Hawkeye25: Thanks, that's what I was suspecting it might be.
I pulled my starter off an looked inside the bell housing at the back side of the fly
wheel with a mirror. It looks like there is a busted piece of metal right there but it's impossible to tell.
Given the intermittent racket coming from the engine, the chunk of metal from the bilge, and the appearance of things I'm willing to bet I do have a broken
damper plate. I don't really have the tools or know how to go much further, I guess I'll have to hire a mechanic to fix this thing.