Mystery container found on beach

Taken from H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds"
The uncovered part had the appearance of a huge cylinder . . . The end of the cylinder was being screwed out from within . . . But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks--like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air towards me--and then another.

It's' a comin'.

It is obviously a buoy anchorage, or at least that's what it looks like to me. If it was something important it would have been picked up by now.

Originally posted by Impreza
It is obviously a buoy anchorage, or at least that's what it looks like to me. If it was something important it would have been picked up by now.

I think the shape might be wrong for that, I dont know its hard to tell from that pic, but I assume it should be a certain shape for it to float upright.

[edit on 29-12-2007 by _Phoenix_]

I believe this could be a part from an offshore windmill, thoose things are huge and buildt in sections aswell, so i think its a lost section...

Somewhere out there...there is a windmill just a bit shorter than the rest now

reply to post by kleverone


they also said they were using the few markings it had to find its owner.

it definately looks like a rocket booster or something similar for liquids.

Most Interesting

Judging by the size and what would appear to be an insulating layer on the outside I would say it is part of a cracking tower for a chemical plant or oil refinery. There appear to be at least two ports along the side, top and bottom. The collar around the top would appear to be part of a shipping jig. The top "cone" where the numbers are, appears to have a layer of protective sheets applied to it.

Yeah my guess is it's a cracking tower. Perhaps we finally found Saddam's mysterious WMD plant? It was sailing the seas all these years!

LEE.

Hello everyone,

I suspect that's a big container or vessel of some sort. I hope the good people of Stinky Bay took the percaution of scaning for radioactivity and other toxic substances before getting too close. That distinct yellow color is probably a caution?

Assuming we are looking at the top, there appears to be a heavyduty, highly machined metal valve connection at the apex of a cone assembly which appears to be half opaque, half translucent. There is a narrow crease or rupture running between about 5'oclock and 7'oclock on the cone. There appears to be no scratches or other evidence of impact so this leads me to believe some internal force is responsible for that crease. Perhaps a heavy pipe or internal pump assembly attached to the hat? Because it's described as "fairly light construction" it's probably not a high pressure vessel. It could be for mixing or setteling as previously mentioned.

Looks like a grain or corn hopper that sits on 4 supports that bolt to the 4 ears on the rim of the bottom of the silo. My guess it fell off a ship transporting it to a third world country.

It's a custom built silo.
I may not know what it was designed for, but I recognize a silo when I see one.



The 3 visible and one hidden brackets are to attach it to legs or a platform so it can stand upright. The nipple at the bottom with the flange is to bolt some sort of hose or fitting to. The area where you see the numbers is a thin protective plastic coating that will be removed after installation.

I'm sure it'll be identified in a few days because its a made to order unit worth a few bucks, but you can bet it's not part of a rocket.

reply to post by anxietydisorder


ding ding ding, we have a winner! (well imho anyway)

and im sad to say it was nothing exciting like a rocket booster or part of chem weapons plant

darn you AD, had to tell us the truth and ruin our excitement

Originally posted by kleverone

They said there were no markings on this but it's clearly numbered 5580. I assume they meant no other markings. Hmmmmm

10 bucks says we see it on ebay in a week.

kleverone - I hijacked your picture cos it's the best one on the thread

That's a pretty interesting dent there on the front, and the two clean scrape marks to me indicate a clockwise turning motion (from this view) the one on the left really seems to me to show this thing kinda ripped away quick and the dent just hit the main vessel (gotta be a ship) then the whole thing has been bobbing and escaped real damage, must of floated so it beached quickly or it would of been reported as a danger to shipping and delt with.

I'm drawn to the density of the rivets - that thing is really built well. i'd go some sort of gravity silo. Defiantly NOT anything to do with rockets ~ could make a good pressure container tho.

Its the first launch of the Iranian shiab 4 missile. Do not look inside, It may be a dirty bomb filled with goat poo

reply to post by Now_Then



Could you point out any rivets on this, I don't see any.
I see the weld lines and bolt holes, but even blowing up the image, not a single rivet.

The flanges are steel because you can see some rust, that could be from time in the water or sitting on land after manufacturing. The nipple and ring is obviously stainless steel due to the pristine condition, and the side surface almost looks to have a thin insulation layer or anti-corrosion coating.

That big dent in the bottom cone is obvious impact damage.
But without knowing the thickness of the steel, type of steel, the weight of the silo, speed of impact, etc....
It would be hard to judge what sort of impact would cause the damage.

Because the plastic coating isn't torn away from the damaged area I'm guessing a fairly thin steel and low force blow caused the dent or the bottom cone is aluminum.


Does anyone know of a recent sinking or damaged ship in this area in the past couple weeks ???


[edit on 29/12/2007 by anxietydisorder]

Well, props to AD for trying to actually examine the pic with a critical eye.

A couple things that puzzle me:

1. the letters and numbers 'K8 | ??9 or ??g | 5580 are, to me obviously written on by hand with a large indelible marker (note the two fives are different, so it's not a manufacturing decal). Since they are oriented perpendicularly to the cone, it appears that this could be the -top- and someone stood on the platform and bent over and put those numbers on there. If it were the bottom, would not the numbers be turned around 180deg? Or if it were numbered while on its side, the numbers would be 90deg, or sideways.

2. Note the thin metallic layer of material with the stripes. It's peeled off in one corner of the '5580' panel and then ripped and peeled back near the alpha-numeric in the next panel (??9 or ??g). To me, it looks like possibly designed to apply heat, like a metallic 'electic blanket'.

However it's puzzling that this orange bordered blue striped material only covers half the cone. Why "heat" only one side? Why have a special covering on a silo?

OTOH, it could be a protective layer that's meant to peel off, but the exposed portion under it seems ordinary - not like a mirrored surface that needs protecting.

Finally note on the far left near the water, there's another piece of piping or something that looks like a vent. On the opposite side there's another entry port which looks like a drain vent with a threaded portion.

The sides look ribbed as though the 'container' is insulated.

I'm dubious of 'buoy' ID - it wouldn't ahve all those entry ports or drains. A silo would, I think, have the base struts already attached as an integral part of it per AD's example pic.

I also see no rivets.

This thread is just begging to become a BTS photo caption contest. Just look at that thing, the camera angle, and the four red-necks just hanging out 'investigating.' I can think of a couple of good captions without even trying.

• And on the 7th day, God put down his pen.
  
• "Reckon I can shoot at it a few b'for ya call for the sheriff?"
  
• "No! NO! If you release it no one will ever believe you caught THAT."
  
• Police surveyed the killer's grisly calling card. They had to find out who was murdering transformers before more parts were found.
  
• "Well, one things for certain: it ain't foreign. The numbers are in English."
  

Oh yeah, its a silo.

Jon

[edit on 12.29.2007 by Voxel]

reply to post by Coopdog


You know I actually saw something like that in Florida when I lived there years ago. I believe it is full of sand, something to keep the beach area from eroding to much.

As far as the object in the picture I would say a silo of some sort.

UPDATE:
Something has just emerged from the mystery container.

It looks like a silo with some sort of liquid jacket for cooling/heating the contents. Notice how the large end of the cone is smaller in diameter than the main body. Also might be the inlet & outlet for the jacket liquid at the near and far end along the right side. If so, insulation makes sense too.

[edit on 30-12-2007 by uberbabe]

Originally posted by Alxandro
UPDATE:
Something has just emerged from the mystery container.

Thats the funniest thing ive seen in awhile.
I almost dueced in my pants