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  Captain Carl Fismer  
  Spanish Main Treasure Company  

  info@DiveForTreasure.com  


  Mariner's Astrolabe

BY Capt. CARL E. FISMER

Did you ever notice when you are talking to someone about your favorite subject, treasure, there are three common questions: 1. What is your favorite find? Any gold object, of course. 2. What would you like to recover more than anything else? An astrolabe. In my opinion, it is one of the rarest and most interesting of all shipwreck artifacts. 3. What is the most dangerous thing you have encountered? That's easy. Congress!This is the story of question number 2.

October in the Florida Keys is the best month of the year. It also happens to be my birthday, and the events that took place shortly before the big Five-0 will always remain fond memories.

Jim Vorus and Buddy (Budsworth) Martin, old friends and treasure hunters, were down for a visit. At the time, my boat was the Wasp, a 40-foot ex-navy launch. This old boat has one of the best treasure records ever. It has paid for itself over 200 times.

The day's plan was a good one - no plan at all! Just go out and start towing behind the boat and eyeball the bottom. We decided to work on Crocker Reef. I was part owner of the Federal Admiralty claim on a circa 1580 wreck there, so I was well within my legal rights. After an hour or so of towing, Jim pulled me over the top of an old anchor; one I had never seen before in all the times I had been diving this area!

We decided to all snorkel around looking for any sign of wreckage. I picked up the top of a terra-cotta olive jar, Buddy and Jim picked up a few pieces of broken pottery. This certainly was a good place to start: it was time to get down to metal-detecting.

Buddy made the first find - a roll of copper sheeting. Then Jim found a cannon ball, completely encrusted. More copper sheeting and four copper pans followed. Next, I had a hit. A small silver cap of some kind. Then another...and another. Six in all. I had visions of the Holy Grail. I daydreamed I was about to uncover a treasure so great that every bureaucrat in the world would fall in to a state of suicidal depression. Instead, I retrieved two more silver caps and a cannon ball. I covered the area until I sucked the bottom out of my tank. Nothing else, but hey, I've had worse days. A lot of them, in fact.

Returning to the Wasp I passed my gear up to Buddy. Then Buddy asked question number two. I could have fainted. I already knew, but I had to hear the word. ASTROLABE (as'tra'lab), an astronomical instrument used by the ancients for determining the position of the sun or stars. "Where is it? Let me see it!" Buddy handed it to me. I now know what a drug addict feels like after a fix. Buddy had just made one of the most important finds in the history of our business.

 

Astrolabe to be Auctioned off at Sedwick Auction #3 closing May 20th.

Over the next few days we fine-tooth-combed the area. Nothing else turned up. But, that is the way of things. When we were certain we had the area clean, we buried the ballast rocks and anchor, took ranges and returned home.

The sun was now setting, and I could think of no better words to end the day than those of Sir Arthur C. Clarke in his book, The Treasure of the Great Reef. "No theatrical designer could have contrived a more splendid stage setting. We seemed to be looking straight into the heart of fairyland. And I found myself thinking, as the light slowly faded from the western sky, that the beauty ahead of us was no illusion, no mere trick of sun and cloud. It was real, and we were returning to it, with our cargo of hard-won treasure."



What is an astrolabe?

An Instrument From The Age Of Discovery

"Those who navigate this sea must sail with the help of the astrolabe." A clear statement on the use of the mariner's astrolabe, made in 1492 by Martin Behaim, the noted geographer who is credited with the development of this important navigational instrument.

When Christopher Columbus set sail on his first great voyage of discovery, his most vital navigational aid would have been a heavy circle of bronze, brass or iron pierced with large decorative openings, weighted at the bottom and graduated with two 90 degree quadrants at the top. This was an astrolabe. It was fitted with a sighting alidade that pivoted on the center and was held suspended at eye level to sight a star, or near waist level to allow a ray of sun to penetrate from one sight hole to the other. As the alidade was moved to bring the image of the star or sunray through the sight holes, its center or fiducial edge lined up with the degree scale on the upper rim to give the altitude of the heavenly body.

"Fizz" with his good friend, Dewey Bunnell, of the band, America, take a look at the rare Astrolabe.


What is the astrolabe's value?

A Very Valuable Treasure

This astrolabe is Number 80 of only 82 known to exist in the world (as of 1994). The shipwreck has been dated through recovered coins and research, and went down c.1580. The astrolabe was produced c.1560. It is truly unique; still partially encrusted in coral rock as discovered, and completely untouched. One of the finest, and certainly rarest, artifacts ever recovered by SMTC.




Where is the Astrolabe now?

An Important Piece of History For Sale

The astrolabe is presently being held in a private collection but is

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.

Interested parties only should contact Spanish Main Treasure Company for details. All enquiries will be kept strictly confidential.