As always Fernando, you post the most intriguing items! While this type of item is far outside my usual field of interest, I cannot resist trying to figure out what this would be as well. I am inclined to agree with David's very astute observations, that this seems to be some sort of grenade, and with the chains, these would tend to foul in riggings and well position them for a seriously damaging blast. There were ball grenades of this shape with an aperture for fuses etc. used into WWI, but the chain attachments lead me to go with the naval ordnance suggestion.
I always thought the prisoner type ball was larger, heavier and pretty much solid, as well as of course, manacled.
All best regards,
Jim
|