PORTSMOUTH — Scuba diving off the coast of Portsmouth one recent afternoon, Lance Tsantoulis hauled out 80 pounds of trash, "most of it plastics," from the floor of North Mill Pond.
At the same spot off the end of Marsh Lane last week, he found a pottery shard he said dates to the 1400s and a circa 1927 Howdy orange soda bottle in perfect condition.
"When you’re cleaning trash, it tells a story about the history here," said Tsantoulis, a Greenland resident, facilities manager for the city of Portsmouth and master scuba diver. "Everyone sees the surface, but when you get down there and see the trash, it’s upsetting."
Sifting submerged trash from sunken treasures is Tsantoulis’ hobby and he’s now joined by a crew of local divers forming Divers Removing All Garbage (DRAG) Portsmouth. It’s described as "an initiative that utilizes local divers to remove plastic waste and other garbage from coastal communities in New England."
There’s Dan Miller, a Portsmouth native now living in Quincy, Massachusetts, and his sister Kelsey Miller, a Portsmouth resident. Kelsey Miller wears a necklace made from a blue-and-white pottery shard found at the bottom of the ocean and describes DRAG Portsmouth as a cleanup effort, for connecting people to the ocean, and education.
They’re joined by Chad Law, a scuba instructor with Portsmouth Scuba, who said the group brings underwater finds to shore and wastes little time looking up information about origin and provenance. He said sometimes he discovers underwater collections of treasures and the group is also known to fire up an onshore grill.
Jason Weaver of Portsmouth committed to help launch DRAG Portsmouth for conservation and camaraderie. Weaver said he was recently diving when he thought he saw a glass plate in the mud, slid his hand under it and, when 5-inch legs started moving, he realized it was a horseshoe crab. At that moment, he said, Law grabbed his leg as an underwater prank.
Last week, while also bringing up trash, Weaver found a bottle branded Benjamin Green Apothocary Portsmouth.
"You could barely see the shape," he said, about his first underwater glimpse of the muck-covered bottle.
"Somewhere in the middle there," he said pointing to the tidal river off the end of Marsh Lane where he found it.
Also an early member of DRAG Portsmouth, Tonya Cianchette of Maine said the hope is to have all New England dive shops participate in the effort. Portsmouth Scuba, she said, is allowing the new underwater cleanup crew to meet and host events at its Sagamore Avenue shop.
Cianchette said most often divers find pieces of pottery underwater, while showing a full, pristine china plate found by Tsantoulis. It’s marked Woods Wave, Wood and Sons of England and is dated 1750.
"You’re swimming along and you see a piece of it and you pull up a plate you can clean and have a bagel off tomorrow morning," Tsantoulis said. "All these things are pieces of art. How did it end up in 70 feet of water?"
Advanced diver Jessica Starkey of Durham said after the group obtains nonprofit status, it hopes to get a large boat.
"You’re holding history right in your hand," she said about underwater finds. "It’s like a hidden time capsule. A majority of the population will never get down there."
"It’s a huge privilege," said Kelsey Miller.
Diving under the Sarah Long Bridge, Tsantoulis found a rusted heart-shaped padlock, branded B&M Railroad on the back. He knows that on Sept. 10, 1939, the engine and first car of a Boston and Maine passenger train went off a wooden bridge in the same area he found the padlock last week.
"There’s so much stuff down there," said Tsantoulis.
He dives with a "propulsion vehicle," a torpedo-shaped, propeller-driven tank that takes some of the work out of diving. He hand labeled it "treasure seeker."
Tsantoulis also dives with a $12,000 rebreather tank on his back, allowing him to stay underwater for six hours at a time, at any depth. A certified master diver, Tsantoulis spent more than a year training to use the rebreather that weighs 91 pounds and exchanges his own air.
During recent dives, he’s found an English glass onion bottle and an 1865 igloo ink well valued at $1,000 for its condition. He brought up a bottle marked Thomas Loughlin he believes is from 1942. His research shows Loughlin was one of the founders of the Legions of the Elks, owned a bottling company and served in the senate.
A "beautiful beer bottle" in perfect condition he found is marked by the Eldredge Brewing Company that operated in the 1800s in Portsmouth’s West End. He’s also found remnants of many clay pipes that were tossed aside centuries ago.
From a group dive last week, a pickup truck tailgate was covered with bottles, shards, fishing lures and a rubber overshoe. Tsantoulis said they saw a vehicle engine and multiple tires under the picturesque waterway.
Kelsey Weaver brought up a Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. bottle, there was a Lightning Ball jar and a damaged bottle with markings to indicate it was hand-blown.
The DRAG Portsmouth crew are welcoming new members and encourage anyone who sees them diving off local shores to ask them about their efforts. They urge people to look at their finds and join DRAG Portsmouth, even if they’re not divers.
The group’s social media profile is being built and they can now be found on Twitter at @DragPortsmouth.
"bring" - Google News
July 25, 2020 at 07:27PM
https://ift.tt/3jIlejV
Divers bring treasures, trash to the surface - Seacoastonline.com
"bring" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38Bquje
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Divers bring treasures, trash to the surface - Seacoastonline.com"
Post a Comment