Probably not a CANNONBALL but eh, what is it

[Wampum]

I have had this for about 8 years and it was out of the ocean about 2 years before that. So the story of this is that it was given to me by my brother who also gave me an actual naval iron cannonball (i'll post a thread once I get it cleaned) from the guy who found them both. The guy that found them was a captain of a scallop boat which he operated in the waters I'm assuming somewhat near Cape May county New Jersey since he docked his boat there. I met the dude and he told me that they were always bringing up different stuff and he said he also had mammoth tusk and teeth and he gave my brother a mastodon tooth as well, nice to have friends. So My question is, is this one of the rare Brass/Bronze Wrapped French Cannonballs? You know as much of the story as I do. The ball weighs 12 pounds and is 4 inches in diameter. There is an iron plug as seen in the picture. When shaking it you can hear and feel a clunking which I found to be odd leading me to believe there is an iron ball or gunpowder in it. Because it is not one solid metal ball I didn't attempt to look up specific gravity to determine if it was too heavy or light for its size to determine if it was a solid ball of one metal or a wrap with a heavier or lighter core metal. I was sure to do my due diligence and research it first and I have seen other posts on here about similar items and no I'm not that same guy posting pics of that same ball again lol. I'm a logical person and understand the likelyhood of it being something else entirely but it is certainly odd. Being that it is brass or bronze and was found in the ocean it makes sense to me that it is at least something nautical. I'm here to see a GUY about a possible CANNONBALL.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Wampum wrote:
"I'm here to see a GUY about a possible CANNONBALL."

Here I am, armed with the neccessary knowledge, and ready to help. It is definitely not a cannonball, for two reasons.
(1) There never has been any such thing as a brass/bronze coated (or 100% brass/bronze) cannonball, either solid or hollow, with a metal plug in it.
(2) To prevent a very unfortunate occurrence of "jamming" in the cannonbarrel during loading or firing, all actual cannonballs were carefully manufactured to be a "True Sphere" -- meaning, a perfect sphere except for sometimes having a slight casting-mold seam. No flat spots, lumps, bumps, grooves, nor raised belt. The photo shows your ball is lumpy/out-of-round.

The fact that your ball is hollow with a flush-fitting plug means it is a counterweight. The purpose of it being hollow with a plug is to allow the adding of a certain amount of tiny lead balls (or molten lead, or other material) in order to VERY precisely adjust the ball's weight to exactly whatever weight it needs to be. Let's say, just for example, that the empty ball weighs 12 pounds, and you need it to weigh 12 pounds 1.4 ounces. So you insert 1.4 ounces of the tiny lead balls (or molten lead, or other material), and then close the hole with the plug.

 

[Wampum]

That is very interesting and thanks for the info! A 12 pound counterweight must have been for some large cargo shipping I guess.

 

[P.ALLEN]

the dents and dings and indentations? make me wonder, dunno if anyone would use brass as ballast but hey rich folks do stupid stuff. (no offense to smart rich folks(if you send me money it'll make me wonder about the smart part)). Some of the "dents and dings" look like toolers/jewelers/engraver marks. Anyone?

 

[Wampum]

the dents and dings and indentations? make me wonder, dunno if anyone would use brass as ballast but hey rich folks do stupid stuff. (no offense to smart rich folks(if you send me money it'll make me wonder about the smart part)). Some of the "dents and dings" look like toolers/jewelers/engraver marks. Anyone?

No intentional marks of any type. Just from being bumped around over the years.