Coolest/Most Unique "Finds" While Diving?

[rhwestfall]

4 years ago at the end of a dive, I drifted across what seems to be the remains of a prohibition era "rum runner". It appears to have between 500 and 1,000 beer bottles on it. I was able to grab 5 off it as I drifted over it. The steel caps have all rotted off the bottles on top, and I wonder if ones "in the mud" may be intact. It was a sizeable inboard (saw the engine), and the deck has washed off it. I wonder if a propeller is there....

Talking with others in the community, nobody else knows of it, and judging by what is in it, I think nobody besides me has been on it.

We lost two years of being able to get back to it with the border being closed during the pandemic, and subsequently, have not been able to "thread the needle" with finding it various times since.

Some day....

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I found several old Coke bottles, including a Christmas 1923 bottle. I also found a brass boot from an old hardhat dive suit.

 

[Lorenzoid]

View attachment 818640

I found several old Coke bottles, including a Christmas 1923 bottle. I also found a brass boot from an old hardhat dive suit.

The bottle may date from the 1920s or 1930s, but the date "Dec. 25, 1923" is the date the patent on the bottle shape was registered.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The ID stamp on mine came from 1936.

 

[miked]

This occurred 40+ years ago. We were diving in New Jersey. The group was a friend and I, and three friends of that friend, one of whom owned the boat. Part of the dive was set to go through some cement“tunnels" (they looked like 6 foot wide cement drainage pipes, separated, in lengths of 20-25 feet). Inside one of them we found Scuba gear. It consisted of a tank, still attached to a BC, complete with regs and gauges. The tank was at about 1800 PSI. While we tried to guess how it got there (did a diver abandon it in an emergency, did it fall off a boat, or??) We decided to leave it there, just in case.......
The guy who owned the boat went back a week later and it was still there. He contacted the cops, had to show them where it was and they collected it“just in case”.
I heard a few months later that the cops returned to him because there was "no linking it to any criminal activity". Still a mystery.

 

[SlugLife]

You didn't get to keep it?

If I remember the story correctly, he's in Australia, where they're EXTREMELY restrictive about firearms.

Found more anchors than I know what to do with

I occasionally find piles of them. 20-or-more anchors all tangled up.

While we tried to guess how it got there (did a diver abandon it in an emergency, did it fall off a boat, or??) We decided to leave it there, just in case.......

I could only speculate too. My guess would be it was abandoned in an emergency, but I'd think you would send another diver (or use rental equipment) to go retrieve it, given it was fairly easy to locate.

 

[NitroxSam]

I found a pottery shard near the wreck of the Hannah M. Bell in the FL Keys. It appeared to be the edge of a saucer or small plate. I left it where I found it.

 

[Pressurehead]

Found more anchors

Forgot about anchors, had a shed full of them.

 

[SlugLife]

Forgot about anchors, had a shed full of them.

I've been surprised by both 1) how inexpensive, the cheap anchors are brand new, and 2) how expensive the really good ones are.

As a general rule, the small anchors aren't worth retrieving, but if you find a nice large or heavy one, a box-anchor or "yacht" anchor, it might be worth retrieving.

 

[Tracy]

I've been surprised by both 1) how inexpensive, the cheap anchors are brand new, and 2) how expensive the really good ones are.

As a general rule, the small anchors aren't worth retrieving, but if you find a nice large or heavy one, a box-anchor or "yacht" anchor, it might be worth retrieving.

I bring them all home and plant them in my anchor garden. I probably have over 30 growing out there. Someday when I sell this house, somebody is going to be very very confused.