Historic Find In Montauk Surf?

Shannon Coppola took advantage of Sunday’s warm weather to take a hike along the beach in Montauk with her children and some friends.

Near Gurney’s Inn, they came across a large piece of cast iron resembling a stack of gears on an axle that had become uncovered in the surf.

“The tide was really, really low,” Ms. Coppola said on Monday. “I think it has been there for an awfully long time.”

Ms. Coppola was accompanied by her children, Oliver and Mia, and her friend Julia Prince and Ms. Prince’s son, Hudson. The children played around the find, while Ms. Coppola and Ms. Prince looked it over for any kind of identifying marks, but found nothing.

This being the age of social media, Ms. Coppola took a photo of the object on her cellphone and posted it to Instagram. It was seen there by her friend Sheila Roo, also of Montauk, who decided to post the photo on a Facebook page she follows, Weird Secondhand Things That Just Need To Be Shared, which more typically features offbeat thrift store and yard sale finds.

“Weirdlings,” she wrote, “this isn’t from a thrift store but washed up on the beach in Montauk, NY, today.” Ms. Roo speculated that it had come from a shipwreck or even a plane.

“There seems to be an interesting collective of knowledge in this group. Anyone want to take a crack at what it is?” she asked.

Again, this being the age of social media, the answers came fast and furious. Ms. Roo had to shut the post down to public comments after a mere 3,500 people responded over several hours.

A number of people rejected the plane theory, pointing out that the object appeared to be made of cast iron and thus too heavy. Many people theorized it came from a ship and was likely part of the winch assembly used to raise and lower the anchor.

A few others, as is to be expected from a site that focuses on thrift shop treasures, commented on how much they liked the boots seen in the photo.

Chelsea Colwell-Pasch, a maritime archaeologist who lives in New Brunswick in Canada, described the find as a “Providence” capstan windlass, which, indeed, was an assembly used in the anchor system. She said it likely came from a historic shipwreck and urged the finders to report it to the “state Heritage Protection Office,” which is likely Canadian for New York State Historic Preservation Office.

On Monday, Ms. Coppola said she had begun to investigate the history of shipwrecks off eastern Long Island to learn more about the find.