Objects


plastic coke bottle

What I know about antique glass bottles wouldn't cover both sides of a matchbook. But here are some excellent links on the subject, so you too can learn the difference between a pontil and a blob:

Miscellaneous Links:

Right: Plastic Coke bottle with screw top


Or "heads", as real sailors call them.

head
Here's an object that probably doesn't deserve to be recovered - the head on the Matt Turecamo.


A Glittering Piece of History is Recovered From the Briny Deep

disco ball

ASSOCIATED PEST
July 25, 2004

Chatterbox

Deep Sea Defectives is proud to announce the recovery of the Andrea Doria's disco ball. World-famous deep-sea scuba diver John Chatterbox found the ball after mining hidden nuggets from blueprints and records of the vessel to determine its most likely location. He then did a hazardous penetration deep into the bowels of the wreck, which is lying on its side in crazy deep lotta water.

Right: Chatterbox "gets down" with some hot wreck-diving moves


While not exactly shipwreck artifacts, lobster traps, scallop dredges, and other fishing equipment are not uncommon sights on and around New Jersey shipwrecks.

Lobster Traps

modern wire lobster trap
A modern wire lobster trap - a common sight around shipwrecks.

porthole diagram

Portholes are used to let light and air into a ship. They are usually constructed of brass for corrosion resistance, which makes them highly desirable as collector's items. The drawing at right shows all the major parts:

  • The immovable backing plate, bolted to the vessel's hull, which carries the hinges for the swing plate and deadlight
  • The glass swing plate, which is secured shut by large butterfly nuts called 'dogs'
  • The deadlight, used when it is desired to black-out the vessel, as in time of war

Squilla empusa is a species of mantis shrimp found in areas of the western Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Cod, from the intertidal zone down to about 500 ft. It excavates and occupies a deep U-shaped burrow in soft sediment, from which it emerges, mainly at night, to feed on fish and invertebrate prey. They grow to a length of 12", although I have only ever seen small ones in the bellies of striped bass.