11 Assorted other artifacts

There are eleven other assorted artifacts from the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck. They are all rather interesting. In the web album most of them have multiple views shown. In this post I am providing one view of each to conserve time and picture space. Click on any of the pictures below to view larger and multiple views.

From Assorted other artifacts

This is a composite artifact composed of cork, green bottle glass, calcium deposits iron, and rust stains. The height of the composite is 2 3/4 inch (7 cm.)

From Assorted other artifacts

This is the threaded top of a container. The diameter at the threads is 1 inch (2 1/2 cm.). The material is perhaps bone, but that is not confirmed. The artifact is being held together by calcium deposits.

From Assorted other artifacts

This item appears to be the remains of a pencil. The material projecting out of broken area is a lead tube. It will actually make a mark on paper. The pencil is made of bone or ivory, I think. the length of the item is 3 inch (7 1/2 cm.)

From Assorted other artifacts

This looks very similar to the last "lead pencil" item, although the lead is missing here. Also, the length is the same 3 inch (7 1/2 cm.) This one is a hollow tube throughout. Material also the same - bone or ivory.

From Assorted other artifacts

This also appears to be made of bone or ivory. Length is 3 inch (7 1/2 cm.) I make this out to be a knife handle, or a utensil handle. Note the fastener holes. Only half the handle was found.

From Assorted other artifacts

This piece of hemp rope has retained the curve of its thimble. There is no iron left, just rust. Height is about 3 1/2 inch (9 cm.)

From Assorted other artifacts

This shows the reverse impression left behind after removing coin #40 from concretion. Coin is an 1830 Ferdin VII.

From Assorted other artifacts

This shows another impression left behind after removing a coin from a concretion. Coin is #15 1802 Carolus IIII

From Assorted other artifacts

There was no ballast stone pile at the 1956 cultural deposit excavation. Two small ballast stones were found: One 14 oz and one 12 oz.

From Assorted other artifacts

There was a small amount of coal, the largest being about 2 inch high.

From Assorted other artifacts

One small concretion was kept because it showed signs of copper within. The length of this piece is about 2 inch.

Wood artifacts

There were a few wood pieces found. This piece of wood is the largest found, and measures about 7 inch (18 1/2 cm.) long. It's of a very hard type. It's uncertain whether it is from the ship's wood supply for cooking, however the left end of this piece appears charred. The right end looks like it is rust stained where it may have been pined under some iron, thus keeping it from floating away.

The rest of the wood found consists of seven fragments ranging from 4 1/2 down to 1 1/2 inches (11 to 4 cm.) in length.

Silver (or pewter) spoon

From Pewter or silver spoon

This silver (or pewter) spoon was found in two pieces. The overall length of the existing pieces is about 7 inch (18 cm.) The inscription on the handle is: "P. Barnes & Co. London". The weight of the combined pieces is: 15.85 oz (44.9 gm).

Click the picture for a larger view.

Iron Artifacts

There were a few iron artifacts recovered in 1956/7. There was flaking from these iron pieces during the fifty some years of storage without any conservation other than keeping them folded up in newspaper in a shoebox, inside, out of the weather. My recent conservation of these pieces consisted of encasing each item in four coats of two part laminating epoxy resin. Below are some of these iron items:

These two links are still interlinked. Combined length is 8 inches (18 cm.). This partial double (reinforced) link is 3 3/4 inch long (12 cm.) I believe that these chain links are way too small to serve as the ship's anchor chain. This ship had a draft of approximately 13 to 16 feet, based on the depth of water at mean low tide of 12 ft. where the ship first made contact with this reef, had its hull breached, and deposited all the artifacts that we later recovered. This iron spike is 7 1/8 inch (18 cm.) long. Weight is about 3/4 pounds. This is a square head bolt 1 1/2 inch X 1 1/2 inch, 4 3/4 inch long, weight about 1 pound. This closeup of the square head bolt above shows remnants of threads. The complete inventory of the iron artifacts can be viewed by clicking the picture above. Use your back button to return to this spot.