Collecting antique bottles

[irishsquid]

Here is some cheap bling I found diving New Years with my brother.When I first saw the glint of gold, I about crapped my wetsuit, then realized I'm not that lucky! It's not a bottle but was fun wondering what the story was behind this "Loss" for someone

DSCN0668.jpg

 

[Mopar]

YO! That is some fine bling bling. Was their a body it was on.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Hi there Detroit Mudpuppy, You have some excellent finds there, Have you been down to FL to do any bottle diving? My buddies and I are heading down there soon and would like to do some bottom scrounging and are looking for some advise on locations.
ZDD

 

[Detroit Mudpuppy]

Hi there Detroit Mudpuppy, You have some excellent finds there, Have you been down to FL to do any bottle diving? My buddies and I are heading down there soon and would like to do some bottom scrounging and are looking for some advise on locations.
ZDD

Hi Dave The only areas in Florida I have tried bottle diving was in the Halifax River, I only found a few early crown top sodas from St Augustine. While diving the area I met another diver who had a small collection of good bottles he found in the river. He had a few early handblown mallets and a couple onion style bottles as well as a Key West blob top soda from the 1870's

The only other place I tried was the channel between Sand Key and Clearwater but never found anything really old in the way of bottles. This spot was really good for finding good quality fishing rods.

 

[dktexas54]

Hello everyone After searching for threads related to this i only came upon the odd mention of finding bottles in a few posts. Is anyone interested in collecting and or recovering antique bottles or stoneware? It would be interesting to hear what divers are finding.

if you get to panama, look up nombre de dios on the maps. in the harbor you will find a treasure trove of historic bottles etc. nombre de dios is where columbus, sir francis drake, capt morgan etc all visited. rum bottles, glass bottles etc. i did two dives in the channel, vis not good, 20'-30' or so and had a blast!!! do not take metal detector. the panamanian authorities do not like you taking their treasures. i had no problem getting the rum bottles and glass bottles through customs. not sure if you found pieces of eight etc they would like that. i am sure they are buried there somewhere. all those drunken sailors for centuries etc, there's got to be much under the sand. if you want to go there, contract jimmy at carribeanjimmys.com he is the only dive operator in the area. real good guy. he knows plenty of wrecks to go too with things to find. he knows where the lobster are too. Good diving.!

 

[cappyjon431]

if you get to panama, look up nombre de dios on the maps. in the harbor you will find a treasure trove of historic bottles etc. nombre de dios is where columbus, sir francis drake, capt morgan etc all visited. rum bottles, glass bottles etc. i did two dives in the channel, vis not good, 20'-30' or so and had a blast!!! do not take metal detector. the panamanian authorities do not like you taking their treasures. i had no problem getting the rum bottles and glass bottles through customs. not sure if you found pieces of eight etc they would like that. i am sure they are buried there somewhere. all those drunken sailors for centuries etc, there's got to be much under the sand. if you want to go there, contract jimmy at carribeanjimmys.com he is the only dive operator in the area. real good guy. he knows plenty of wrecks to go too with things to find. he knows where the lobster are too. Good diving.!

When diving in Panama, also consider diving in Bocas del Toro. This area is steeped in history. Columbus passed through the area and many pirates used the area to "hide out" in the vast archipelago. I have found hundreds of old bottles which I display in my shop. Most of these I have found just snorkeling in shallow water, but I have also found many on my dives.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Thanks guys for the info. Our plan is to go to Venice Beach for shark teeth for the first 3 days of diving and then may be head some place for bottles. We would really like to score some black class and hopefully an onion bottle.
I will try and up load a pic. of the finds from this weekend dive in Halifax Harbour. The diving conditions were as follows, Air temp 35 F; winds 15-20 klms; water temp. 34 F ; vis. 8-10 ft. the bottles which include 2 black glass, 3 torpedos, several crocks, 2 inks, a silver fork and a half penny coin a small lead sounder plus some others as well. Not a bad haul.
I wont have a computer with us when we go to FL latter this week so I will report on our finds when we get back at the end of the month.

ZDD

 

[Southern Maine Diver]

Love the torpedo's... any embossing on them? SOme nice ginger beers... what's on those? show us some close ups!!

Wayne

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Good day there SMD, 2 of the torps are Schweps and the other is a name. you can see the coin under the pipe in one of the pics.
ZDD

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

Just a footer to my previous post, this little guy was found in a piece of pipe that was brought up for scrap. We put him back in the water.