Our Treasure of the Month for March is an artifact recovered from what is known as the “Chest of Worked Silver” found by Mike Perna, Captain of the recovery vessel Mighty Mo and his crewmate Milan “Choppy” Kalelkar in June 2021. Searching in the area known as the Anchor WreckLocated near Wabasso Beach about 8 miles south of Sebastian Inlet. It is the wreck site of “The Roberts” a ship that sank in a hurricane in 1810. site, Mike and his crewmate salvaged one of the most important finds in recent years. Operating in 12 feet of water about 200 yards off shore a chest of silver was found under five feet of sand. Our featured treasure, a solid silver lion figurine, is just one of the many silver items recovered on that day in June. Standing just 3.7 inches (9.5 cm) tall and 2.1 inches (5.5 cm) wide at the base this lion is in a “sejant” or “sejeant” stance with a shield on its breast which displays a heraldic design. On the top of the lions head is what appears to be the remains of a suspension ring, for what purpose is unknown. Its weight is 0.412 pounds (187.1 grams).
Conserved by Queens Jewels, LLC., the lion was donated by Queens Jewels to the State of Florida and will reside in the State of Florida Collection.
In addition to the lion figurine there were many other silver artifacts in the “Chest of Worked Silver”.
Many of these artifacts were on display at the recent conference sponsored by the Fleet Society in Vero Beach, Florida in January 2024.
Special thanks to Captain Mike Perna for providing the images and background information for this post.
