British-period sword hilt found

Posted by Under The Black Flag break, British-period sword hilt found, news 2:50 π.μ.

St. Augustine ought to post a sign: Dig and expect history.

For the about-to-open St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum on Castillo Drive, putting in a wheelchair ramp and a wall turned up artifacts that date to the city's British Period in the mid-1700s, and possibly earlier.

"This is everyday life in St. Augustine," said City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt of the discovery as he looked through artifacts uncovered by Step Back in Time, the contractors working on the museum scheduled to open Dec. 3.

A battered piece of bronze is the most significant item found so far, says John Powell of the Colonial Spanish Quarter Living History Museum.

"It's the hilt fragment of a 1751 model British hanger or short sword," Powell said.
Originally the piece was shaped with two matching ovals that connected in the middle.
For some reason, one side broke. He thinks further damage was done in later years, adding that it would take an enormous force to flatten the piece into its current shape.

The sword would have belonged to an enlisted man and was the type the British used from the time they took over St. Augustine in 1763 and into the Revolutionary War era. The British used the pieces for close fighting in Europe, but in the New World they more often functioned as machetes, Powell said.

Other pieces found include a gentleman's fancy knee buckle from the late 1700s, a flat metal civilian coat button from the British, Second Spanish or even American period, an iron horseshoe with the nails still in it probably dating from the 19th century and a badly corroded pair of dividers of iron and brass from the late 18th or early 19th century that was used to chart courses on maps or figure distances.
Chances are all the items were lost by their owners.

"There was not a building where they're finding the stuff, but it was a tremendous area for human traffic. Nothing was there, but it was where everybody walked and everybody talked and everybody rode; it was where people did their socializing," Powell said.

Across from the Castillo de San Marcos, the site was an open area for many years, in part to keep any attackers from having a place to hide. After the British came, buildings began going up.

"People were walking or riding to town or to the fort, and so they were dropping stuff," Powell said.
Other English-era items turned up include a white clay pipe, bits of pottery including a yellow handle from an English slipware mug and a British gun flint. They also found some pieces of earlier Spanish-era pottery as well as some more recent items that slipped into the debris, including a red Christmas bulb and a battered red and white can with the words Hoffman Cola.

Halbirt monitors the site, but he's on the lookout for evidence of buildings or large trash dumps. Step Back in Time owner Reese Moore and workman Cory Gale get credit for sifting through the piles of dirt dug up at the site.

"We're going to continue sifting through the debris," Moore said.
What they've found will end up as part of the new St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum.

Museum spokeswoman Kari Cobham said plans call for using the items in a room filled with paintings of pirates, including ones who attacked St. Augustine. It will be known as Rogues' Gallery and will have an archaeological exhibit featuring the artifacts found on the site.

Owner Pat Croce is calling it "History Beneath Your Feet," Cobham said.

St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum

The St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum at 12 S. Castillo Drive opens with a slash of the sword on Dec. 3.

The pirate museum has operated in Key West since 2004, but owner Pat Croce moved it to St. Augustine to the former Teepee Town and Christmas Shop location.
Croce is the former owner of the Philadelphia 76ers.
For more on the museum, go to www.thepiratemuseum.com.

Source: Florida Times-Union