New This Week:

4.40   SCRIMSHAW SPOOL HOLDER.  Very unusual whaleman-made device used to display thimbles of thread in an elegant manner.  This scrimshaw sewing stand consists of three whalebone columns holding early wooden spools of thread.  The columns each have a flattened handle at the top for removal.  The entire body of the unit is beautifully-turned solid mahogany.  It consists of 2 tiers supported by elaborately-carved whalebone columns.  At the bottom are three equally well-carved bone “feet.”  This charming device was obviously made by the whaleman as a thoughtful present to his seamstress wife.  Emphasis on the ability to excel in sewing was paramount in the upbringing of young wives in the 1800’s, as evidenced by school girl ‘samplers’ and other examples of their knitting and sewing prowess.  5 1.2 by 3 ½ inches in diameter.  Condition is outstanding and original.  This is truly a unique example of scrimshaw which not only incorporates island products encountered on a voyage, but also alludes to the sailor’s need to recognize his wife’s sacrifices during a long whaling voyage.  A most representative piece of intimate scrimshaw from the mid-1800’s.  WAS $895 NOW! 695

Literature:  Robert Ball, “Nautical Antiques,” 1994, Schiffer Publishing Co., Atglen, Pa.  This very item is pictured on page 98 with the caption “Fine scrimshaw thread holder for 6 or 9 spools of thread.  Made of a turned wood center post joining a circular top and base and supported by three turned whalebone posts with three whalebone pins to hold the spools.  Three egg-shaped feet.  Ca. mid-nineteenth century.  Height 5.”

4.11   SCRIMSHAW LETTER OPENER.  Good 19th century whaleman-made letter opener fashioned from whalebone.  This distinctively-carved piece features a clenched fist on the handle followed by helical carving terminating in a flat bladed knife edge with pointed tip and sharp edges.  It measures 7 ½ inches long by 5/8 inches wide on the blade. Excellent original condition.   A real bargain!  139

3.66  MARINER’s OCTANT.  Especially nice mid-19th century navigational octant of English manufacture.   This exceptionally-well preserved example has the ivory maker’s plaque on the center strut engraved “H. SYRED 166. PARK LANE. LIVERPOOL.”   This pristine example is a collector’s dream.  It is in virtually the same condition as it was made over 150 years ago!  It is  complete with all of its functioning brass parts.  The large ivory scale is calibrated in single degrees from -2 to 100 divided by 20 arc minutes marked  in 5 degree increments.  The ivory vernier  on the index arm is calibrated right to left in single minutes from 0 to 20.   This state of the art for its time navigational instrument has a braced brass index arm with knurled brass stop and an endless tangent fine adjust knob.  Up to this time only the finest high-quality sextant shad these features.  This instrument is complete with both index and horizon mirrors, 3 pivoting index filters and 2 rotating horizon filters.  Again, this latter feature is indicative of the octant’s quality.  The sighting peep has two openings with a pivoting brass shutter.  The back of the instrument has the mirror box adjustment apparatus and all 3 brass “feet” for positioning in its box.  The box itself is noteworthy.  It is of the early “keystone” type with 2 hook and eye closures.  What is unique is that it has a very nice folding carrying handle and it is complete with its original skeleton lock and striker plate.  The index arm measures 11 ¾ inches long and the large arc is 9 ¾ inches wide.  The box is 12 ½ inches long by 11 ½ inches wide.  The quality and  overall condition cannot be overstated.  It is virtually perfect in all respects!   A $1500 value.  799

6.51  MASSIVE FLARE GUN.  Impressive World War II flare gun with a very heavy solid bronze chamber and grip.  This authentic signaling device is embossed on the handle "INTERNATIONAL FLARE SIGNAL CO. TIPPECANOE CITY OHIO."   The body is stamped "D 67" on both sides.  The handle is cross hatched to assure a firm grip.  The large trigger activates the firing pin properly.  There is a suspension loop on the butt which attaches to a sailor-made cotton lanyard.  The barrel tips forward for breech loading by means of a spring-loaded lever just forward of the hammer.  The steel barrel has a bore of 1 3/8 inches.  The action is tight and smooth.  Approximately 11 ½ inches long by 8 ½ inches high.  Excellent original condition.  495

8.28  SALON CARVING.   Artistically-carved plaque depicting a classic old fashioned kedge anchor intertwined with a ship’s wheel, bound by rope.  The central theme is flanked by a flowing Acanthus leaf design.  The background is embellished with literally thousands of chip carvings which appear to have been made with a traditional triangular sail needle.  All of this is “framed” in a border carved in relief.  The carving is made of solid walnut in 5 planks laminated together, later supported by 2 pine splines.  The back of the carving bears the old penciled inscription “Pass Salone” (sic).  There are 4 large old wood screws in the back which originally held this carving in place on the ship’s bulkhead.  It is now fitted with a strong picture frame wire for hanging.  1 ½ inches wide by 33 ½ inches high.  1 1/8 inches thick at the maximum and weighing 16 pounds.  Excellent original condition in the original varnished finish, noting an age crack running through the middle.  The crack is stable.  A super decorative piece with documentable ship’s history.  1275 

Provenance:  Originally fitted on the SS OCEAN MONARCH, a British passenger ship built by Vickers-Armstrong in 1951.  She had a length overall of 516 feet, a breadth of 72 feet and displace 13.700 tons.  She carried 430 passengers.  When scrapped in 1964 this carving was transferred to the M/V OCEAN HAROMONY II, which was sold to Greek interests, and herself scrapped in 1979.

9.34  CASED SURVEYOR’s COMPASS.   Late 19th century precision surveyor’s pocket compass of French manufacture, made for the Western market.  This high quality pocket instrument is all brass made in two tiers.  The bottom is a silvered brass compass rose with the Cardinal and Intercardinal points identified.  In tiny letters below the “W” it is signed “Made In France.”  The second tier has a surrounding silvered ring calibrated in single degrees marked by 10’s, 0 – 360.  The high quality double-ended compass needle is supported on a brass bearing with an agate pivot.  A caging device operated by a small button on the side between “E” and “SE” locks the needle in place during transport.  The surround of the compass body is scored in sectors coinciding with the major compass points within.  The two sight vanes align along the North/South axis.  The peep vain is above the “S” with the hair line vane above “N”.  Together they will sight and take a compass bearing of a distant object using the caging device to set the compass needle when sighted.  The vanes fold into a positive position for use and neatly fold down when secured.  Remarkably, this instrument comes complete in its original wooden carrying case with leather covering and velvet interior.  It is hinged and secured with 2 early-style hook and eye closures.  The compass measures 3 ¼ inches in diameter and is 3 inches tall overall with the vanes extended.  The carrying case is 3 7/8 inches in diameter and 1 1/8 inches thick.  Amazingly well-preserved showing good age and careful use.  The compass is lively, accurate and the caging function works properly.  A fine 1800’s scientific instrument at a guaranteed to sell low price.  349

AUTHENTIC LIGHTHOUSE. The ultimate! This was an exceptional opportunity to own a very historic relic of America’s rich maritime heritage embodied in the original lamp room from the famous Ballast Point Lighthouse, which served its sentinel duties in the channel of San Diego Bay from 1890 until 1960. This incredibly well-preserved piece of history was built according to specifications laid out by the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1885. A copy of the original specifications are included as are much printed references and photographs. Erected in 1890, the 5th Order lighthouse was a significant aid to navigation in conjunction with the Point Loma Lighthouse (1850) poised at the entrance to San Diego Bay. Ballast Point Light was situated further inside the massive bay on a point which jutted into the seaway which posed a hazard to shipping. 135 years old! SOLD

HISTORY

On October 2, 1888, recognizing the need for a harbor light in the increasingly congested channel of San Diego Bay, Congress authorized $25,000 for the construction of a lighthouse to be built on Ballast Point. Fashioned in the late Victorian style, the entire structure took 3 months to build beginning in March 1890. The light was first lit on August 1st. It was a sister of the lights at San Luis Obispo and Table Bluff, south of Humboldt Bay. All were wood framed structures with attached living quarters. The ironwork for the lantern was forged in San Francisco and carried south to San Diego by ship. The French firm of Sautter, Lemmonier, & Cie. manufactured the Freznel lens for the Ballast Point Light in 1886. The fixed 5th Order lens was visible for a distance of at least 11 miles.

When California was still part of Mexico the peninsula jutting into San Diego Bay was known as Punta del los Guijarros or “Pebble Point.” For centuries cobblestones washed down by the San Diego River had been deposited on the point. When California gained statehood in 1850 the point was renamed Middle Ground Shoal. As time went on and merchant traffic in the harbor increased, many sailing ships found it convenient to load or discharge the stones as ballast. The practice continued and eventually the name “Ballast Point” stuck.

Accompanying the Ballast Point lighthouse was a huge 2,000 pound fog bell in a wooden tower. In 1928 it was supplanted by a single tone electric diaphone horn.

The first keeper of the light was John M. Nilsson, assigned duty on July 15, 1890. The second was Henry Hall, who took the job on December 1, 1892. Perhaps the most famous keeper was Irish-born David R. Splaine, a Civil War veteran and veteran lighthouse keeper, who assumed the post in 1894, having served at Point Conception, the Farallons and San Diego’s own Point Loma light from 1886-1889.

In 1913 the original old kerosene lamp was replaced with an acetylene burner. Acetylene gave way to electricity in 1928. In 1938 a filter was fitted inside the 5th Order Freznel lens giving the light a distinctive green hue for recognition. One of the last keepers of the light was Radford Franke who recalled receiving the order to “douse the light” upon the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

By early 1960 the light was deemed to be of no further service, so in June of that year the lantern room was removed to a salvage yard. The wooden tower and its brick and mortar foundation remained a couple of years later until they too were declared structurally unsafe and demolished. The bell tower continued to survive, mounted with a 375 mm high intensity lamp on its roof. However the value of maintaining any light on Ballast Point diminished with the installation of harbor entrance range lights. In the late 1960’s the bell and its tower were dismantled. The tower found its way to a private residence in Lakeside, California. The bell had a more circuitous later life. It was purchased from a San Diego area junk yard in 1969 for its scrap value of 5 cents per pound! The one ton bell remained on local private property until 1991, when it was put on loan to the San Diego Maritime Museum. In 1999 the bell was transported to the son of the original buyer, living in Colorado. Then in 2002, the bell finally found its way to the home of the owner’s granddaughter living in Vermont, where it rests to this day.

The story of the lantern’s later life is even more fascinating. The nation was just recovering from the Cuban Missile Crisis between JFK and Khrushchev, when in 1964 the Cuban government cut off the fresh water supply to the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay. By that time, an experimental desalinization plant had been in operation at Point Loma for 2 years. The Navy hastily ordered it to be disassembled and shipped through the Panama Canal to Cuba. A gentleman working as a crane operator during the process noted the shabby lantern room in a trash heap nearby. He inquired as to the fate of the relic and was told it was salvage. Asking if he could purchase it, the yard foreman told him he could “have it” if he would haul it away. With that, for the next 34 years the lantern room served as a gazebo in the backyard of the man’s residence in Bonita, California. It was purchased by the present owners in 1998, fully refurbished, and placed on public display in Old Twon, San Diego. In late 2025 it found its next enduring home on the shores of the Great Lakes in Wisconsin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

F. Ross Holland, “The Old Point Loma Lighthouse,” 1978, Cabrillo Historical Association, San Diego, California

Jim Gibbs, “The Twilight of Lighthouses,” 1996, Schiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA.

Kin Fahlen and Karen Scanlon, “Lighthouse of San Diego,” 2008, Arcadia Publishing, San Francisco

Kraig Anderson, “Forgotten Ballast Point “Lighthouse” Seeks New Home,” article in “Lighthouse Digest,” East Machias, Maine, September – October 2011, Vol. XX, no. 5 pages 34 – 37.

“Mains’l Haul,” a periodic publication of the San Diego Maritime Association, Summer 1990, Vol. XXVI, No. 4, pp. 11-12.