Some of the smaller cupreous artifacts

Here are some of the more striking small brass artifacts found at the cultural deposit in 1956/7.

This brass doorknob was not shiny when found. Also, the iron spindle and set screw had turned to mostly mush due to the reaction in sea water and contact with with the brass. The iron was the sacrificial metal and that helped protect the doorknob from corrosion. All the mush was removed, revealing that the handle is hollow. At a handle diameter 1 & 5/8 inches the, doorknob is not large.

This brass fixture and partial ring were found concreted together as posed in this picture. What was originally held by this hanger we can only guess, but it might have been a small lantern. It could not have held a heavy object because of its small size. The ring would have been 1 inch in diameter, and the hanger base disc diameter only 19/32 inch.


The brass object in this picture I believe is a seal holder. Its length is only 1 & 5/16 inch. It fits my fingers with a feel of good control for pressing a seal. Also, it looks as if the left end is made to unscrew for mounting other seals. However, if there was a seal mounted there when the wreck occurred there was no sign of one when it was found. Anyone out there an expert on seals and seal holders of the early to mid 1800's?

This small padlock was recovered in one piece. However, it's iron interior workings had been transformed over time into a black sulfide mush. The cleaning process resulted in the three separate pieces as shown. The key way cover still swivels 360 degrees. The size of the padlock is about 1 x 1 inch. It's weight is 0.460 oz (13.0g). I like to think that this padlock was used to keep the sextant secure when it was not in use. I have read someplace that in actual practice the sextant was housed in its box on the exterior of a ship near the captain's or officers' quarters. This was done to eliminate the sextant error caused by the difference of temperature inside the cabin and the temperature outside. It's plausible that the sextant, box and padlock went over the side as one. And what we recovered were an incomplete sextant and a padlock not far from each other 115 years later.

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