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24HourForums.com > Supported Forums > Lord Marcovan's Treasure Territory > another treasure ship found! |
| Moderated by: Lord Marcovan |
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Lady Cop Pioneer100© Member 
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Mystery box contains (drumroll) pearls KEY WEST -- The treasure mystery is solved. The small lead box that was found five days ago from a nearly 400-year-old shipwreck was gently pried open on Friday. Crammed inside was silt -- and at least a thousand pearls. ''This is a stunning collection of Baroquian sea pearls probably originating off the island of Margarita down off Venezuela,'' said James Sinclair, a consulting archaeologist on the treasure hunting project. Sean Fisher, the grandson of the late Mel Fisher who discovered the Santa Margarita shipwreck in 1980 off the Marquesas Keys, said this is the first time they have found pearls that were not attached to jewelry. ''This is very rare, because pearls don't normally survive in the ocean very well,'' Sinclair said. ``Once they lose the protection of the oysters that make them, they tend to deteriorate very rapidly. ``So in this instance we have a lead box and silt that sifted into the box to preserve the pearls in almost a pristine state. They still have their nacre and sheen on them that are pretty important things.'' The pearls range in size from less than 1/8-inch wide to a giant one that is about ¾-inches wide. Sinclair estimated the value at ``hundreds of thousands [of dollars] if not more.'' Divers on the salvage ship Blue Water Rose discovered the box last Sunday in the same location they found about $1 million worth of gold chains, gold rings and gold ornate pieces that might have been part of a belt. The box was sealed shut from centuries of encrusted marine life. Boat captain Greg Bounds said his crew members were not allowed to try to open the box because it could have damaged the artifact. Instead, the box and its mystery contents were kept in salt water until archaeologists could work on it. They used wooden tools to gently pry it open. So many people wanted to watch Mel Fisher's webcast of the opening that the site reached capacity 15 minutes before the 2 p.m. opening, a spokeswoman for the project said. Bounds and the rest of the crew had tried to peek into a crack on the bottom to see what was inside. They held it up to the sun, but still could see only darkness. They thought the contents would be valuable when two pearls fell out. ''I figured there would be more pearls, I just didn't think there would be that many,'' Fisher said. Archaeologist Duncan Mathewson said he believes the box likely came from the ship's stern castle, the living quarters high off the main deck where wealthy passengers usually stayed. The Santa Margarita was part of the Tierra Firme treasure fleet that was lost in a hurricane while trying to sail home to Spain in 1622. She's the sister ship to the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which also was lost in the September storm. Mathewson said the remains of the ship, which initially was broken up by the original hurricane and second one that followed a month later, is now scattered over a trail that winds seven miles long, but only 200 feet wide. Bounds said the salvage crew will return in the next few days to the same site to continue the search. ''This gets us really excited,'' he said. ``We know there's a lot more to find.''
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Lady Cop Pioneer100© Member
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Lord Marcovan Original500© Member  Robertson Shinnick
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I was listening to a public radio station on my way to the post office a few days ago when they came on the air live to open that box with the pearls in it. Pretty neat! Better than Geraldo opening Al Capone's safe, anyway.
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