I found some brass spikes from a shipwreck in Lake Champlain about 1963 or 4. The wreck was quite near the Shelburne Shiptard, famous in the last century as a place they made PT Boats ..However, my spikes are a good deal older than WWII.
It wasn’t a big boat at all, maybe 25 -35 feet long . I don’t have an impression of it’s width left in my memory. We pulled the 4” brass spikes out of the rotting wood with our bare hands; right out of the ribs I think , and got a small bucket of them which we mostly swapped an old timer up on the main road who dealt in all kinds of junk.
But I kept about 20 of them as a momento of that glorious summer day in Shelburne Bay. Over the years I moved a lot. I would reward good clients with a spike that would be a true historic artifact from one of the most historic bodies of water in the country . People loved them until one day..they were all gone . I was sorry I’d given them all away, they were a connection to my 15 year old self who could be enterprising . About five years later about five of them turned up miraculously in a plastic bag. I think my mom put them up like that, while I traveled and when I finally had a place of my own I must have collected them.
I think they’re 19 th or 18th c American or English. And I have a good photo and will share just ask. [email protected]
It wasn’t a big boat at all, maybe 25 -35 feet long . I don’t have an impression of it’s width left in my memory. We pulled the 4” brass spikes out of the rotting wood with our bare hands; right out of the ribs I think , and got a small bucket of them which we mostly swapped an old timer up on the main road who dealt in all kinds of junk.
But I kept about 20 of them as a momento of that glorious summer day in Shelburne Bay. Over the years I moved a lot. I would reward good clients with a spike that would be a true historic artifact from one of the most historic bodies of water in the country . People loved them until one day..they were all gone . I was sorry I’d given them all away, they were a connection to my 15 year old self who could be enterprising . About five years later about five of them turned up miraculously in a plastic bag. I think my mom put them up like that, while I traveled and when I finally had a place of my own I must have collected them.
I think they’re 19 th or 18th c American or English. And I have a good photo and will share just ask. [email protected]
