Bottle diving in Eastport, Maine over Thanksgiving. (+img)

[adshepard]

Did a couple of dives over Thanksgiving weekend in Eastport, Maine at the old steamship pier site. Didn't dive on Thanksgiving proper and due to high winds skipped Friday too. Went down on both Saturday and Sunday though. The visibility was not so good at only 5' to 10' due to the high winds on Friday so I didn't bother with UW photos and looked for bottles instead.

The water was a nice cool 47f to 48f which is not bad at all for late November in Eastport. Marine life was abundant but due to low visibility a bit hard to spot. I did find a few bottles including this nice old soda bottle dating around 1890 give or take a few years in either direction. That gives me a bottle from each of the ports of call for the Eastern Steamship Company.

 

[fire_diver]

Nice looking bottle, congrats on the find. Did it require much cleaning?

FD

 

[octotat]

Excellent bottle and in excellent shape. I may have to take a trip up there next year. That seems to be a sweet location for bottles. Have you found out much about it's history?

 

[adshepard]

Nice looking bottle, congrats on the find. Did it require much cleaning?

FD

Thanks. The bottle got a quick bath in diluted muriatic acid to get rid of a tiny bit of encrustation but otherwise no cleaning needed as it was pretty much buried in mud.

I'm still researching the history of the company.

 

[Diver Dude]

Why am I not seeing the bottle?

 

[wreckvalle]

Nice late 1800's blob top!
Check out the cargo of bottles we found on the Oregon Shipwreck
http://www.aquaexplorers.com/Oregon.htm (photo at bottom of page) We used a water jet and uncovered quite a variety of blob top and round bottom bottles.

 

[Nauset Diver]

I've been diving Eastport since the 1980s when there were bottles everywhere & the pickings were easy.I just picked the bottles that caught my eye & left the rest.I just got back from my annual December diving trip to Eastport in the same waters & the bottle pickings were very slim.According to the Motel East owner whose lodging is just above the diving area many divers from as far away as New Jersey come up every year rent from him & spend their time harvesting bottles from this area.It's not to say that there aren't some decent bottles still to be found with dilligent searching but take a real decent light as the visibility isn't that great & you may have to do some serious swimming between finds.The water temp was 46 degrees so dress warm.

 

[adshepard]

I've been diving Eastport since the 1980s when there were bottles everywhere & the pickings were easy.I just picked the bottles that caught my eye & left the rest.I just got back from my annual December diving trip to Eastport in the same waters & the bottle pickings were very slim.According to the Motel East owner whose lodging is just above the diving area many divers from as far away as New Jersey come up every year rent from him & spend their time harvesting bottles from this area.It's not to say that there aren't some decent bottles still to be found with dilligent searching but take a real decent light as the visibility isn't that great & you may have to do some serious swimming between finds.The water temp was 46 degrees so dress warm.

You indeed have to search a bit nowadays. I can only imagine how much used to be there.

However the Motel East owner is really exagerating the many divers thing. I dive there all summer and most three-day weekends and the number of divers this last few years can be counted on two hands and maybe two feet. Now of course he could be counting me dozens and dozens of times. Most days during the summer I am the only diver there.

 

[adshepard]

Nice late 1800's blob top!
Check out the cargo of bottles we found on the Oregon Shipwreck
http://www.aquaexplorers.com/Oregon.htm (photo at bottom of page) We used a water jet and uncovered quite a variety of blob top and round bottom bottles.

A water jet would make life so much easier. Most of the time I have to see a bit of uncovered bottle before I dig. With a water jet I could hit some likely spots and probably uncover more.