Wreck Hunting

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tchil01

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I just finished reading Robert Marx's Shipwrecks of the Americas. Great information for all of us wanabe treasure hunters. One of the things I noticed is there were a lot of wrecks that went down in the Delaware Bay and Jersey coast that had a number of cannons on them. I'm thinking that they would be perfect targets for a tow-behind marine magnometer. I'm just dreaming, but has anyone ever seen a used Marine magnometer for sale. A quick seach on the internet found some nice units, but wow, are they expensive

Again, just dreaming...

Thanks
Ty
 
you'd be surprised at what you can find on ebay... I was watching this auction and thinking about it for a little while:

Side Scan Sonar for $2850

Now before you go out and jump into treasure hunting, you might want to read "The Pirate Prince" by Barry Clifford, about his search for the Whydah off Cape Cod. It really gets into how 'enjoyable' the legal and bureaucratic bulls**t can be...
 
Originally posted by Spectre
you'd be surprised at what you can find on ebay... I was watching this auction and thinking about it for a little while:

Side Scan Sonar for $2850

Now before you go out and jump into treasure hunting, you might want to read "The Pirate Prince" by Barry Clifford, about his search for the Whydah off Cape Cod. It really gets into how 'enjoyable' the legal and bureaucratic bulls**t can be...

I saw that one too.

Just dreaming of treasure hunting. It would be one of those "hobbies" that could turn a large fortune into a small one. But how cool would it be to bring up a cannon. Think the neighbors would get pissed if I mounted in in the front yard :wink:

Ty
 
Originally posted by tchil01
Great information for all of us wanabe treasure hunters.

Believe about half of what he says. Try his book "Always Another Adventure" in which he finds the Monitor in shallow water............... Good writing style though, really draws one in.

As for magging, good used units can certainly be had. Be prepared for endless hours of slow boat cruising followed by countless dives on washing machines, 5 gallon metal buckets, and the like :)

As was previously suggested, side scan is a better option but a bit more money and a bit trickier to use and interpret.

Tom
 
Originally posted by WreckWriter
As was previously suggested, side scan is a better option but a bit more money and a bit trickier to use and interpret.

From what I understand about side scan vs. magnometer, is that with side-scan you end up diving on a lot of rocks and such, but the benefit is your not digging excitedly to uncover the washing machine buried under 3 feet of sand! :)

If your looking to truely find treasure, you'd want both. If your looking to do a lot of digging, magnometer is the way to go, if your looking to find stuff to dive on, with the hopes of finding a wreck... I'd go side scan.

I've actually decided that I'd rather have a side-scan than a boat... Finding a boat willing to take me and my side-scan aboard shouldn't be too tough! :)
 
Originally posted by Spectre
I've actually decided that I'd rather have a side-scan than a boat... Finding a boat willing to take me and my side-scan aboard shouldn't be too tough! :)

Good point. We always just used a depth sounder. You get pretty good at interpreting the hits after awhile. Of course you almost certainly miss a lot of things too unless you're searching areas of primarily flat bottom.

Tom
 
I agree that both would be great, but if you were looking for older wooden wrecks wouldn't a magnometer be a better choice if you only had one. For most of these earlier wrecks, say before 1700, wouldn't whatever was above the sand line pretty much be gone. I guess maybe a ballast pile might be visible on a sidescan.

Ty
 
Originally posted by tchil01
I agree that both would be great, but if you were looking for older wooden wrecks wouldn't a magnometer be a better choice if you only had one. For most of these earlier wrecks, say before 1700, wouldn't whatever was above the sand line pretty much be gone. I guess maybe a ballast pile might be visible on a sidescan.

Ty

Yea, for older wooden wrecks the mag is a better choice. Ballast piles will show on side-scan, or even on a sounder, also other debris but often will require a real expert to interpret.

Tom
 
pick up metal??? How could it identify a wooden ship, unless it had metal on it? Is it tuned only into ferrous metals, or would it also pick up the brass of a cannon?
 
Originally posted by NetDoc
pick up metal??? How could it identify a wooden ship, unless it had metal on it? Is it tuned only into ferrous metals, or would it also pick up the brass of a cannon?

It picks up only ferrous metals. Even wooden ships were equipped with many iron parts and pieces. Cannon are often the largest and easiest to detect, also anchors.

Only a truly ancient ship, older than may be found in U.S. waters, or a tiny vessel would be without iron.

Tom
 
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