MRR Divers Back in the Water
As much as we enjoy our friends who run Three-D Boat Yard, on Tuesday, it was finally time to get back in the water and find some treasure. For the last 6 weeks, the weather has been too windy to conduct excavations on the Margarita site, so the MRR team has been in the boat yard, hard at work on MRR’s new recovery vessel. It has been hot, sticky and full of fiberglass, and things are moving along well on the new vessel. We are looking forward to getting her in the water this summer.
MRR's new vessel in progress at Three-D Boat Yard.
This trip to the site of the Margarita was productive as usual, but way too short for our liking, with only two workable days of calm winds. The team excavated two areas of the site on this trip. The first area was to the west, where divers recovered a cannon ball and a silver coin. This is great news, as the MRR team has been working to find material in this western area, and after much exploration it has continued to produce important clues. There's a lot of work to be done to continue the search in the largely unexplored area to the west, and the MRR team is going to keep at it.
MRR divers recover a cannon ball from the Margarita site.
The second area worked on this trip was to the northeast, where divers located a three-legged iron pot and sword handle during MRR's last trip to the site. On this trip, the team continued to recover artifacts from the area, including blade fragments, lead sheathing, olive jar sherds and a spike. This is significant material in an area that is relatively far from the main scatter of the Margarita. MRR will continue investigating this area and expanding the trail to see where it leads. Both areas have recently brought great leads, and the MRR team is very excited to make more progress.