Shipwrecks and treasure chests! What a busy day!

Well, Didnt want the kiddos sitting home watching TV on a nice day, so I built a treasure chest one night, made up a treasure map and "made it look old".. then we went to a deserted beach and I buried it before the kids got to the beach and the kids used the map to locate the "treasure" chest of candy money, candy necklaces & chocolate coins..

Then we decided to explore the remains of a shipwreck that was 3 miles upshore from us. (John N. Neil, a coal carrying bark from the 1850s that broke its mooring about 100 miles upshore back in the 1880s and drifted to its location now. It was hidden in the sand until 1984 when it was uncovered again during a storm. Not much remaining of the ship now. It was a 150 ft ship in its day.. The beams on it are about 12x12 and they were held together by steel rods and wooden dowels about 1.5" in diameter.)

There is 100s of shipwrecks off the coast here and a bunch are still visable & divable in up to 100 ft of water off shore. (Yankee gale of 1851 took down about a hundred ships alone in the 2 days of the storm)

Memories they will grow with.. finding a treasure chest of treasure and finding shipwreck remains

Kids will sleep good tonight after walking about 6 miles return on the shore lol

How very cool!

Do you know what ship's sails are up in the right distant background? Beautiful family and great pictures.

That is very creative, what a neat idea!
Your children will remember this for a lifetime.

CSue said:

How very cool!

Do you know what ship's sails are up in the right distant background? Beautiful family and great pictures.

Click to expand...

Distant background? There was a few houses here.. this is the zoom on my camera from about 1.5 miles upshore..

Here is one of the other summer cottages near this beach

What a great idea! I always try to create memories for the grandkids and that is one I'm sure they"ll treasure for years to come.

That is great. It's nice to be able to spend time with your kids when they are so young and the creativity you have shown is outstanding. Looks like a day you will all remember, just not enough of them it seems sometimes.

WOW, what an awesome dad! Cool idea man.

Thanks everyone.. It was a fun and tiresome day.. This year we started exploring the island here a lot more.. some days we were putting on 100+ miles of driving around to different beaches.. everything from beautiful white sand ones to rocky cliffs 40+ feet high.. and the kids are loving collecting sea glass, rescuing starfish and sanddollars from seagulls during low tides, etc.. My oldest ( shes 6) is always is grabbing wood for me to turn into pens lol

Who can visit a shipwreck and not take one chunk of wood? :biggrin:

I took a chunk just big enough to make one blank once it was squared up..

The wood has a nice dark color (little tung wiped on the right part of it up to the 5 inch mark). Looks like being buried for 100 years in wet coal and sand stained the wood dark.. Will let this dry for a few days and see how it looks on a pen :biggrin:


There is another coal wreck about 10 miles upshore from this one sitting in 50 feet of water and most of the coal is still there according to fishing nets coming up black.. maybe next summer I can grab a chunk from that one to compare.

Great story and great pics . Thanks for sharing this with us .

You live quite the life on the 'Island',,,,,Jason! You're such a great Dad!

Glad you all enjoyed the pictures