southern Maine diver
Posts: 1436
Joined: 8/13/2005 From: South Berwick, Maine USA Status: offline
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Hey Bttlmark... Very nice... very old piece, I'd say somewhere early 1700's to mid 1750's or so... Definitely freeblown, black glass and there appears to be a "laid on ring" at the top... very similar to an early Ladies leg type of bitters bottles that I have seen, allthough this probably held some kind of rum. Early English or Dutch mallet maybe... It's in great condition and you should make every effort to get the GPS numbers from the area where this fisherman was dragging, because they are good indicators of old shipwreck sites. Get the depth, area, location where he was dragging (I assume it was a dragger cause they don't come up in gill nets or pots/traps). That type of bottle indicates that if it did come off of a wreck, the wood has pretty much already deteriorated and the only things left of the wreck would be balast stones, bottles, ferrous and non ferrous metal (iron, gold, silver and glass!!!) Great find... yould really have that one cleaned as best you can. That old glass will deteriorate and start to flake apart after a while.. Talk to the fisherman and see if you could work out some deal with him. It might be marked on a chart as some kind of underwater obstruction, then you can always find someone with an underwater "Drop video" camera to check it out. I just happen to have one at my disposal, in case you were lookin... Wayne
< Message edited by southern Maine diver -- 1/31/2006 11:50:02 PM >
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