Some more in situ artifacts

I recently picked up a disk from Dr. Kira Kaufman, our local Florida Public Archaeology Network marine archaeologist, containing additional in situ artifact pictures. So here are some more of the artifacts that have been located within the debris field.

This is an iron rod about 5 & 1/2 ft long with an eye at the end of it. There are two of these in the area.

This item I hadn't been able to relocate until recently. I thought it had been taken. But it was there all along, covered with a great amount of growth. It is 24 x 12 x 4 inches, and resembles a figure eight, using imagination.

There are two of these "V" shape structures at the site. This I have named the round nosed one. The other, pictured in the background here, I named the square nosed one. The"V" legs of the round nosed structure are 37 & 58 inches. The angle between the "V" is approx 40 deg. These, I have been told, are related to the steering mechanisms. Does anyone Agree?

This seems to be a heavy tackle item, a lifting hook, lying on its side. The overall circumference of this object is 102 inch. The measurements are 38 x 26 x 5 t0 6 inches. I estimate its weight at 200 to 300 pounds. It seems as if rigging gear of this magnitude would indicate that it came from a large ship. The object is fastened firmly to the reef with encrusted matter.

Here is a schematic of the heavy tackle item.

Click on above picture to view the entire in situ artifact web album .

Use your back button to return to this site.

Glass artifacts

A significant number of glass artifacts were recovered from the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck cultural deposit in 1956/7. Some of them are featured here:


This small clear glass round stopper measures 1 & 1/2 inch (3.7cm)long.


This stopper was also recovered. The top is eight sided, an octagon. It measures 3 inches (7.5cm) in height.


Here is another view of the same stopper. We are looking at it from the stopper end. Look carefully and you will notice a "II" scratched into the bottom of the stopper. Does this mean anything to anyone?


This is a base of a clear stemmed glass. Its diameter is 2 & 1/4 inch (5.6cm). A second one, slightly larger, was also recovered.




This piece of pressed glassware was recovered along with another piece of exact facet size. I just recently discovered that it fit in a broken area above. It is now more complete.



These two pieces (glued together) are from another glassware object. The facets are larger than with the previous one. This one is fancier, wouldn't you say?


If you study this picture, comparing it to the preceding one, you will see that this partial handle has come from it. The partial handle is 1 & 1/2 inch (3.8cm) in height.


This wine bottle is a clear green. Its height is 3 & 3/4 inch (9cm). Compare this bottle top to the champagne bottle top below.


The champagne bottle top here shows the extra lip built in to secure the cork with twisted wire so it does not pop prematurely.

Click on the picture above to view the entire glassware inventory.

Use the back button to return to this site.

Some of the larger cupreous artifacts

Here is the sextant prior to cleaning and conserving.


The piece in the lower right with concretions on it is the four-shade filter assembly. It was found separate from the sextant.

The claw-like piece in the upper right has a beveled edge and is not like the shade glass of the sextant. However, it does fit in the shade ring snugly. I have parked it for safe keeping in the shade ring with the missing shade glass. Does anyone know what this curved piece of black glass might be?

This is the sextant after cleaning and conservation. There are missing pieces, including the pivot arm assembly, the mirror, the telescope, the handles and 1 & 1/2 shade glasses.

These, approx 6 inch, brass spikes are incredibly hard. I cannot bend any of the six square-shanked spikes with my bare hands. The bends in the spikes above are a testament to the forces applied on them at the time of foundering.

This is the only round-shanked spike found. Length is about 5 inch.

This 4 inch hinge leaf, made from very hard 1/8 inch brass stock, was amazingly torn away from its knuckles and the rest of its hinge.

This approx 7 inch cupreous marlin spike was found with both ends blunted as shown.

Click on the picture to view the entire inventory of cupreous artifacts.

Use the back button to return to this site.

We may have found the ship!

The remains of the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck may have been located. With the use of modern technology, a suspect site has been identified. The problem is that it is covered totally by sand. A 4 foot, 1/4 inch stainless steel rod was used by hand to probe the sand in the area. The results were interesting in that in one area, instead of only being able to push the rod into the sand about 2 foot, it went all the way to 4 feet in after passing through a "crunchy layer."

This area is certainly of interest. We are only in the initial stages of surveying the site, starting with a request for permit from the State of Florida to use a magnetometer.

Updates concerning this discovery will be posted as more information develops. Wish us luck.

Some of the smaller cupreous artifacts

Here are some of the more striking small brass artifacts found at the cultural deposit in 1956/7.

This brass doorknob was not shiny when found. Also, the iron spindle and set screw had turned to mostly mush due to the reaction in sea water and contact with with the brass. The iron was the sacrificial metal and that helped protect the doorknob from corrosion. All the mush was removed, revealing that the handle is hollow. At a handle diameter 1 & 5/8 inches the, doorknob is not large.

This brass fixture and partial ring were found concreted together as posed in this picture. What was originally held by this hanger we can only guess, but it might have been a small lantern. It could not have held a heavy object because of its small size. The ring would have been 1 inch in diameter, and the hanger base disc diameter only 19/32 inch.


The brass object in this picture I believe is a seal holder. Its length is only 1 & 5/16 inch. It fits my fingers with a feel of good control for pressing a seal. Also, it looks as if the left end is made to unscrew for mounting other seals. However, if there was a seal mounted there when the wreck occurred there was no sign of one when it was found. Anyone out there an expert on seals and seal holders of the early to mid 1800's?

This small padlock was recovered in one piece. However, it's iron interior workings had been transformed over time into a black sulfide mush. The cleaning process resulted in the three separate pieces as shown. The key way cover still swivels 360 degrees. The size of the padlock is about 1 x 1 inch. It's weight is 0.460 oz (13.0g). I like to think that this padlock was used to keep the sextant secure when it was not in use. I have read someplace that in actual practice the sextant was housed in its box on the exterior of a ship near the captain's or officers' quarters. This was done to eliminate the sextant error caused by the difference of temperature inside the cabin and the temperature outside. It's plausible that the sextant, box and padlock went over the side as one. And what we recovered were an incomplete sextant and a padlock not far from each other 115 years later.

Click on a picture above to view the entire inventory of cupreous artifacts.

Use the back button to return to this site.

Some debris field artifacts

Here are a few pictures that Dr. Kira Kaufmann, Marine Archaeologist took while touring the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck debris field recently.

This is part of a mast being held in place by the weight of an iron mast ring since around 1841. It came to rest here in about 20 feet of water after first being washed over the shallow reef, along with it's ship. Interestingly, the iron ring is holding a splinter of the mast, the whole assembly being about 55 inches in length. The wood seems to be very hard and has suffered only little worm damage. The iron ring has much growth of sponges and other sessile organisms. Consequently, it is difficult to make accurate measurements. My reckoning is that has an outside circumference of 75 inches. And from the outside to the inside of the ring is about 4 inches.

This is another iron ring not far from the splintered mast, a few fin flips to the northeast. Measurements for this ring are: 23 inches outside diameter, 73 inches outside circumference, and 7 inches high.

Moving to the east about about 450 feet over the shallow reef, one encounters more wreck debris as the depth drops again to 20 ft. This is where the ship first made contact with the reef. This is where we found all the artifacts in 1956/7.

The structure in the picture above is a piece of decorative railing or support, and is 88 inches in length. It is not a complete piece. There are a few broken ends.


There are two of these structures, this one that I named the square nosed V structure, and the other one that I named the round nosed V structure. They are both rather stout pieces. The V legs vary in length from 34 inches to 58 inches. Probably this variance can be attributed to breakage as they were wrenched from the hull. Both of these V structures have an inside angle of approx 40 degrees.

To see more of Kira's pictures, click on the picture above.

To get back to this site use your back button./