Ballast Pile Characteristics

[pcolaboy]

This is going to be a rather vague topic so please bear with me.

Occassionally I run across ballast piles on sandbars in my local bay waters. Whether or not these are places where ballast was simply dumped overboard or left from a wreck remains to be determined on most of them. Most of these piles only show the tip of the iceberg ,so to speak, and there are no exposed structural elements.

Are there any general characteristics regarding piles of ballast stone that would indicate a wreck as opposed to a random ballast dump? My thought process tells me that large shipwrecks would most likely have segmented piles of stones since they were fairly compartmentailized within the holds of the ships - does that theory hold water?

Granted, a magentometer would certainly help determine if the pile is a wreck candidate or not but I just don't have the funds to purchase one.

Any ideas are appreciated.

Pcolaboy

 

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[mad4wrecks]

Yeah, if it was a spot that was just dumped ballast, that is all you are likely to find there.

A virgin ballast pile from a shipwreck should have iron hardware, possibly pottery shards, musketballs, glass pieces, firebricks etc....over and among the ballast stones. A good visual survey with a metal detector should answer your question.

 

[ScubaFinder]

Tom speaks the truth, but also remember that many times small piles of ballast were dropped when the ship hit a reef or sand bar, and then the main deposit drifted in before it sank. Just general info here, but never judge the size of a ship by the first ballast you see, sometimes the entire load is in one spot, and sometimes it is scattered for miles.

Regardless, I'd be down there with a detector like Tom said, if you search the whole pile and get no hits, then it's most like a dump spot...usually near a port where ships were loaded. remember also that many ballast stones will set off a detector, especially the black ones. I have one that rings a 6 on my Pulse 8X.

You guys have a LOT of good stuff over there...keep looking and you'll find the right one.

Jason

 

[CaribbeanDiver]

Perfect answer Mad

 

[pcolaboy]

Yeah, if it was a spot that was just dumped ballast, that is all you are likely to find there.

A virgin ballast pile from a shipwreck should have iron hardware, possibly pottery shards, musketballs, glass pieces, firebricks etc....over and among the ballast stones. A good visual survey with a metal detector should answer your question.

If I saw iron hardware, driftpins, ribs, artifacts, etc. then I obviously wouldn't be posting this Basically there are literally hundreds of ballast piles in Pensacola Bay. Many of them only show a few inches above the constantly shifting sands on some of the shoals. It seems to me that ballast that is simply dumped overboard to take on cargo would be very randomly scattered, not in a nice neat heaps. Both of the 1559 Spanish wrecks discovered here have unscattered piles, they were just silted over to within a few inches of their tops and all of the remaining structural elements were completely covered.

Ballast stone was actually quite a commodity in itself at Pensacola since we have no natural rocks that are available to be quarried anywhere nearby. In fact, there are still many old homes in pensacola that were built using ballast rock for their foundation piers, rock walls, etc.

I was just curious if others out there had noticed a pattern that is fairly tell-tale for a wreck.

Thanks,

Pcola

 

[CaribbeanDiver]

The answers still stand.

There is no way that the weather, hurricanes, dredging and currents will affect all ballast piles in the same way. Also, you have to consider many times ballast is thrown overboard in an unsuccessful attempt to get a ship off a reef, or even more confusing, a long since gone shoal.

If it is a wreck there will be iron, not to mention a wide range of other artifacts. A metal detector is your answer.

There is not, nor ever will be, a specific pattern common to all wrecks.

Good Luck!