Portholes From a Shipwreck

[UnderMiner]

Hot dang! That is freakin' amazing! This Missuss bought me one ( I'm a marine antiques junky ) and paid $300 for it. What do you plan to do with them?

I plan to keep the portholes as part of a nautical-themed display that I am building. My dream has always been to have a room akin to some type of romanticized pirate captain's cabin, with old dark hard wood walls, dim flickering ship's lamps, the sound of creaking wood, silver candle holders, swords (I actually found an 1850's-era sword back in 2015), and of course old bottles and treasures stacked everywhere.

I have been treasure hunting since I was 8 years old so the collection is quite large already, it just needs to be organized. These aren't the first portholes I've found but they are the first with intact glass, and if I can find the rest it will be a first for me to salvage so many all from the same wreck haha!

 

[UnderMiner]

im tell you you need to be looking for the other 3 that spot is virgin everybody wants a porthole. there will be all kinds of treasures in that spot

Oh yes, and it is a well hidden spot too, only accessible at low tide and only by walking about 3/4 of a mile through mud. It is bassically a small thin peninsula made of mud that's mostly submerged at high tide.

Part of the reason I only recovered the three portholes without looking for more artifacts, was because the mud under my feet physically couldn't support any more weight. By the time I got those portholes to dry land I could hardly stand because my legs were so tired from the constant trudging, each step sinking ankle deep - desperately trying not to stay motionless too long so I wouldn't get bogged down.

 

[Step Back In Time]

I plan to keep the portholes as part of a nautical-themed display that I am building. My dream has always been to have a room akin to some type of romanticized pirate captain's cabin, with old dark hard wood walls, dim flickering ship's lamps, the sound of creaking wood, silver candle holders, swords (I actually found an 1850's-era sword back in 2015), and of course old bottles and treasures stacked everywhere.

I have been treasure hunting since I was 8 years old so the collection is quite large already, it just needs to be organized. These aren't the first portholes I've found but they are the first with intact glass, and if I can find the rest it will be a first for me to salvage so many all from the same wreck

That sounds like such a cool project.

 

[Hezezilla]

Oh yes, and it is a well hidden spot too, only accessible at low tide and only by walking about 3/4 of a mile through mud. It is bassically a small thin peninsula made of mud that's mostly submerged at high tide.

Part of the reason I only recovered the three portholes without looking for more artifacts, was because the mud under my feet physically couldn't support any more weight. By the time I got those portholes to dry land I could hardly stand because my legs were so tired from the constant trudging, each step sinking ankle deep - desperately trying not to stay motionless too long so I wouldn't get bogged down.

Man you ever seen the hovercraft history hunters on YouTube (SiFinds YT). Too bad those crafts weren't cheaper. I know there's also mud shoes (I don't exactly remember what they're called) but they act like snow shoes, it prevents you from sinking into the mud by evening out your weight.

 

[UnderMiner]

Man you ever seen the hovercraft history hunters on YouTube (SiFinds YT). Too bad those crafts weren't cheaper. I know there's also mud shoes (I don't exactly remember what they're called) but they act like snow shoes, it prevents you from sinking into the mud by evening out your weight.

I follow Nicola White and I know she went on a hovercraft with someone for mudlarking in Britian somewhere and ended up finding an ancient Roman jug on that particular outing, these may have been the same hover craft people she was with that you're talking about but I'm not sure. Would be nice, maybe to build some sort of three-wheeled mud bike with huge inner tubes for tires to float on with.

 

[hemihampton]

I found these cans on the land nearby now that you mention it, I'm not usually in a position to find cans as I mainly hunt salt water marshes where most thin metal corrodes away, but these old aluminum cans I found in the woods...
View attachment 254437
I kept the Fresca, I know it's not rare or expensive but it's still a pull tab can so it's got to be over 40 years old.
View attachment 254439

I also found this bottle close to where the portholes were, its an applied-top wine bottle of some sort, it has a "Federal Law Forbids" written on it so it's not too old, but still neat.
View attachment 254440

didn't know it was salt water, here in Michigan & other states with fresh water (non salt water) the cans can hold up good if they been submerged in the mud for years coming out with little rust & good paint. Leon.

 

[CanadianBottles]

That's so cool! I bet there's a lot more buried in the mud there. Have you tried looking for historic aerial photos to see if you can see the wrecked boat? It would likely have been visible there for a while, and there's a good chance it would have been intact within the past 100 years. That post-Prohibition applied lip liquor bottle is cool too, even if not that old it's an interesting anachronism to have the Federal Law Prohibits statement on a bottle like that.

 

[CanadianBottles]

I plan to keep the portholes as part of a nautical-themed display that I am building. My dream has always been to have a room akin to some type of romanticized pirate captain's cabin, with old dark hard wood walls, dim flickering ship's lamps, the sound of creaking wood, silver candle holders, swords (I actually found an 1850's-era sword back in 2015), and of course old bottles and treasures stacked everywhere.

I have been treasure hunting since I was 8 years old so the collection is quite large already, it just needs to be organized. These aren't the first portholes I've found but they are the first with intact glass, and if I can find the rest it will be a first for me to salvage so many all from the same wreck haha!

I'd love to see a photo of that sword as well! What's the story behind that one? Definitely not something you find every day.

 

[embe]

Hope you remember the spot! With changing tides I could see it being difficult to find again once portholes taken off surface.

 

[UnderMiner]

I'd love to see a photo of that sword as well! What's the story behind that one? Definitely not something you find every day.

These are some old pictures from when I first found it, I have since cleaned it up:

I found it in the garbage one cold snowy Feburary morning in 2015. It's a non commissioned staff officer's sword from the Union Army. The blade is German imported made in the 1850's. I am very persistent when it comes to treasure hunting, checking odd places constantly even if I find nothing for weeks on end, because sometimes a pattern forms, a "find pattern" I call it, where you will statistically ALWAYS find something good in a particular place if you have the patience and persistence to keep checking. I have applied this technique to bottle hunting as well when I got into it in 2020.