what is this thing?

[ausfire]

Object found at a garage sale by work colleague. No one (including the seller) has any idea what it is.  Cast iron, about 300mm across, pen knife for scale. Thought of a rope bollard, but why the texturing? A footrest of some kind? Any ideas?

[SLAG]

Aus.,

Just a guess,  but here goes.,   I think the cross hatching is for better gripping.

But why is it on top of the cleat?

My guess is,  that it is for swimmers or divers to grab and haul themselves up and onto a boat.

Incidentally,  I looked up three hundred meters millimeters (30 centimeters), and it is eleven and thirteen sixteenths inches.  Almost a foot long.

Millimeters are very scarce in these United States.

Regards,

SLAG.

 

[Reeltree]

foot step on a carriage perhaps

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I've seen buggies & carriages with steps like that. Buggy step gets my vote.

[ausfire]

Thanks for the suggestions … yes. a buggy step seems likely. Some of those cast steps were quite ornate … maybe we'll add this one to our collection. We'll assume that it is a step until someone tells us differently. Thanks.

[ThomasPowers]

Ha I worked on the Atacama Large Millimeter Array here in the USA; of course it was being built in Chile where the Large Millimeters are native to the high desert.