✅ SOLVED Found wedged between rocks at Botany Bay, Australia

[viv poly]

I found this wedged between rocks at Botany Bay last weekend. I'd been eyeing it for ages at low tide and couldn't dislodge it until I threw a rock at it. The two pieces were on top of each other, as I've tried to reassemble in one of the photos. I managed to dislodge a 7.5 cm (3 inch) nail that might be a rose head(?). Hopefully someone can enlighten me. Each piece is 20 cm (8 inches) x 23 cm (9 inches) x 5 cm (2 inches). I'm mystified. Any ideas much appreciated.

Thank you, all. Viv

 

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[SkaBa]

Looks like from a ship wreck. Very cool.

 

[tamrock]

That iron spike looks hand forged. It wasn't mass produced.

 

[rich f]

i would hang it on the wall in the garage

 

[BosnMate]

Looks like ship timbers from the days of wooden ships and iron men.

 

[viv poly]

I like to think it's from a shipwreck, too. I've been googling ship construction but it's very small pieces so I'll have to keep searching. Thank you all. I do want to hang it somewhere, anywhere.

 

[gunsil]

Could just as easily be a piece off an old dock somewhere in the world. Storms break a lot of structures loose all over coastal areas and they can float away and end up thousands of miles from their original locations. As for the spike it would be hard to prove that it was hand forged since salt corrosion will make even a 50 year old stamped out spike look like the one in the photo. It is simply something that will never be possible to put a 100% positive ID to. Analyzing the wood would be the only way to get any idea of it's origin, but even that won't tell a whole lot since boats and docks are often made from the same materials. Being as it was found in the Pacific ocean area it could have come from any of several continents.

 

[unclemac]

I find bits of dock from Japan on WA beaches with some regularity.

 

[MuckyBottles]

Could be a busted rudder

 

[viv poly]

I sent the photos to the Australian Maritime Museum and here is their reply.

Thank you very much for notifying the ANMM of your discovery of the wooden object near the end of the runway at Botany Bay. In looking at your photographs, the fastener appears to be a ‘cut’ iron spike that has been subjected to considerable corrosion and deterioration. The corrosion has been particularly severe in areas where the fastener has been exposed to air (i.e., not covered by the wood in which it was embedded), which is why it appears to be much wider—and better preserved—at its centre. Pitting associated with corrosion of the fastener’s head has given it the appearance of a rose pattern, but this appears to be purely the result of natural processes, and not a diagnostic feature of its manufacture.



Cut fasteners are produced from iron plate or bar stock and were the result of a mechanised process that was developed in the United States and Great Britain between 1790 and 1820. The means by which they were manufactured gives them a distinct rectangular cross-section (rather than the square cross-section more common of hand-forged fasteners). Cut fasteners continued to be used until the early 20th century, although their frequency began to decline around the 1860s with the advent of the wire fasteners which are so common in construction today.



The two wooden objects associated with the fastener appear to be plank ends, but it’s very difficult to ascertain exactly where they originated from, or what they once comprised. Given the location of the find, they may have been part of a wharf or other form of maritime infrastructure, but could have just as easily been part of a standing structure on land (such as a shed or outbuilding) built from wooden slat construction. Your discovery of these objects wedged between rocks leads me to believe that they very likely originated from elsewhere (possibly as flotsam washed up by wave action), but it’s hard to be certain.



Thank you again for notifying the Museum of your find! Should you encounter additional objects in the area that appear as though they may be associated with what you’ve already found, please feel free to let us know.



Kind Regards,

James Hunter







Dr James Hunter
Curator RAN Maritime Archaeology

 

[unclemac]

your museum rocks! i have sent a few queries off to museums myself and always find they seem to love the chance to figure out a problem for me.

 

[viv poly]

Museum types love, love, love imparting their knowledge, don't they? Lucky for us.