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In this paper we address the return to equilibrium problem for an axisymmetric floating structure in shallow water. First we show that the equation for the solid motion can be reduced to a delay differential equation involving an extension–trace operator whose role is to describe the influence of the fluid equations on the solid motion. It turns out that the compatibility conditions on the initial data for the return to equilibrium configuration are not satisfied, so we cannot use the result from Bocchi (2020 SIAM J. Math. Anal. 52 306–39) for the nonlinear problem. Hence, assuming small amplitude waves, we linearize the equations in the exterior domain and we keep the nonlinear equations in the interior domain. For such configurations, the extension–trace operator can be computed explicitly and the delay term in the differential equation can be put in convolution form. The solid motion is therefore governed by a nonlinear second order integro-differential equation, whose linearization is the well-known Cummins equation. We show global in time existence and uniqueness of the solution using the conservation of the total fluid-structure energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]