A loonie, not to be confused with a dabloonie
Posted on 11/15/2004 10:32:55 PM PST by uglybiker
C.B. wreck hunters
reveal treasures
Riches worth hundreds of millions in waters near Sable Island
By TERA CAMUS / Cape Breton Bureau
MAIN-A-DIEU - A share of sunken treasure recovered off the coast of Cape Breton this summer was handed over to the province Friday.
Officials with Le Chameau Explorations Ltd., a treasure hunting company based in Cape Breton, delivered dozens of precious gold, silver and copper items, including coins, sword handles, silverware, crosses and pieces of ships. The items were recovered during the summer from several wreck sites off Cape Breton and near Sable Island.
"These wrecks are worth hundreds of millions," a soft-spoken Capt. Bob MacKinnon of Le Chameau Explorations said last week in his lab.
Nearby, staff and marine archeologists quietly and carefully packed the goods recovered so far for shipment.
The treasure was discovered in 2002 from an area that some treasure hunters have called the richest shipwreck site in the world.
Mr. MacKinnon said parts of Nova Scotia's coastline are among the richest in the world based on the number of wrecks, estimated to be in the thousands.
The province takes a 10 per cent share of all goods recovered from such wrecks. Le Chameau Explorations and its shareholders get the rest to sell at auction houses, mostly in Europe or the United States.
This summer's find included newly minted New England gold coins from the 1700s. The coins, the size of a loonie, were found near a French wreck containing gold coin lost in the 1800s when heading for Louisbourg.
Some of the gold coins, which glistened on the counter in Mr. MacKinnon's lab, are in near-perfect condition, except for a few dings along the edges.
While the coins are in good shape, time is taking its toll on other treasure, some of which is at risk of being forever lost on the ocean floor.
"It's a very harsh environment," Mr. MacKinnon said of the sea.
"Most sites are covered with heavy stone, some as big as this building. The sea can easily pick up stone the size of this building and move it."
Marine archeologist Duncan Matthewson of Florida said Nova Scotia's southern and eastern waters are full of wrecks because of the low shoal that follows the rugged shoreline.
"They can't survive very long," he said of the wooden vessels that wrecked in the harshest of seas.
"Every recovery tells us about the ship and the maritime history of the area. . . . Some sites are not just one ship, but there may be as many as three ships from different periods so we're trying to work out the sequence of events. . . . It's like being like Sherlock Holmes under water."
To continue its treasure hunting, the company plans to hire another 50 workers next summer to join the staff of 20, which includes many scientists like James Sinclair, the first archeologist to visit the Titanic when she was found.
Next summer, Mr. MacKinnon's company, along with American parent Sovereign Marine Explorations, hopes to get the green light from the province to begin searching several other sites as well, including that of the 1822 wreck of L'Africaine near Sable Island.
That ship arrived in Martinique on Oct. 17, 1821, and departed for France loaded with riches, mostly gold and silver bullion, at the time she sank months later.
They also plan to go after the wreck of the steamer ship State of Virginia, lost in July 1874, along with her sizable stash of gold and silver, some of which has already been recovered near Sable Island.
The team also plans to continue piecing together the history of Le Chameau - the ship from which some of this summer's treasure was recovered. The wreck of the French pay ship is mixed in with the remains of two other colonial-era ships, one of which was Le Triton.
Le Triton, owned by the Spanish, was captured with its riches when heading for Spain near Nantucket Island, Mass., on July 4, 1711, by the English frigates Kingston and Leostoff. According to historic documents, Admiral Hovenden Walker, commander of the British fleet, sent orders to not proceed to Britain with the prize capture but instead stay near Cape Breton to await orders.
Seven of 11 ships sent by the admiral to patrol Cape Breton that month in September were lost in storms between Main-a-Dieu and Louisbourg. Some of the goods sent Friday were positively identified as belonging to the Triton.
Among the wreck sites the company has pinpointed for recovery next year includes an area near St. Paul Island that's believed to hold rare gold coins and other precious goods stolen from the White House during the War of 1812.
"If we can get to it (the Washington wreck site) . . . items recovered below could go up over $1 billion in value," Mr. MacKinnon said with a smile.
According to historians, British forces in the war ransacked the national capital and burned the White House, but not before filling several of their ships with riches for the return voyage home.
Many of those ships heading overseas stopped in Halifax but were lost in heavy storms just south or east of the province.
GGG PING!
Is that smaller or larger than a bread-box? The referant, 'loonie', doesn't compute for someone from Texas.
/john
WHAT???
That is an affront and an insult to the hard work of the divers. The province shouldn't get a dime or a dabloom
The province takes a 10 per cent share of all goods recovered from such wrecks. Le Chameau Explorations and its shareholders get the rest to sell at auction houses, mostly in Europe or the United States.
There's the real reason Nova Scotia is now a treasure-hunter's mecca right there! The province believes in doing honest business; a ten percent cut and that's all. I used to read about sunken treasure when I was a kid and I remember the outrages often suffered by treasure salvors when they actually found something of value. Most memorably the late Mel Fisher's long-running battle with the State of Florida over the Atocha loot. But again, nearly every great find occasioned a great legal scrap as everyone with the slightest imaginable claim tried to go "treasure-hunting without getting your feet wet." This might have something to do with the fact that our heroes here do not seem to be pretending not to know the name and nationality of the wrecks they are digging up.
I think it's more like a silver 47 cents.
LOL. I guess its better not to fight.
Is that the exchange rate now?
Ok... It didn't compute for THIS Texan. ;>)
/john
This is standard in every country - indeed I think the US takes a bigger chunk
mumble.. mumble... I missed the 10 percent part... so sue me... mumble mumble... I thought they had to hand over all of it... lol
Or a twoonie!
yup...
I can't think of any New England gold coinage from the 1700's, most of it wasn't gold, and what was gold wasn't made by the colonies/states.
Name In US$ Per US$
Argentine Peso 0.33818 2.957
Australian Dollar 0.77230 1.295
Brazilian Real 0.35817 2.792
British Pound 1.8480 0.541
Canadian Dollar 0.83507 1.198
Chinese Yuan 0.12068 8.287
Euro 1.2961 0.772
Hong Kong Dollar 0.12859 7.777
Indian Rupee 0.02217 45.110
Japanese Yen 0.00948 105.4
Korean Won 0.00092 1,091
Mexican Peso 0.08790 11.377
Russian Rouble 0.03486 28.690
Swedish Krona 0.14458 6.917
Swiss Franc 0.84991 1.177
,
OH! Looks like the US dollar is falling further below the Euro than the Canuck buck is below the USD.
Big hairy deal, really. Currency manipulations instead of inflation cheapening labour and goods.
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