Railroad part or Ship part or...

[Kapidr]

I found this on the beach on a recent hunt with my Excal. It was in an area where a railroad track once ran and where a known shipwreck is. Can anyone help identify it?

 

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[ARC]

Definitely ship related IMO.
Looks to be bronze... weird.. looks snapped off.

Also looks familiar... in shape to me... strange.

 

[bradyboy]

wow, serious nail, spike not to mention the heavy bar
what are the metals
brass - Bronze?
found in the water or on land?
Brady

 

[Kapidr]

wow, serious nail, spike not to mention the heavy bar
what are the metals
brass - Bronze?
found in the water or on land?
Brady

I believe it's bronze and found on the wet sand after Hurricane Matthew.

 

[BosnMate]

I have no idea what it is, but my money would be that it came from a ship, not railroad.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Possibly a strap from the rudder or stern fittings of a wooden boat. Note the strap in the lower right.

 

[hvacker]

Stick a magnet on it. It it sticks it's terrestrial. If not then it could be either nautical or terrestrial.
By the patina I would think brass or hopefully bronze. Why hopefully? Brass is far more common as it's less $$.
Brass is just copper and zinc. Bronze has tin in it. Harder to find and makes bronze a lot harder material. Think Bronze Age.
Besides, nautical stuff is more cool.

The other thing that seems to get my attention is that spikes are only driven into wood. What's that say?

 

[ARC]

Sheesh... Imagine someone stepping on that spike if that piece were laying upright.

 

[ivan salis]

thinking a broken part of a rudder attachment strap for a wooden vessel (see above) at the lower right hand bottom corner .... it would be bronze as iron would rust quickly in salt water

 

[Kapidr]

thinking a broken part of a rudder attachment strap for a wooden vessel (see above) at the lower right hand bottom corner .... it would be bronze as iron would rust quickly in salt water

It's definitely not iron yep. I was hoping a round headed peg like that or spike like that with the flat end would be easy to identify but I've never seen one before. The other spikes we find here are bronze square head spikes with the same type of spike end, flat.

 

[Tony in SC]

Being broken, bent and the spike bent, would take a lot of force. Might have run aground and broke the rudder off? Tony

 

[cudamark]

Probably not real old. The strap looks machine made, not hand forged. Interesting find though!

 

[marion moore]

since you have less than the whole part. not seeing the pc that's missing,

it could be half of a big door hinge. just a guess. thanks, marion