wonderful hobby, full of warm and friendly people who share their experiences freely and praise each other in our accomplishments.
Sounds a lot like a pirate crew to me !

Cheers,

BDA

[PAPPY]

Submitted by: PAPPY



Treasure trove found in 500-year-old shipwreck off Africa - Yahoo! News

[Buster]

Good issue Pappy...If I must say so myself....Buster..........

[EBCIII]

I enjoyed all of the stories. Good reading for sure, Beale.

[INDY]

Very good reading, thanks to the ones who submitted. I've enjoyed the articles
Eric(BDA) very interesting, loved it

[northwind]

First off I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the welcome!! 2nd just wanted to say great job very interesting newsletter. Very much appreciate the time you guys put in this website I enjoy very much.Well good luck to ALL