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Signum Ops is developing a new release of DigTrakR developed for salvors of the 1715 Fleet along Florida's east coast, ready for release as DigFindR 186. The beta edition will be distributed to select operators in the first quarter of 2023.
The software is devised especially to make use of the 1715 Fleet maps developed originally by the Fishers and devised by Bill Moore. These charts, provided to sub-contractor salvors, are 2D drawings produced using AutoCAD and feature records of excavation over a period of more than 30 years.
DigFindR 186 is a 64-bit Windows program, which will run on Windows 7 and on through the current release of Windows 11. It is a product that has a developmental history reaching back more than 25 years to original versions written specifically for cadastral mappers, based on computer aided drafting engines created by Oleg Kolbaskin. Over the years, the code has migrated through three releases of the dynamic link libraries produced by Oleg and had its earliest incarnation as MagTrakR, which was written privately to map magnetometry surveys. With the newest version of Kolbasoft's LiteCAD 2D CAD engine, particular code was developed to handle the attribute data in the 1715 Fleet maps. DigFindR 186 as currently designed is directed toward 1715 Fleet operations, but it can be adapted for use by the scientific community at large. The program is equipped with the means to use an NMEA 0183 GPS interface.
Signum Ops has acquired the archives of David O. True, specifically the material he collected reference treasure, and pirate lore. True was a founder of the South Florida Historical Association with an avid interest in all things 'pirate'. He left behind his unpublished manuscript 'The Register of American Pirates' that will finally go to press under the Signum Ops imprint sometime in the next 24 months. This is a monumental undertaking as every page of paste-up notes, correspondence, map work, photos, and other various printed material is being carefully scanned, indexed, and stored as digital copy. While some of the material can be rendered with optical character recognition, the bulk is in True's written hand, requiring transcription. At this point, circa December of 2024, more than 1400 pages have been processed, marking about half of the total acquired. There are many original signatures in the collection, along with True's own hand-drawn maps. His range of interest was primarily the Caribbean, however, he had serious interest in treasure throughout the U.S. with emphasis on Florida.
"The San Jose anno 1631 Catalog" is now available at Amazon!
In 2013 and 2014, the author and his expert crew of professionals recovered thousands of the coins and artifacts that were lost from the San José in the vicinity of Panama. This recovery resulted in a team effort to conserve and document each coin, and each artifact. This catalog of more than 1,300 coins represents the Grade ONE and Grade TWO specimens in that collection, providing collectors and academics alike with a reference intentionally produced to authenticate those coins.
The reader is provided with a glimpse into important project aspects by Daniel Porter, the author, that were required to bring forward this information in print. Excerpts of historic records that were discovered by Jack Haskins, widely known in the treasure salvage community for his documentation, are included. Carol Tedesco, a renowned numismatist and author of the genre, provides a brief overview of the coins recovered.
Dan Porter