The ocean floor is home to relics of the ancient world that have not been touched for centuries.
Priceless finds are awaiting those who are brave enough to go searching.
And Florida treasure hunters made one stunning find from the past in the ocean.
Onion shaped alcohol bottles from the 1700s recorded in Florida
The Florida Division of Historical Resources announced that it had recovered and restored two bottles that are shaped like onions from the 1700s that were found by divers.
Divers found the bottles covered with barnacles after being submerged for centuries.
Officials worked meticulously to restore the bottles which were used to carry alcoholic spirits.
“Peeling back the layers to these onions was surely a challenge!” the Florida Division of Historical Resources wrote on social media. “With meticulously slow cleaning and drying, the bottles remained intact and were then consolidated with Paraloid B-72, an acrylic resin-based consolidant typically used in glass and ceramic conservation.”
Florida Department of State director of External Affairs Mark Ard said that it was a stroke of good luck to be able to find the bottles intact.
“Intact examples are rare,” Ard said. “These bottles are very fragile, and for them to first survive the destruction of the ship and then being submerged under water for over 300 years where they were subject to tidal forces is incredible.”
“Archaeologists typically only find small fragments of these vessels,” Ard added.
Divers found them on a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Indian River County, Florida.
The bottles were empty when they were discovered but it is assumed that they were used to carry alcohol.
Potable water could go bad so sailors would keep alcohol on hand when they spent extended periods of time on the high seas.
A relic from a Spanish fleet lost to hurricane
The glass bottles were likely created in England, but they were used aboard a Spanish galleon ship.
“While the exact ship has not been identified, the vessel was part of the Spanish Plate Fleet that was sailing from Cuba bound for Spain in 1715,” Ard stated. “The 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet was lost at sea along Florida’s east coast after encountering a hurricane.”
The onion bottles are one of a kind because of the way they were created.
“Onion bottles are free-blown using a pontil. Each one is unique, so there is variation in size, shape, and weight,” Ard explained.
“These were made by hand by skilled craftspeople,” Ard continued. “Onion bottles would have been carried as cargo and would have also been used by crew and passengers onboard.”
The Spanish galleons that brought treasure back from the New World had an impact on the modern world.
“The flow of goods and raw materials from Central and Southern America, and to a lesser extent Asia, was vital to the economies of not just the Kingdom of Spain but many other nations in Europe,” Ard said. “Goods, such as chocolate that was onboard these ships, also fundamentally changed social habits that we still see today.”
“The Spanish mixed sugar with cacao to create drinking chocolate that was often served using specific porcelain vessels made in China that were also transported by the Plate Fleets,” Ard added.
The oceans around Florida are still teeming with artifacts from the past.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
