Mapping, Excavation and Stratigraphy

By John Brandon

On May 31, 2001 the recovery vessel M/V Endeavor arrived at 7:20 a.m. at the site of a 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet shipwreck commonly known as the Douglas Beach Wreck site, located some 2 miles south of the inlet at Ft. Pierce, FL. This wreck site has been designated as site 8SL17/S26 by the State of Florida.

The Mel Fisher Center, Inc., of Sebastian, FL., holds both the State of Florida contract and also Federal Admiralty rights, through the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, to this site, as well as to a number of other historical shipwreck sites located along the Florida East Coast. As captain of the recovery vessel Endeavor, I have a contract with Mel Fisher Center, Inc., which allows me to conduct excavation and recovery on this, and a number of other shipwreck sites, in the same general area.

On this particular May morning, I maneuvered my vessel, the Endeavor, into a position so as to continue my pattern of excavations begun over the previous several days. I typically base my decisions on where to conduct excavations on extensive research of previous excavations and recoveries on the 1715 fleet wrecks which have occurred over the last 40 years, coupled with period historical research. My primary goal is to try and define the debris fields of individual shipwreck sites and to further delineate dispersal patterns within these debris fields.

Sometimes this research leads me to new areas on the wreck sites to conduct excavations and sometimes it leads me to areas that have been previously excavated but still hold the potential to yield additional discoveries. The area of the Douglas Beach site under discussion here is located in the center of the primary site, where some of the most intense and methodical excavations have taken place over the years, and yet significant recoveries are still possible.

It is important to note that a variety of factors make it impossible to imagine that 100% of all the artifact materials remaining on the 1715 fleet shipwrecks can ever be successfully recovered. In the case of the Douglas Beach site, the sea floor is made up primarily of a broad flat plateau of coquina bedrock, covered on average with anywhere from 1 to 3 meters of sand, shell and rock overburden. Additionally, there are numerous outcroppings of this coquina bedrock which protrude above the surrounding overburden, in rows running roughly parallel to the beach. These outcroppings of coquina provide the basis for the Sabellariid (Phragmatopoma lapidosa) tubeworm colonies, which results in the creation of the so-called worm rock. These worm rock structures tend to change over time, sometimes even from year to year. Hurricanes and winter storms may significantly alter worm rock structures, and in many instances may wash away large areas, which rebuild during the calmer summer months.

In many areas of the site the reef area and surrounding bedrock is extremely rugged in nature providing an extensive network of holes, cracks and crevices in which artifact remains may be discovered. Many cracks and crevices may be of sufficient size for coins and/or artifacts to fall deep beneath the bedrock, out of sight and reach, and out of the range of even the best metal locators now available. Some holes and cervices are large enough for a diver to easily fit into and are typically filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of large rocks, shells and ruble.

Further, the 1715 fleet wrecks for the most part, including the Douglas Beach site, are scattered over many square miles of sea floor. Generally extending northward from a central dense debris field consisting of ballast concentrations, cannon and anchor features and significant deposits of artifacts, to a more scattered debris field, punctuated occasionally by significant deposits of artifact materials.

In addition, large amounts of modern refuse and debris has secreted itself throughout the wreck sites. Aluminum beer cans and beer can remnants, some as small as a penny, make up the bulk of this modern metallic debris, followed closely by lead fishing sinkers, lead bullets, various types of fishing gear and a host of other modern metallic materials, all detectable with an underwater metal locator. In some places entire sections of the reef reads on a metal locator as a result of this modern metallic debris, effectively masking 1715 period materials and making recovery extremely difficult. Modern metallic debris makes up one of the largest categories of recovered materials from the 1715 wreck sites.

Further, because the sand and shell overburden is in solution, and not a stable mass, it can be greatly affected by wind driven wave action and storm surge. This wave action and storm surge can cause anything from a slight movement of the sand overburden, to a sweeping away of all of the sand overburden off a shipwreck site, down to the bedrock level. Consequently, materials from all time periods, from the very recent past, to period shipwreck materials, to fossil remains some 10,000 years old, tend to collect at the bedrock level, in most instances negating the stratigraphic context within which artifacts are recovered. Modern lead fishing sinkers can be found in the same pockets and holes in the bedrock as period artifacts, again complicating recovery efforts. There tends to be no clear-cut, sterile, stratigraphic layer within which only 1715 period materials are recovered.

This was the type of area and the conditions in which I was engaged in carrying out excavations on this particular May morning. Methodically excavating along the inshore edge of an outcropping of coquina bedrock, I had been making recoveries of a variety of artifacts for several days. These included a number of silver coins in denominations of 1/2, 1, 4 and 8 reales, small copper tacks, pieces of square brass spikes, small pieces of lead sheathing, small pieces of silver, (probably the remnants of plates or flat ware), olive jar body sherds and encrusted objects, (primarily square iron spikes). Also present was a significant amount of modern metallic debris, made up primarily of aluminum beer can remnants.

At point of excavation #424 for the 2001 field season, and using a Fisher Impulse metal locator, I swept the search coil beneath a large coquina ledge and got a strong signal indicating the presence of a metallic object. Using my hand to fan away the remaining sand covering, it only took one or two strokes to reveal a gold coin.

The underwater visibility for this area, on this day, was very good, 3 meters or more, and upon first glance it appeared that I had uncovered a four escudo coin. However, when I picked the coin up it became apparent that it was not a four escudo piece, but rather a two escudo coin struck on a very large and thin planchet, and showing much detail. I surfaced for a closer examination of the coin and discovered I had recovered an exceptional specimen of a Mexican 2 escudo. This was probably the most detailed Mexican 2 escudo I personally had ever seen from the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet wrecks in my over 35 years of recoveries from these sites. Upon recovery we placed the coin in a plastic coin flippet and assigned it the Mel Fisher Center tag number 47807. We then recorded the pertinent recovery data in the archaeological field notes, such as the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) coordinates of the exact location of the recovery, depth of overburden, type of bedrock, bottom terrain, etc.

(Detailed report on this rare specimen is included in the unique section of this report.)