New This Week:

10.03   U.S. NAVY DIVER’s PLAQUE.  Massive World War II era First Class Diver’s plaque of solid bronze mounted on a large sculpted walnut shield backing.  The plaque is faithfully cast in high-relief showing a classic U.S. Navy Mark V deep sea diving helmet flanked by stylized dolphins on both sides. The casting measures 11 ½ by 12 inches and the shield is 19 ½ inches high and 15 ¼ inches wide.  The entire presentation weighs an impressive 15 pounds!  Excellent original condition in all respects.  This plaque is a much larger than was typical, indicating it may have been displayed on the ship’s quarterdeck or in the officers’ wardroom.   895

This plaque came from the USS CHANTICLEER (ASR-7).  CHANTICLEER was launched in November 1942, going on to see combat service in World War II, Korea and  Vietnam.  In her long career she participated in several rescues and salvage operations under the most grueling conditions.

(See item 10.04)

12.50  SAILOR’s KNIFE.  A museum piece!  This is an exceptionally rare American Revolutionary War sailor’s knife/marlin spike.  This clever multiple-use sailor tool was fashioned by a skilled blacksmith out of hand-wrought iron with a forged steel blade.  The bulbous semi-circular body acts as a protective knife case while serving as a handle for the tapered marlin spike.  The classic half round blade is consistent with the fledgling Navy’s requirements that sailors only carried blunted knives for cutting, not stabbing!  An eyelet with ring is provided for attachment to a woven leather thong (possibly of later origin).  The knife pivots within its protective sheath/handle.  The unit measures 6 ¾ inches long overall, inclusive of the ring, but not the lanyard.  It is 1 ½ inches wide.  The marlin spike itself is 2 1/2 inches long and the knife blade is 3 by 1 1/4 inches.  Condition is very good, considering its 250+ year age.  There is expected surface rust and spotting.  Yet, surprisingly, the blade still retains its sharp edge!  An incredibly rare authentic Colonial American relic! Offered here at a ridiculously low price for what it is!   385

Extensive research indicates that this knife was almost certianly made by early American cutlery maker Hugh Orr, Bridgewater, Massachusetts, (active 1738-1760) circa 1750.  (Robert Nelson, “Directory of American Tool Makers,” 1999 American Industries Association, page 590.).

12.11  SCHOONER BOOK ENDS.  Highest quality late 19th century solid bronze bookends in the form of 2-masted schooners plying wavy seas.  The semi-circular bases are heavy cast brass with felt bottoms.  Each measures 6 ¼ inches tall by 5 inches wide and 2 3/8 inches deep.  The backs of each are impressed with the distinctive logo of Bradley & Hubbard “BH.”  Beautiful original condition with statuary bronze patina.  295

The Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Company of Meriden, Connecticut was founded in 1852 producing art brass tables, bells, candlesticks, clocks, match safes, lamps, architectural grilles, railings, etc.  The company patented 238 designs and mechanical devices until it was sold in 1940.   According to Richard Stamm of the Smithsonian Institution, "By the 1890s, the Bradley and Hubbard name was synonymous with high quality and artistic merit,” which has an extensive collection of Bradley and Hubbard manufactured design objects in its collection.

As of 2016, over 175 Bradley & Hubbard designs are featured in North American museums, including the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Brooklyn Museum; the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal; Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; Connecticut Historical Society, The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan; the Historic New England organization in Boston; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY; the Smithsonian in Washington DC; the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford; and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven.

23.35  ANTIQUE PIRATE BOOK.  Marine Research Society, “The Pirates Own Book” or “Authentic Narratives of the Lives and Executions of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers.” Hard-bound, cloth cover, 465 pages exclusive of index. Printed in 1924 by the marine Research Society, Salem, Massachusetts.  Nicely illustrated with numerous, period woodblock prints of ships, pirates and fanciful scenes depicting all manner of pirates’ plunders from the 16th through the 19th centuries.  Chapters include:  “The Danish and Norman Pirates;, Adventures and Exploits of Captain Avery; Life of Lafitte, The Pirate of the Gulf;  Bloody Career and Execution of Vincent Benavides; Authentic History of the Malay Pirates; Life, Atrocities and Bloody Death of Black Beard; The West India Pirates; Life and Exploits of Anne Bonney; Adventures and Heroism of Mary Read; History of the Algerian Pirates, and much, much more!  Outstanding original condition, remarkable for a book over 100 years old!  RARE!  395

10.88  HARD HAT DIVER's PATCH.   Extremely rare, early 1900's cloth label bearing the trademark of the first and most famous deep sea diving helmet makers "SIEBE GORMAN & CO, LTD."  This cotton cloth patch depicts a 6 bolt helmet flanked by the words 'DIVER BRAND.'  It measures 2 by 2 ¾ inches and is in excellent condition.  A super scarce, beautifully preserved relic from the early days of hard hat diving.  95

12.18  EARLY LUSTERWARE MUG.  Delightful early 1800’s earthenware mug with  endearing nautical scenes.  This hard-fired mug depicts both classic nautical scenes, “THE SAILOR’S FAREWELL” and “THE SAILOR’S RETURN!”   The stenciled images on opposite sides are enhanced with the distinctive hand-applied bright pink luster. Two charming poems relate.  First is the sailor’s departure: “Far from Home Across the Sea / To Foreign Climes I go, While far away think on me / And I will remember you.”  Then the obverse depicts his joyous homecoming: “Now safe, returned from dangers past / With joy upon the shore, May no more the tempests blast / Nor oceans angry roar.”  This desirable mug is in excellent original condition with no damage.  It measures 4 ¼ inches wide on the base, 5 ½ inches with the handle and stands 4 inches tall.  Circa 1843.  Rare in this condition, over 180 years old!  295

Literature:  Capt. P.D. Gordon Pugh, O.B.E., Royal Navy, “Naval Ceramics” 1971, The Ceramic Book Company, Newport, England. Plate 92 “Mug inscribed with the Sailor’s Farewell… Purple-Lustered Earthenware, Sunderland, c. 1843.

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.