Thread: What structure??

I think it's a barge. Been there for decades. Sand shift covering and uncovering it from time to time. 20 years ago a buddy of mine fished it regularly and always did well.

The two posts are in the right position to be bollards if that's the back end, but if it's a barge it is an unusual size - some kind of special purpose, not a standard bulk carrier. I used to be in charge of two barge loading facilities (coal) on the Warrior and I've loaded and unloaded coal at McDuffie, and it's not like any we ever saw.

If it's 135 feet wide it's 4x the width of a standard bulk carrier. Maybe some kind of floating dock that sank, but if it were a dock it would have more bollards. The posts look too big to be bollards (ca 5 ft).

Measuring again it appears to be 150 x 20 - odd.

I'm not saying it's not a barge, but it's a danged unusual size. Nothing here matches it.

Barge Weight Capacities Chart | Heartland Barge

I think I will get the fins and mask out some day soon.

Actually, its not what I was thinking of. Looking at Google Earth, what ever it is was buried under the dunes back in 1997 when my former colleague fished down there.
Its in the red box on the bottom middle, 1997:



Same shot, in 2016:

The structure we fished was wooden, no steel that I recall.

That sounds right,.
There are a number of old wooden barges and ships washed ashore along the Fort Morgan Peninsula. From what I understand, most are early 1900's vintage.
Sometimes storms, shifting dunes and changing shorelines expose them, other times they are covered up.
My former colleague described the structure fished as being piling and rocks. I imagine it was wood & ballast from an old barge like this one.

There is a rather large area of scattered ballast stones about 1/4 mile SW from this site.
But it's 15 to 200 yards off the beach in 9'-12' deep water.

Originally Posted by Pier#r

There is a rather large area of scattered ballast stones about 1/4 mile SW from this site.
But it's 15 to 200 yards off the beach in 9'-12' deep water.

Wish I could flounder fish around that. Seems it could be like a dream I would like to have.

There used to be a concrete pavilion back in the day there. Also there's a pile of old barges and ships down there. That's the arm pit of mobile bay it catches a lot of crap

Mystery solved - It's the CSS Ivanhoe. Thanks, Pier#r.

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