Classic Ship Anchor

[UnderMiner]

The tide went out much lower than normal today and I found this old ship anchor in a very remote area. I figure it's probably exposed for a couple of hours or so every few months when conditions are just right. Marked the gps coordinates down. Figured I can tie large floats to it at low tide and then when the tide gets high it will float and I can use a boat to pull it to shore. Will be a very big and interesting restoration if I can pull it off.

 

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[Gene Mean]

Wow! Good luck!! Not something you can just grab and go?

 

[The Rebel]

Nice find!

 

[pepperj]

How big is the anchor?

 

[ncsuwolf]

Cool find. Not certain of age….did you attach the rope or was that there when found? It appears to be nylon/synthetic. If so that puts it around ~1950 or later….at least when it was lost. Could have been old when the rope was attached.

Will be nice when you get it cleaned up.

 

[UnderMiner]

How big is the anchor?

Probably around 4 feet high or so, maybe 200-300 pounds. I'm not very sure because I had to explore the whole area fast to beat the tide so didn't examine it very much.

 

[UnderMiner]

Cool find. Not certain of age….did you attach the rope or was that there when found? It appears to be nylon/synthetic. If so that puts it around ~1950 or later….at least when it was lost. Could have been old when the rope was attached.

Will be nice when you get it cleaned up.

Rope was already on it. I'm really looking forward to salvaging it and putting it into a giant electrolysis bath. Then soak in gallons of fresh water for a few weeks to get the salt out. Then anti-rust solution, and so on until painted black and put on display somewhere. Gonna be fun.

 

[robertk]

Did you pull the rope to see what’s on the other end?

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Cool find !

You might want to research soaking the Anchor in a bath of Fresh Water and Lye for 3 to 6 months.
Then seal and paint it to help prevent further decay.
Also, if you contact a Maritime Museum they could probably tell you the best way to preserve it.

 

[UnderMiner]

Did you pull the rope to see what’s on the other end?

No, was in too much hurry to explore the area before the tide shifted, the window for exploring the whole area was less than 30 minutes. The anchor was actually on a stable higher area surrounded by lower muddy areas so when the tide began coming in the anchor's area was becoming an island and I didn't want to get stuck on it. This is why I had never explored the area before, it's only accessible under extreme low tide conditions like today was, and when the water is calm, and still you must go knee deep in mud to get there. I was really just looking for antique bottles, there are alot buried in the area but didn't find any worth keeping today.
There was an overturned boat hull nearby though, but it was fiberglass and too small for the anchor.

 

[UnderMiner]

Cool find !

You might want to research soaking the Anchor in a bath of Fresh Water and Lye for 3 to 6 months.
Then seal and paint it to help prevent further decay.
Also, if you contact a Maritime Museum they could probably tell you the best way to preserve it.

Thanks! I have been experimenting with preserving salt water salvaged iron artifacts for awhile and have a pretty good handle on things. But I never did anything this big before so will be fun to see how it works out. I will look into the lye bath idea. I actually usually boil iron objects in water after I get most of the rust off so the water penetrates and dissolves all the salt from the pours of the metal. Of course that won't be possible for such a huge artifact as this.