## 5 Discussion
The winch drum and stud-link chain controller were identified as being made of grey cast iron with dendritic morphology and a microstructure containing areas of ferrite, perlite, iron phosphide eutectic, graphite flakes, and graphite rosettes (Figures 2-4, 14 and 15 and Supplementary Material Figures S5, S6 and S24-S27). Microhardness testing obtained average hardness values of 353 \(\pm\) 80 HV for the winch drum and 369 \(\pm\) 75 HV for the chain controller (Supplementary Material Table S1). For comparison, the average microhardness value of the stud-link chain stud was 411.7 \(\pm\) 49.8 HV [12]. The grey cast iron items were probably produced by casting the molten alloy in a two-part casting die. A similar microstructure was observed in the metallographic sample of the anchor chain link stud retrieved from the Akko Tower shipw [12]. The XRF analysis of the winch drum and the stud-link chain controller revealed that they were mainly composed of iron (95.1-97.6 wt% Fe), with up to few wt% of other elements, including Si, P, Mn, and Ti (Table 2). For comparison, the average composition of the grey cast iron anchor chain stud was 97.2 wt% Fe, 1.9 wt% Si, 0.4 wt% P, 0.2 wt% S, 0.2 wt% Mn, and 0.1 wt% Ti based on the XRF analysis [12]. The SEM-EDS analysis of the winch drum and the stud-link chain controller after omitting the carbon peaks revealed similar results to the XRF analysis, with a composition of 95.0-96.9 wt% Fe and up to few wt% of Si, P, S, Mn, and Ti (Table 3). For comparison, the average composition of the grey cast iron anchor chain stud was 94.4-96.1 wt% Fe, 2.0-2.7 wt% Si, 0.3-2.0 wt% P, up to 0.1 wt% 5, 0.9-1.3 wt% Mn, and up to 0.1 wt% of Ti and V, according to the SEM-EDS analysis after omitting the carbon peaks [12]. The presence of about 2 wt % Si (Table 3), which was added deliberately as a graphite stabiliser element, was characteristic of grey cast iron [12; 43; 44]. The manganese was probably added in order to improve the quality of the casting by reducing gas porosity [12; 21]. The microhardness testing of the winch shaft, heart-shaped shackle, and the dead-eye strap with a futtock plate revealed average hardness values of 164 \(\pm\) 19 HV for the deadeye strap with a futtock plate and 182 \(\pm\) 10 HV for the shackle (Supplementary Material Table S1). For comparison, the stud-link chain links showed an average microhardness of 152.4 \(\pm\) 3.3 HV [12]. The existence of equiaxed ferrite grains combined with preferentially oriented elongated slag inclusions in the L-CS and P-section (Figures 6, 7, 10, 12 and 13 and Supplementary Material Figures S7-S9, S20 and S23) and the microhardness values of the objects (Supplementary Material Table S1) indicate that the winch shaft, heart-shaped shackle, and the deadeye strap with a futtock plate were made of ductile wrought iron produced by the indirect smelting 'puddling' method, which was extensively used in Europe at the middle of the nineteenth century [23; 34; 45]. These wrought iron items were shaped by hot-forging, and the strap components were joined by forge welding and riveting processes [19]. The preferentially oriented elongated slag inclusions observed in the L-CS and P-section (Figures 6, 7, 10, 12 and 13 and Supplementary Material Figures S7-S9, S20 and S23) show the direction of plastic deformation during the forging process [12]. The components of deadeyes No. 163B and 164 retrieved from the Akko Tower shipw, which were made of wrought iron, were also joined by forge welding [9; 19]. A similar microstructure of ferrite equiaxed grains combined with preferentially oriented slag inclusions was also observed in the metallographic samples of wrought iron deadeye No. 163B [9] and the wrought iron chain link [12] retrieved from the Akko Tower shipw.