lead ingot.

[icechip]

When I first started diving 34 years ago, I was perplexed by the number of house bricks I found well away from the shore. Finally I figured it out, people were putting bricks inside fish/carb/cray traps as ballast and these were lost ones, the wire cage having rusted away. Perhaps something like that?

Same here in Maine for lobsters. Lots of bricks out on the bottom from the ballast for the lobster pots.

 

[MikeHoncho]

ballast. My modern (1978) 30' sailboat has about 7,000 lbs of lead keel ballast hanging on 4 keel boats (and a bunch of 3M 5200)

 

[Jared0425]

Was lead plentiful enough for regular ballast? Normally stones would be used.

 

[Celt]

Stones were used in cargo vessels, they could be taken out when cargo was loaded. But was fixed lead used in war ships?

 

[Jared0425]

Stones were used in cargo vessels, they could be taken out when cargo was loaded. But was fixed lead used in war ships?

No. Big warships used pig iron and decommissioned cannons as their ballast. If the lead had any sort of edge on it, it could cause damage to the wooden hull. Which is why the stones and pig iron was rounded.