New This Week:

3.80/5.07  U.S. NAVY INCLINOMETER.   Authentic World War II fighting ship's pilot house pendulum inclinometer.  The rich black Bakelite body is engraved:

This precision device is calibrated in single degrees of heel port and starboard up to 70 marked by 10's.  The reading is made by the heavy solid brass pendulum bob.  The instrument measures 11 3/4 inches wide by 7 ¼ inches high.  It is in excellent original condition. The action is perfect.  Highly collectible and hard to find, especially in this pristine condition.  349

5.26/13.43  HAMILTON 21 OUTSIDE CARRYING BOX.  Exceptional protective transport box for the famous World War II U.S. Navy ship’s chronometer Model 21 by the Hamilton Watch Company.  The front of the solid maple box bears the brass nameplate reading “HAMILTON WTACH CO. Lancaster, PA., U.S.A.”  Below it is a rotating brass lever latch with circular locking device.  It opens to reveal the cushioned green felt-lined interior with brass piano hinge at the rear.  The interior is perfect.  For carrying, the box is fitted with a stout leather belt with brass buckle and protective leather strip.  The box measures 9 ¾ inches square and 9 ½ inches high.  The oblong maple platform base measures 12 ¾ inches wide and 10 ¼ inches front to back.  We have examined dozens of these boxes in our tenure.  This is by far the nicest we have ever seen in over 40 years!  485

(See item 5.20/13.42)

5.96/15.49  EARLY SAILOR PHOTOGRAPH.  Very nice cabinet card photograph of an exceptional subject – An African-American sailor with attitude!  This original gelatin silver print is a studio portrait with rare subject matter.  The lower right of the card is indistinctly blind signed (impressed) “J___ BISBEE. ARIZ.”  The sailor is shown in an imposing stance, smoking a cigarette, while resting his arm on a straight back wooden chair.  His hat ribbon clearly reads “USS GEORGIA.”  The image measures 4 by 5 ¼ inches sight and is mounted on its original card measuring 5 ¼ by 7 ¼ inches.  Condition is excellent.  There are a couple of very minor creases in the card, but the image is perfect.  Certainly well over 100 years old!   A rarity.  165

GEORGIA was laid down on August 31, 1901 at the Bath iron Works in Maine.  She was launched on October 11, 1904 and was commissioned on September 24, 1906. On June 10th she took part in a naval review at the Boston Navy Yard for President Theodore Roosevelt. USS GEORGIA joined the Great White Fleet on December 16, 1907.  The cruise of the Great White Fleet was conceived as a way to demonstrate American military power, particularly to Japan which had risen to prominence as a world power in the Pacific after its victory in the Russo-Japanese War.  After circumnavigating the world, the ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads, Virginia on February 22, 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles. Decommissioned in 1916, the ship was reactivated on the same day the United States declared war on Germany, April 6, 1917.  From September 1918 to the end of the war, GEORGIA was assigned to the Cruiser Force Atlantic as a convoy escort. GEORGIA was transferred to the Pacific Fleet shortly thereafter, arriving in San Diego, where she became the flagship of the 2nd Division, 1st Squadron.  She was decommissioned under the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty and sold for scrap in November 1923.  The ship's bell and her eagle figurehead are preserved at the Reserve Officers Training Corps at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

7.45  REFERENCE BOOK.  Robert Rankin, Col, USMC (Ret.), “Small Arms of the Sea Services,” 1972, N. Flayderman & Co., New Milford, Connecticut.  Succinctly summarized in the frontispiece, “A history of the firearms and edged weapons of the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard from the Revolution to the present.”  Hard cloth cover with dust jacket, 222 pages exclusive of index.  Profusely illustrated in black and white with original photographs of the objects described along with artistic renderings.  This is our favorite reference book on Naval weapons. It is exclusively American, covering the past 250 years!  It includes detailed information and photographs of Navy Swords, Navy Dirks and Knives, Navy Hand Guns, Navy Long Arms, Marine Corps Swords, Marine Corps Knives, Marine Corps Hand Guns, Leatherneck Long Arms, Military Shot Guns, Signal Pistols and Small Arms of the Coast Guard and its predecessors.  A complete and thorough examination of the topics supplemented with excellent, period photographs.  Outstanding, near mint original condition.  39

As with all of the reference books we offer, West Sea Company provides these quality books to our clientele at cost, realizing an informed clientele is an asset to business and good understanding of the nautical antiques in general.  We offer only original copies in “fine” or better condition.

4.51  EXTREMEELY RARE MECHANICAL BANK.  Absolutely charming, 19th century savings bank boldly marked “JONAH AND THE WHALE” on both sides of the base in raised letters.  In whimsical fashion it depicts God with long hair and white beard in a flowing red cape standing in a small boat.  In his arms he holds the hapless effigy of Jonah in front of the waiting jaws of a huge whale.  Above Jonah’s head is a platform on which a coin may be placed.  When depressed, a spring -loaded lever at the end of the bank swiftly delivers the coin into the whale’s mouth!  Cleverly-designed, the whale’s agape mouth pivots up and down adding an uncanny realism to the action.  The entire bank is made of heavy cast iron.  The end opposite the lever is marked “BANK” in relief.  On the bottom of the bank is a locking trap door which allows access to the interior locked “safe.”  Amazingly, the original skeleton key for the lock is still present!  Important to the value of such banks is the originality of the surfaces.  This bank is in pristine original condition with fully 80% or more of the original paint still present.  The bottom of the bank is impressed “PAT JULY 15 1890.”  10 inches long, by 3 3/4 inches wide and 5 inches high.  Excellent original condition throughout with no damage or modifications.  The action of the bank is just as it was over 135 years ago!  4300

After a thorough research of comparable prices for similar banks, we have not found any bank of this quality or originality.  Other prices are as high as $12,500.  If you find an example in similar or better condition, we will match or better the price.

4.35  CLOTHESPINS.  Grouping of two 19th century sailor-made clothespins.  These classic examples of working sailor scrimshaw are turned with decorative scribe lines from the dense panbone of a sperm whale.  Varying in length and form, both were effectively designed for actual use.  They have turned bulbous knobs giving way to long slotted limbs with surprisingly stout flexibility.  4 ¾ and 5 ¾ inches in length.  Both are about ¾ inches in diameter.  Excellent original condition exhibiting good age patina from actual use.  195

Not available or for sale in California.  Shipped from Massachusetts.

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.