St. Augustine beachcomber finds shipwreck artifact after coastal flooding

Charles Wilson, 71, is on the beach every morning, looking for stuff. In seven years, he's missed just four days. He knows junk when he sees it.

When gusty winds and rough surf this month led to coastal flooding and beach erosion, however, something unusual came in with the tide.

Wilson had taken it upon himself to help Anastasia State Park rangers with the clean-up.

At first, it looked like a dismantled boardwalk with planks and beams of various sizes and dimensions - much of it from Vilano Beach.

"Four miles of lumber, intermittently scattered," he said, gesturing to piles along the beach among flattened dunes. "That's kind of hard on the old guy."

In the wrack line, covered in reeds and kelp, Wilson had found what initially appeared to him to be an old log.

But on closer inspection, he realized it could have been part of an old wooden ship.

What grabbed his attention was a wooden peg jutting out from near the center.

"I actually, carelessly, lifted it by its peg before I realized it," he said. "Every beachcomber dreams of finding this stuff."

The piece is about 5 feet long and 6 inches wide.

Confirming its origins

Wilson said he had learned ship makers of wooden boats would use the timber from live oak trees because of the natural bend of its limbs.

"That's definitely old," said Warren Poplin, park manager at Anastasia State Park, upon seeing it. "That's a cool find."

Poplin said they would have to go through the Florida Division of Historical Resources and log it as a found item.

The division would then determine whether it wants to have the item dated.

"Hopefully they'll let us hang onto it," he said. "Otherwise, it could end up in the archives up in Tallahassee. That's generally how these things work."

Poplin brought the piece to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum to have its archaeologists take a look.

"It's definitely from a ship," said Chuck Meide, director of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program.

He said the curved timber and the wooden peg, or treenail, suggested that it could have been part of an old ship's frame or outer skeleton.

Perhaps skipping a few steps, Wilson said he can now die and go to "beachcomber heaven."

"I'm kind of surprised we don't find more things like this," said Jim Crocker, a park ranger at Anastasia State Park.

He added that Wilson's find was the first such discovery to his knowledge in his six years with the park.

More discoveries

Meide said similar discoveries were made in the past year in St. Augustine Beach and Crescent Beach, but that they're always excited when something turns up.

"They're almost common because we've had so many shipwrecks here," he said. "But it's always great to find these pieces of timber."

Because it is just one piece, Meide said it would be difficult to determine a precise age, nationality or function of the artifact.

He estimates the timber is likely from the 1800s but that it could date from as far back as the 1600s. Ocean traffic increased significantly over that time frame and until the safety measures and technology that came in subsequent centuries, many ships were lost.

In the absence of the rest of the ship, Meide has had to settle for speculation and educated guesswork.

"It looks a little small," he said, adding that it could have come from a coastal vessel that was perhaps used for short-distance trading.

Meide said they would like to borrow the piece to clean it, do a detailed drawing and make measurements.

"If there's any clues there, we'll find them," he said. "It reminds me, too, of how the sea really connected St. Augustine with the rest of the world."

As significant as the find was the damage from the storms that brought it to shore.

"We had almost a half of a mile of restored sand up there as an embankment, about seven feet high and about 80 feet wide, completely wash out," Wilson said. "Unless you see it, it's hard to comprehend."

He said a lot of the wood they were able to clear from the beach would be recycled and used for projects in the park.

"What was really a little perfect storm hit: We had the full moon, high water level and almost gale force winds," he said. "... People three or four blocks over had no idea what was going on."

Poplin said if the park is allowed to keep it, they could make build a kiosk to display the piece and some information about where it may have come from.

"You never know the significance of it," he said. "... But you've got to be able to tell more of the story other than: 'This was found on the beach.'"

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