A large ship bumper washed up on Croatan Beach in Virginia Beach on Tuesday. (Courtesy of Patrick McLaughlin)
VIRGINIA BEACH — Croatan resident Patrick McLaughlin likes taking photographs at the beach and sharing them on social media. His recent pictures of dolphins, an osprey and a lightning storm garnered hundreds of hearts and smiley faces. Wharf Fenders
So when McLaughlin spied an object on the beach Tuesday night that he’d never seen, he quickly grabbed his camera.
“It was foggy as hell, and I saw this big thing floating around,” he said.
It was a large, black ship fender — the size of small car — washed up on the beach with waves crashing around it.
In true McLaughlin style, he posted it with a quirky caption.
“This looks like a fishing bobber of the gods!,” he quipped in the post.
By Wednesday morning, more Croatan residents had alerted authorities.
City staff checked with local military installations to see if they were missing a ship fender, but they were not, according to Zachary Corbell, assistant superintendent of the city of Virginia Beach’s dredge operations.
Corbell surmised that it likely broke free from a dock or port. With a storm on the way at the end of this week and rough seas forecasted, he decided to remove it Wednesday afternoon.
City dredge operations personnel, along with the police department’s marine patrol, pulled it off the beach and towed it.
McLaughlin took several more photographs before the city hauled the fender away. He only wishes he could have kept the big bobber as a souvenir.
“If I could have gotten it in my backyard, I would have,” he said.
Fender On Ship Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, stacy.parker@pilotonline.com