Metal box mystery: How did this thing get on a Florida beach?

TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Recent storms may have pushed a big part of a ship onto a secluded Central Florida beach.

The Canaveral National Seashore told News4Jax sister station WKMG in Orlando that the metal object washed ashore at boardwalk No. 7 of Playalinda Beach. It is about 8 feet tall and 20 feet long.

Seashore’s resource manager Kristen Kneifl said it might be a ballast tank from a ship, which is a compartment on a floating structure that holds water to help stabilize the vessel.

“That’s our best guess at this point,” Kneifl told WKMG.

The object was empty, so it’s not a public hazard, she said. However, Seashore staff will still put flags or cones around it to keep visitors on the beach at a distance.

The O’Sheas saw the mystery box for their first time Friday.

“It looks like an oil drum of some sort, big drum,” Tom O’Shea said.

Mary O’Shea also looked at it and guessed it might have come from the bottom of the ocean.

“It’s probably been there a long time since it’s all rusty,” she said.

As far as removing the giant box, the Seashore said it could be difficult. Meaning it will probably stay on the beach for a while until it gets figured out.

“Unlike maybe some boats or other things that wash up, where we can kind of chain saw it apart and get it over one of our boardwalks, it doesn’t look like it can be cut up,” Kneifl said. “So, it’s going to have to be removed from the water, from the oceanside.”

Kneifl said, chances are, the strange object will be removed on a barge and transported elsewhere by sea.