Seafarer Exploration Corp (SFRX)

[Raider21]

The study and analysis of shipwreck timber and fasteners (spikes, nails, forelock rods, etc.) is very general due to the similarity of these things through the mainly three centuries of the ships used in New World colonial commerce. A distinction regarding fittings occurred in the latter part of the 18th Century when bronze and copper spikes and round hull pins came into use. As to wood, that covers a abroad range in so much that it depends where the ship was built and the types of woods that were selected. For example, the "Atocha" of 1622 was built (lower hull) using what was called by the Spaniards "Caribbean Cedar" which was in fact Mahogany. (Atocha was built in Havana, Cuba). That of course would be distinct from a ship built of Oak in Europe. It rarely tells anything of the nationality or specific dating as the ship could have been English, French or Dutch built but later is captured or bought by the Spanish. Treasure coins, bars and specific artifacts (particularly ceramics, pipes, glass bottles (intact or broken) are the main key to dating and determining nationality. One very common factor on knowing your on a Spanish shipwreck is the presence of hundreds (if not thousands of broken pieces of earthenware "olive jars". That was my experience when we worked the 1710 "Solo Dio Gloria" in the Dominican Republic, along with some others.