Was any shipbuilding ever done near where you found it? If so, I'll go for the trenail before the head was cut off. Could just have been dropped and not picked up. Any ideas on what kind of wood?
A "Fid" is a seamans generic term for anything that resembles a marlin spike, but larger. They are still extensively used when splicing rope....fibre or metal. Some of the large wooden ones can be up to 3ft long and 4" dia at the thick end. Metal ones are used in wire splicing. Both sorts used to seperate the strands of the rope so another bit of the rope can be pushed through the hole. BY.
yes, Bryan.......there was a lot of ship building done just a mile up river at Lytham shipyards.....some very famous old ships built there including a lot of old sailing ships, paddlers, iron and steel ships, and one particular boat called "African Queen".......all listed in a little paper back book ( which I have lost somewhere down the way) called Lytham St Annes Ship builders.
the timber does look, from scrapes along it, like some Mahogany dirivitive, it has that colour, and even with it's age, and the fact that it has now fully dried out over the years............it is still very solid and hard.
thanks for the input.
as for you John 44....................well I haven't a leg to stand on as to that argument.......
........If I were going down that line I'd have to say a wooden leg for the captain's pet monkey.....