I took a small load in to my non-ferrous guy this afternoon after work. I like bs-ing with him as he rings up my ticket, he's a hard worker and knows a lot of stuff. I asked him what the most unusual items he's ever handled. The first one he mentioned was the bow "emblem" made of brass that was on the "nose" of the WWI "USS South Dakota (later re-named USS Huron). He said it was about 3+ feet tall and weighed 300+ pounds. They moved it around their old place several times and finally got a call from the US Navy wondering if they still had it (maybe the Navy knew the guy that sold it for scrap?). Anyway, it was one of the last pieces left from this old ship and they wanted it for a museum. Sawmill (Jon) what was left of this ship ended up in BC as a breakwater for a sawmill and finally sunk there after a storm in the early 1960s.
USS South Dakota (ACR-9) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
My non-ferrous guy also ended up with a good chunk of a Boeing 727 (or maybe it was a DC-9) wing from when a landing plane hit a snowplow on the runway of the Sioux Falls airport 15-20 years ago (killed the snowplow operator but everyone on the plane made it). Anyway, the wing was just about torn off so these guys ended up getting it as scrap. He said it was a tough made piece of equipment and took quite of bit of effort to break it down.
Interesting stuff...
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