Need help identifying found off Dauphin Island

[bay pirate]

I found this washed up on the west end if Dauphin Island after Hurricane Isaac. It appears to be a bildge strake or stringer from a wooden ship. It's all hand cut (notice the tool marks) and the nails are hand forged and appear to be rivet style. None of them are brass. It measures 3'8" by 3" and everything is cut at a 110* to a 70* angle. I think it's a piece of the ship those shrimpers found in the 80s. Looks like there is some left

 

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[bay pirate]

Come on talking heads, take a look and let me know, lol.

 

[elle]

Definitely stringer with notches from the interior construction used to support the transverse beams. Dated before 1870 because that is when the sister keelsons, side keelsons, and bilge keelsons came into play.

 

[bay pirate]

What's the significance of the iron pins vs brass. I've been reading other finds that state brass was used on ships. I also think its from the bildge area maybe from a smaller boat in the 30ft range. Thanks for your post

 

[elle]

For safe analysis, I just say its from the inner hull. I was more concerned with the dimensions of the notches than the piece as a whole. The closest I came using reference tools and charts gave me a length of a ship as being 27 feet. This was evaluated from a stringer identical to yours found in a wreck over in Europe. Your drawn conclusion was right on the button!

Brass was used but it was more expensive than iron. Another thing to consider with future finds is the distance between the rivets and the number used. In the 1800s ordinances were placed concerning the construction details, especially for military and larger vessels. What an interesting find and thanks for sharing.

 

[stevemc]

Bronze is used for ships fittings Nails , spikes etc never brass. It would be hard to
Put a date on this since they still have wooden stringers and beams in use now. Looks fairly new. Iron would most likely
Mean it was used in an area inside, as was said LOoks new to me.

 

[mamabear]

could it be from a pier? or boardwalk?

 

[elle]

Even in the 1800s ships used brass for fastenings, such as screws, nuts, bolts, etc.
It was called naval brass, highly resistant in sea water.

 

[Trembull]

Telephone pole top stringer to support the wires?
My two cents

 

[stevemc]

Brass is 70 percent copper and 30 percent zinc. Very easily corroded in saltwater. And not strong at all, that is why it is used in easily worked items. Zinc is very low on the nobility scale that is why it is used as sacrificial anodes on all boat on salt or freshwater. Bronze iI 70 percent copper 30 percent tin which is very resistive to corrosion and is very hard and tough. Bronze is very resistive to corrosion and is very strong. It has been used for 1000s of years as ship spikes etc. And still is used for propellers and struts and bolts in
Modern ships I am sure navel brass wasnt usef for spikes and underwater parts Most likely above water items

 

[bay pirate]

Thanks all. It's defiantly no a telephone pole stringer or modern. As I mentioned, all of the notches are hand tooled and it came up on the west end of dauphin island which has zero homes or piers. It came in with the tidal surge. I'm going back to look for additional pieces and will update.

 

[elle]

Naval brass was not only employed above, but below, in the construction of a wooden ship’s interior hull. This is in reference that bay pirate’s stringer most likely came from an inner lower section of a vessel. See Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Volume 47, Part 1. Good luck, bay pirate, on finding more evidence to your puzzle.