My curiosity as always compelled me to keep looking into this, as I wondered more on why this 'ingot' would be taken for lead ballast.
As Rick has noted, it seems more common that indeed stone or gravel was used, but as I found more:
In 17th century England lead ingots for ships hold ballast were indeed made; those called 'big pigs' were of 63 bs. weight....there were smaller ones of 32 lbs, accordingly called 'small pigs'.
Apparently the shapes of these ballast ingots could identify nationality of ship in some degree,
English: had a boat like structure, flat front, convex sides
Spanish: rectangular
French: salmon (?) shape
(from: "Underwater and Maritime Archaeology in Latin America"
M. Leshikar-Denton and Erraguerena, 2008)
This bar presented by Clifford is 50 kg. (110 lbs) far larger and heavier than ballast 'pigs', also, again, why would there be the tax, assay markings as seen on ingots of precious metal?
It seems that eyewitness accounts of the sinking of the 'Adventure Galley' in 1698, it was near the spot where it had been careened. As it was sinking it was thoroughly looted and stripped of everything, including cannon.
Clifford had begun dives and excavations in the bay at Isle Saint Marie in 2000, but the wreck they worked on turned out to be Condent's "Fiery Dragon" as confirmed by materials such as Chinese pottery fragments etc.
He apparently found and excavated from 13 wrecks. The one he located the ingot from he believes to be the 'Adventure Galley'.
In the wreck which turned out to be the 'Fiery Dragon', there were piles of ballast STONE ("X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of Piracy" , Skowronek& Ewen, 2006, p.112).
Since these new discoveries were in May this year, it is unclear what sort of context was found regarding ballast in this location, but the claims that what was found was port construction rubble rather than ship structural elements sounds very suspect. Clearly Mr. Clifford would know the difference.
It indeed appears that ballast 'stones' were in use rather than any lead 'pigs' although Condent' ship was burned and sank in 1721. Regardless, in the case of the 'Adventure Galley', why would a single 'pig of ballast be the only one found. Ballast mounds, regardless of material, typically remain as a single mass. A lead weight of this unusually large and heavy size, suggesting others with it if indeed ballast, would certainly not be swept away by currents.
The 'lore' of Captain Kidd's treasure has fueled the search for lost pirate treasure for centuries, and writers such as Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson based much of their famed stories on it. There have been countless schemes and innovative syndications etc aligned with romantic optimisms of this 'treasure', which in reality is probably just lore. However, it does not seem infeasible, that a single silver ingot, may just have been overlooked from perhaps deep in the hold of Kidd's hopelessly worn out ship as it sunk.
|