What a brilliant post:
Quote:A notation of wording and some deductive reasoning.
Quote:Seafarer Exploration Corp. is announcing that we have discovered a large concentration of colonial era shipwreck material in Area 2 off Melbourne Beach, Florida. The historic period shipwreck material comprises a variety of artifacts situated within a concentrated area and includes standing rigging, ships fittings, rope and wood fragments. The historic artifact area is still under investigation and could either be part of the historic material previously found over the past few years or a second historic shipwreck entirely.
...
According to the project archaeologist, Dr. Robert H Baer, "The Seafarer Exploration discovery possibly dates from the mid - 1600s to the period ending before the Industrial Revolution - no later than 1800. The type and orientation of the artifacts on the ocean floor is indicative of materials used to construct a colonial period sailing vessel that came to rest on the ocean floor where it decayed leaving a fairly compact scatter pattern. The location and depth would have also minimized scatter from storms and near-shore surge. This is unlike other sites which can be scattered for miles."
The PR says "large concentration", "concentrated" and "compact" to describe this new area. So, we have a large variety of artifacts in a compact, concentrated area from a colonial era vessel that "came to rest on the ocean floor."
That, to me, sounds like they are saying they have found a complete wreck, fairly intact (as far as a 300-ish year old wreck goes. So-called resident expert says the material is all from the upper deck.
Now a little deductive reasoning but maybe I'm overthinking it.
If the SeaSearcher found this wreck or they have a least scanned the area (surely they have) then it should be telling them what is below the upper deck. I would think if the wreck went down intact and slowly 'decayed', the first thing they would come across is the upper deck material. Which would then need to be reported to FBAR and PR'd to the public. So far, so good.
If the SeaSearcher is currently telling them there is cargo in the form of treasure, would they announce that or would they need to confirm it first?
Of course, they would need to confirm it first before announcing.
And I would think the, hopefully, heavy cargo would be a little deeper than the other, upper deck, wreck material. This thinking agrees with the general shape of a ship, if it came down and fell to one side with the heaviest material at the lower parts of the ship, pushing the upper parts slightly higher.
And if the SeaSearcher is telling them there is no cargo with this wreck, do you think they would spend time pulling up the materials they announced today? I don't think they would have.
Which tells me we should not be far away from a cargo discovery and announcement.
But maybe I'm overthinking it. A lot of 'ifs' in there but a fun thought experiment either way.
