Using an advanced nonlinear fluid-structure reduced-order computational model, this work revisits and explains a resonance of the free surface of water contained in a thin elastic cylindrical tank, which was experimentally exhibited by Lindholm, 1962 and Abramson, 1966. The proposed simulation model allows the experimental setup to be reproduced. The structure undergoes large displacements and large deformations (geometrical nonlinear effects of the structure) that play an important role on the liquid vibrations. The experimental setup is simulated using a large-scale numerical model of the elastic cylindrical tank partially filled with water that is considered as a compressible fluid and that takes into account surface tension and sloshing effects. The results show that for a frequency external excitation in the frequency band [500, 2,500] Hz of the fluid-structure system, unexpected high-amplitude sloshing vibrations are observed in the frequency band [0, 150] Hz. The observed phenomenon, which cannot be reproduced with a linear fluid-structure model, is explained by the transfer of the vibrational energy from the frequency band of excitation into a low-frequency band (and then exciting the first sloshing modes) by a non-direct coupling mechanism between the structural modes and the sloshing modes.