ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The simple sight of a button is usually something people take for granted, but to maritime archeologists in Florida, a recent discovery is nothing short of a historical treasure- a rare war trophy claimed by a British soldier on American soil.
Historians believe more than a dozen British ships were departing the Southeast around New Year’s Eve in 1782 when a strong nor’easter sunk the ships carrying soldiers and their war belongings, including the button.
Divers with the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum found some of the wreckage off the Florida coast in 2010 and brought items back to their facility.
But the dive was only half the story, many of the items that spent centuries at the bottom of the Atlantic cemented themselves in hardened sediment, leaving plenty of work for archeologists to perform.
