Nautical-related Lost Art;
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Nautical-related Lost Art;
Why Some Lucky Beachcombers Have Made Small Fortunes
I have always heard stories of how beachcombers have made small fortunes walking the beach at low tide and right after a major storm has hit the coast. I have that situation today, here on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We had Hurricane Lee pass by and we went to see the storm waves as they ravaged the coast. This is the area where hundreds, if not thousands, of ships have been wrecked over the centuries. The target find, of course, is the doubloon.
As Wikipedia educates us… “The doubloon (from Spanish doblón, or "double", i.e. double escudo) was a two-escudo gold coin worth approximately $4 (four Spanish dollars) or 32 reales, and weighing 6.766 grams (0.218 troy ounce) of 22-karat gold (or 0.917 fine; hence 6.2 g fine gold). Doubloons were minted in Spain and the viceroyalties of New Spain, Peru, and Nueva Granada (modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela).”
To make a long story short… No, we have not spotted any doubloons as yet. But, if you want to see some, and a whole treasure trove of silver bars, ingots and coins, make sure to visit Barry Clifford’s Whydah Pirate Museum in West Yarmouth, Ma. There you will be fully captivated for 90 minutes or more. You can also uncover a bunch of nautical-related lost arts related to the Whydah galley which became the treasure-laden flagship of Captain “Black Sam” Bellamy. But, I digress.
The second reason that I wanted to tell you about beachcombing pertains to a strange, and relatively unknown substance, called ambergris. A bunch of beachcombers over the last 100 years, have made small fortunes due to their finding of chunks of ambergris. As the encyclopedia Britannica informs us… “Ambergris is a solid waxy substance originating in the intestine of the sperm whale (Physeter catodon). In Eastern cultures ambergris is used for medicines and potions and as a spice; in the West it was used to stabilize the scent of fine perfumes.”
Ambergris floats and washes ashore most frequently on the coasts of China, Japan, Africa, and the Americas and on tropical islands such as the Bahamas. Because it was picked up by sea currents, it would drift along the shores of the North Sea. Ambergris was likened to the “amber” (fossilized tree resin) of the same region, and its name is derived from the French words for “gray amber.”
Fresh ambergris is black and soft and has a disagreeable odor. When exposed to sun, air, and seawater, however, it hardens and fades to a light gray or yellow, developing a subtle and pleasant fragrance in the process. So, as a beachcomber should know, ambergris, or floating gold, can sell for $90 USD / gram.Pieces are usually small, but one chunk found in the Dutch East Indies weighed about 635 kg (1,400 pounds).
Ambergris was formerly thought to come from an unknown creature believed, according to a letter of 1696/97 published by the Royal Society of London, “to swarm as bees, on the sea-shore, or in the sea.” It was also thought to be a product of underwater volcanoes or the droppings of seabirds.
Marco Polo knew that Oriental sailors hunted the sperm whale for ambergris, but he thought that the whales swallowed it with their food. Ambergris is now thought to be a substance protective against intestinal irritation caused by the indigestible horny beaks of squid and cuttlefish that the sperm whale feeds upon.
The whale’s intestine can accommodate only small chunks of ambergris, so larger pieces must be regurgitated. It is not known exactly how ambergris is formed or whether the process is normal or pathological, nor has ambergris been found in the sperm whale’s closest relatives, the pygmy and dwarf sperm whales (Kogia breviceps and K. simus).
Chemically, ambergris contains alkaloids, acids, and a specific compound called ambreine, which is similar to cholesterol. Ambergris was commonly ground into a powder and dissolved in dilute alcohol. Rarely used today due to trade restrictions, its unique musky character added a long-lasting bouquet to the scent of essential flower oils, but, more important, ambergris was a fixative that prevented fragrance from evaporating. Some chemical components of ambergris are now produced synthetically.
Overall, when you learn about ambergris and it’s history, value and ties to the perfume industry, you might ask yourself, “shall we go beachcombing for doubloons or ambergris, today?” My fall back position, is to just keep my eyes open for another nice sea shell to add to my collection!
