Claddagh Wedding Ring Lost, Found, Returned Dennis, MA by Richard Browne
September 10, 2026
Summer was ending soon and grand-kids would be off to school for the day and not playing on the beach. For one of the last days of summer fun Jack would take his ATV and the group out to the low tide line on Cape Cod Bay. This afternoon the children would not be thinking of school or be alone in the water, Jack would be right in there with them. A backward splash and a hand thrust was just enough with the cool water to rip his wedding ring, a Claddagh, with an emerald off into the water’s sandy bottom.
Days of searching with no success, it would be fate that would bring help. Sandra, Jack’s wife of 56 years was attending a physical therapy session and mentioned the loss to the PT trainer. The trainer knew of TheRingFinders and gave Sandra the information. Sandra called me and I would be on my way, but not until two hours before low tide.
I had been told were to park and that Jack would be right over. Well here he came in his ATV to give me a ride out about a quarter of a mile to the site of the loss. To cut to the chase; I had Jack “mark the sand”, with tire tracks, where he thought he had lost the ring. After almost two hours of searching, the marked areas in the sand as I had found just one quarter. It was time to mentally rethink about the information I had been given. The marked areas that I had made in the sand would not have been waist deep in water until hours after the time of the loss. And if that was the case Jack would have had to go through much deeper water with the grand-kids on the way back to the ATV. My thought was that I had to search the deeper gullies, not the gentle sloping sand that had been marked.
The next 5 minutes of searching passed and I had found a pull tab and a fishing weight. The lower area was proving that I might be on the correct track. Another quick chat with Jack and a new area to search was outlined. Jack went off to define still another possible area to search and I put my detector’s headphones on and started to swing. On the second stroke I heard a promising signal that sure enough was caused by Jack’s Claddagh ring. We had been standing right on the ring while making our next plan of searching.
An emotional couple of minutes for Jack to recoup from putting his wedding ring back where it belonged and we were on the ATV heading off the sand flats of Cape Cod Bay. Now I was awfully glad we did not have to walk the quarter mile back to the parking lot. However, it was time enough for Jack to give me a quick history lesson on the area going back into the early 1800s. At the parking lot, I wished we had another mile or two for story telling. But a pending meeting precluded that. The only thing left was to have a short meeting with Sandra to make sure she would thank the PT Therapist for passing my information on to her.
Sometimes it seams like an impossible task to drive many miles to search hundreds of square yards, with a coil of 10 or 15 inches in diameter and to put the coil over a one inch diameter “lost” ring. And this day was one of those days when all seams almost impossible, but it did happen. I only wish it could happen every time and end with a wonderful picture for the Book of Smiles.
