How a World War II relic washed ashore on Texas Gulf Coast

Every now and then, the Gulf currents deliver something to our beaches that feels like it belongs in a museum rather than on the sand. This week, it was a rubber bale — an unusual find that looks like a large, brown, square sack about the size of a tire. Weighing in at around 200 pounds, each bale is made up of stacked sheets of rubber, bound together with a single rubber wrap around the outside.

Over the years, I’ve come across about 10 of these mysterious objects. The one that washed up most recently was especially striking. Its surface had aged into a cracked, alligator-skin pattern, and it was covered in hundreds of gooseneck barnacles, a sure sign that it had been drifting in the open ocean for quite some time before making landfall on our shores.

So, where do these heavy relics com