Missed Connection And Shipwreck Treasure

After writing about the beautiful, historic city of St. Augustine, Florida in yesterday’s blog titled Trolley Touring, we decided we should take a day trip up there. I have a friend in the area we had planned to meet up with, and we have never checked out the antique shops in that area.

The quick and easy way to get to St. Augustine is to take Interstate 95 north about 80 miles from here. But who ever said quick and easy was fun? Instead we decided to take Highway A1A, which parallels the beach most of the way north. We can never get enough of the ocean and there were some big waves breaking out there that would have made any surfer’s heart beat just a little bit faster.

As it turned out, we didn’t make the connection with our friend. But we did visit just about every antique shop in town. Some were okay, but probably not worth a return trip any time soon, and a couple of places we will definitely go back to again.

One shop that we found fascinating was Spanish Main Antiques, which specializes in nautical items. They had a little bit of everything, from glass fishing floats to harpoons, shipwreck treasure, and a lot more.

The upstairs held some really bizarre things. Do you have a need for a shrunken head? They’ve got one.

If space isn’t a problem, you might want to go for a full-size skull. A card with it said that it was a real human skull that came with a collection of items, but there was no other background on it. My question is, if you have human skulls in your collection, what the heck else do you collect? Never mind, I don’t think I want to know!

All of that was interesting, but the biggest draw for most people is probably all of the shipwreck treasure on display, most of it for sale. Here is a 16th century chest recovered from a Spanish shipwreck. Did it once hold gold doubloons or a pirate’s treasure? Who knows?

And I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much silver all in one place. And then to think that not only is it silver, but it is silver recovered from shipwrecks! How cool is that? They had silver coins, ingots, and jewelry. A lot of it came from the famous Atocha, a Spanish treasure ship that went down in 1622.

Shop owner Marc Anthony is a friendly guy who lives and breathes history and treasure hunting. He said he’s been looking for, and finding, lost treasure since he was in his teens. And while he’s not going to tell you where his favorite shipwreck honey hole is, Mark does hold classes on metal detecting and treasure hunting. The next time you’re in San Augustine, stop and check out his shop located at 1080 N. Ponce de Leon Boulevard.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Going Home With A Cat And A Ghost by RVing author Judy Howard. It’s the story of a woman liberated enough to travel the country in her RV, yet still imprisoned by tragic events from her past. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – Technically, every mirror you buy at a store is in used condition.