Copper on plank, bronze spikes, spoon handle, musketball, age/ size ideas ?

[Jolly Mon]

I found this stuff yesterday off a small, rarely detected stretch of beach...no guarantee it is all from the same source, obviously...I was wondering if anyone might have any ideas on the age of the copper sheathed plank and the size of the vessel it might be from...it looks like there are three distinct layers of copper...the bronze nail with the round head is hand forged, for sure...the lead ball is too big for buckshot...


All found with an Aquapulse 1a

 

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[ibjeepn]

wow. interesting !

 

[comfortably numb]

What is that in the first pic that looks like a small pistol?

 

[stevemc]

Hard to date any of that exactly. They used copper sheathing for centuries. Still do on some wood ships. Unusual to find it on a plank. The nail looks like a sheathing nail. They coated the wood with tar, then put on a coarse cloth, stuck it in the tar, then nailed on the copper sheathing. Often you can find lead or copper sheathing with the cloth print still on it, pressed in by years of waves pounding it. Usually this was stripped off when new copper was put on. They would caulk the planks with cotton like stuff called oakum, and tar the whole underwater part and cloth and copper or lead sheath it. Usually just when it was new, but every few years it would need new sheathing, so it would all come off and renewed. Either by carenning, or dragging it out. Some areas might have 3 layers, like tight spots around rudder, or on the rudder, ends of keel, other places with sharp turns. but usually it is one layer and the overlap of the single layers. Neat finds none the less. Very nice.

 

[Jolly Mon]

The object that looks like a "small pistol" is just a bent iron nail or spike...very little iron associated with this site...

Thanks for the heads-up on the multi layering of cetain areas of a ship/boat, Steve, I had not thought about that... It also helps explain the fairly pronounced curvature of the wood...

I did not think the piece could be dated with any certainty...but just thought someone might have some ideas...