Treasures...

If you look up treasure in a dictionary you will see 1) Wealth stored up 2) something of value. To some it would take a treasure chest full of gold coins and gems, to others it as simple as an old bottle. It’s all how you look at it.

What are you looking for? We all would love to find a treasure chest full of gold but that is not going to happen. Some of us have found gold and silver and old bottles. You just have to start looking. At times something as small as a penny in the street it’s all treasure!  One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Being a diver I get to find treasures most people don’t get to see and that is under water. People never think about divers and throw everything in the water. That is why it is always a good place to dive around docks, bridges, and walk ways by the water. I have found many wedding bands and rings in this one area. I think because it is easy to drive up and park your car right there and just toss the rings right in to the water. It could be if he/she wants the ring back their can go find it and in to the water it goes. Bad for them good for me!

In the old days trash was dumped in to the water and it was gone, out of site out of mind!  It also happens on dry land, trash pits and old out houses were the dumps in their days. Bottle hunters look for and dig in these sites. Some do very well digging in these sites and not just bottles, rings and coins are just some of the other things their find!

   Underwater you have to have a eye to spot thing because marine growth cover everything. I was on a dive one time where a diver picked up a bottle that looked broken and it was coved in growth, but he kept anyway and late he cleaned it up and it was a whole short pony bottle, it was a real nice find! So it is a skill you have to work on, if you’re not sure what it is bring it up. Until you know what you have you hang on to it! Not everything just sits on the bottom, some time you to dig, but you have to know where to dig. Knowing where to dig can save you a lot of time and time is something you don’t have a lot of underwater. Water temperature, currents, air supply and light all work against you, so by knowing what to look for and where to look for it you have a better chance of coming up with some treasure.

And then there are days like when you get a phone call from the local Life Guards who say they have found something submerged in the surf and ask for you to come out and take a look. After a bit of poking, prodding, and investigation the "Treasure" turns out to be a World War Two mine and the military DOD comes out and blows your treasure up with C4 in the surf just to be safe...

Maybe not the most attractive treasure found by the Dive Team but lead fishing sinkers have been a favorite of many divers to sharpen their underwater skills and have been very beneficial to the Dive Team equipment fund. Several "Tons" of sinkers have been gathered, cleaned, sorted, and sold at the annual Fire Department's Fishing flea market each year...

One of the most intriguing objects has been a small brass container that is made up of three compartments and is dated April 1876. It was found in the Manasquan Inlet and still has not been identified....

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Artifact Salvage Workshop.....

Sunday Ocyober 14th, 2012
The Point Pleasant Dive Team will be holding a "Artifact Salvage" seminar available to the public to show how to identify,clean, and preserve artifacts that people have found along the shore....




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End of soggy wetsuit season....

This weekend marked the probable last chance for the dive team to dive "Wet suit" for the 2011 season and the choice for the dive was the new Highlands Bridge just completed a month or so back. The new bridge has some pretty lines to it and it should for the estimated $124 million price tag that came with it and all the effort it took to complete a project like this...

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"NJDOT will demolish the bridge and replace it with a 65-foot high fixed span structure with 12-foot lanes and 8-foot shoulders. NJDOT will construct the bridge in a manner that maintains existing traffic flow and minimizes seasonal impacts and diversion of traffic to local streets"

The old bridge had been there for a considerable amount of time and any qualified diver that has spent time under this bridge during and through a tidal change can only imagine the amount of water that has passed under this bridge over the years. This is one of the best dive sites to view marine sponges that have attached themselves to anything they can and thrive very nicely due to current and nutrients that pass by.

This site has been very beneficial in the past for training sessions dealing with swift currents as well as low visibility search techniques. Many fine old bottles have been recovered from this site as well as coins, medallions, jewelry, tools, and pretty much anything you can imagine being thrown by people standing on the bridge while the drawbridge was up and boat traffic was in progress. This site has also provided many different dive profiles for sometimes it was nice to swim the entire area depending on visibility and current conditions and at other times just finding a comfortable spot to simply "fan" and see what you could find. With that the entire area under the bridge provided many unique bottom profiles and at many times numerous underwater obstructions. Fortunately the people in the below video chose the correct high tide period to perform their stunt for the camera... If they only knew....

Chief Diver Nesley going over the dive site and profile with some of the recently certified divers. Great opportunity to inform those who had not experienced the site as to what to expect and some of the history to this area and dive site.

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Removal of some of the bridge abutments to the old bridge in the above photo...

Sue Lewicki inspecting some of the artifacts discovered during the dive

Picnic after the dive was at Sandy hook and provided the opportunity to debrief the dive and to go over and inspect the finds from the dive....

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Manasquan Inlet June 2008...

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The Dive Team conducted a routine practice\training dive this weekend at the Manasquan Inlet and the above item was discovered and retrieved by Team Member Tom Sweezy.

It was found at the mouth of the Inlet near the South end jetty and was probably uncovered by the recent dredging of the inlet. Item was found on top of mussel beds and prior day had a strong outgoing tidal flow so object has moved along the inlet since dredging.

Object stands about 3-1\4" and is 2-1\4" diameter at top and bottom...

It is made up by three seperate compartments that are water tight and secured by fine threads and all brass construction. Initial thought was that this was used to store some type of powder, snuff, tobacco, or the likes. I have passed the photos onto several members of the local Bottle collecting club here and they are looking into the identification of it...

Three individual compartments of different sizes. Top compartment 1-1\4", middle 7\8", and smallest compartment at 1\2"...

Located on the bottom of the object is the name "J.W. Forestal" with the date 1876 and "April"... It was noted that it is common practice in military service to have the persons name on all personal items. By including the month "April" to the inscription this may be a service award item and shows the date of end of service. This same practice aided in the identification of the German Submarine U-869 a few years back when a personal item knife was found with a crewmembers name engraved...

Tom Sweezy