Recently, the northeast was hit by superstorm Sandy that did a lot of damage to a large area, and some of my friends from our metal detecting group “SPHRG” Southeastern Pennsylvania Historical Recovery Group looked forward to hunting several shipwreck beaches in NJ and DE.
The news of the damage to the New Jersey shore was heartbreaking and most of the beaches were closed. However Delaware was spared the worst of the storm, so we decided to try our luck at Lewes and Coin Beach below Dewey Beach.
I arrived early at sunrise on Saturday November 3. It was cold, with the wind blowing out of the NW at about 30 mph. I was dressed in layers to stay warm and checked my beach settings on my trusty Minelab E-TRAC.
As I walked onto the beach, there were only a few people out walking their dogs and beachcombing, but I was the only detectorist out there. It was still pretty dark out and I turned on my backlight so I could see my screen.
After a little while, my E-TRAC was showing my first target of 12-3 with a low tone and a depth of around 10 inches. Could it be a King Louis XV Jeton from the wreck of the Severn that sank just offshore in 1774? I had found one in August so I knew what to look for.
After digging three scoopfuls with my long handled sand scoop I saw my second Jeton. I was so excited and thought that Hurricane Sandy might have brought up even more artifacts from the shipwreck.
I pulled out my TMobile MyTouch smartphone, started the Minelab tracking Application, logged my find and added a photo and GPS location to my notes and started searching again.
I called my wife to tell her about my find and she said “You found a shipwreck coin already”. It’s like she already knew I would be successful with my E-TRAC because she hunted with me before and knew how deep it finds those coins.
I also called my friend Tony who had not arrived at the beach yet and my friends Steve & Carol from Staten Island to tell them of my find. They said to save some for them and that they were on their way down.
In the next few hours I had recovered five more Jetons at various depths and locations along the beach and all logged with GPS locations put into the Minelab Application for future reference.
My friend Tony arrived first and tried his Whites Detector without much success. He then switched to his Minelab Excalibur II. My other friends arrived later with their E-TRAC and Excalibur II machines and they recovered three Jetons before we called it a day. Some other group members, Rich & Elaine from NJ showed up but didn’t stay too long because of the wind and cold.
The next day Sunday we found the RT 1 road to Indian River Inlet was opened again and we went to coin beach just North of the inlet. I was the first one on the beach at sunrise and was rewarded with a King George copper from the wreck of the Faithful Steward shipwreck of 1785.
Later my friends Tony, Steve & Carol arrived and found a total of six more coppers. Carol had found four coppers herself and had become quite the celebrity among the detectorists on the beach. Later I also found an old hinge from a chest that might have held one of the shipwreck victims possessions.
We all had a exciting and successful time hunting the Delaware beaches and look forward to going down again soon because a Nor’Easter has just hit the very next weekend bringing more heavy wind, waves and snow for some area’s along the coast.
For more info on Roosevelt Inlet shipwreck: http://history.delaware.gov/pdfs/roosevelt/volume1.pdf
For more info on the Faithful Steward shipwreck at Coin Beach: http://www.discoversea.com/Faithful-Steward.html
Woody McKay - PA, USA
