New This Week:

4.57  WHALE OIL  Original bottle of high grade whale oil with the label reading “W.F. NYE , Inc. Superior Watch Oil New Bedford Mass. U.S.A.  None Genuine Without My Signature” Wm F. Nye “with his conjoined initials trademark.  The little glass bottle with hard rubber screw-on cap is half full of the original contents of prized sperm whale oil.  It is complete with its original cardboard carton (missing lid) bearing the same information.  2 5/8 inches tall by 1 ¼ inches square.  The bottle, its label and contents are in excellent condition.  The box is an added bonus.  A rarity.  95

5.96/23.31 PERIOD 1800’s U.S. NAVY BOOK.  An exceptional photographic documentary of the U.S Navy’s battle fleet published while America was still fighting the Spanish Armada in the midst of the Spanish-American War!  The cover reads “The WHITE SQUADRON- OF- THE U.S. NAVY, New York, James Clarke 45 Vesly Street Publisher,” and is dated June 9th, 1898.  This was during the height of that conflict.  The cover shows a full color starboard stern view of the USS BROOKLYN at anchor flying a prominent American flag. This large format, soft cover book contains 20 pages of black and white photographic images of the famous combatants including “The Protected Cruiser “San Francisco,” “The Protected Cruiser “Chicago,” “The Protected Steel Cruiser “Baltimore,” “The Protected Cruiser “Charleston,” The Protected Cruiser “Newark,”  The Steel Cruiser “Atlanta,” The Protected Cruiser “Boston,” Gunboat “Bennington,” The Armored Cruiser “New York,” The Double-Turret Monitor “Miantonomah,” and the Dynamite Cruiser “Vesuvius” amongst others.  All images are of crisp lithographic quality, not later dot matrix copies of the originals.  The large prints measure 8 by 10 inches.  The smaller insets are 5 by 6 ½ bearing charming pen and ink drawings of nautical subjects.  Overall size is 13 ½ by 11 inches.  This is a very RARE book of which few have survived given its soft cover construction.  Museum-Quality. We are pleased to be able to offer this historic document to our dedicated U.S Navy customers at this nominal price.  175

Of tragic note, the USS BENNINGTON (PG-4) pictured in this offering, was lost soon after publication.  She was launched in 1890 and served in the Spanish-American War.  Home ported in San Diego, California, she suffered a boiler explosion on July 21, 1905 which killed 66 of her crew and injured nearly every other sailor on board.  Up to that time it was the second greatest loss of life in the peacetime Navy, only eclipsed by the loss of life incurred on the Battleship MAINE 7 years earlier, which sparked the Spanish-American War!  For their valor in saving the lives of their fellow shipmates, 11 of the BENNINGTON’s crew were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

6.66 EARLY SHIP’s BLOCK.  Particularly nice example of a mid-19th century ship’s rope-stropped block as used on sailing ships of the era.  This handsome example has cheeks of oak and a lignum vitae sheave.  The heavy hemp rope is bound over an iron eye attached to a hand-forged iron hook.  The hook is served in a seamanlike manner with a becket at the bottom for attachment.  18 inches long overall.  The block itself is 6 ¾ inches long by 2 7/8ths inches thick.  With the rope covering it is 4 ¾ inches thick.  Outstanding original condition in all respects.  The body of the block is painted in its traditional, very desirable New England Robin’s egg blue.  This is a rare, excellent example of American seamanship from the days of sail.  279

21.70 TELESCOPE.  An exceptional example of a mid-1800’s or earlier English hand-held Captain’s telescope made by a quality maker.  This handsome example has 3 brass draws and a solid mahogany (not veneered) main body.  It contains the classic English erecting system of the era which featured 4 internal elements in conjunction with a 2-part achromatic objective lens to provide a state-of-the-art, for its time, clear upright image of high magnification with no peripheral distortion.   This important innovation dates back to Peter Dollond in 1751!   Although unsigned (which was typical of many 19th C. makers) this example exhibits all of the highest quality features offered at the time.  The telescope measures 8 3/4 inches closed, fully extending to 13 ½ inches.  The objective is 1 ½ inches in diameter.  The draws are smooth and tight and the magnified image they produce is without flaw.   Complete with built-in ocular dust slide.  This is a most handsome, pristine example of such a telescope, well over 175 old!  395

4.86   CARVED POLAR BEAR.  Particularly charming full body carving of a ferocious polar bear.  This expertly-carved Eskimo sculpture is made from solid Walrus tusk.  It depicts the bear standing on his haunches with mouth agape showing his fearsome teeth and boldly colored red tongue.  Inset into his head are two dots of black whale baleen depicting his eyes.  The carving is especially well done and has acquired a nice authentic age patina.  4 ¾ inches tall by 1 ¼ inches wide and 2 inches deep.  A most unusual example of Eskimo scrimshaw.  Surely a solid $1,000 value.  695

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

12.70  MATE's ROPE GAUGE.  Very scarce and highly prized late 1800's or very early 1900's hand-held device used by the ship's cargo officer to determine the size and breaking strengths of line and cable used aboard his ship.  It is signed on the edge "JOHN RABONE & SONS BIRMINGHAM."  This precision instrument is made of boxwood and brass, incised with a multitude of information about every conceivable type of connective lines, rope and wire in general sea cargo service.  They include "SHROUD TAR'D HEMP COILS, LAID MANILLA COILS, HAWSER TARED HEMP COILS9 of MB, CHAIN WT PER FAM (Fathom), EQL TO HEMP ROPE and WIRE."   On the reverse are indications for various weights and lengths of the material.  They read, "WIRE CIRCUMFERENCE, ROPE Wt PER FAM (Fathom), HEMP SIZE, and ROPE Wt PER FAM ((Fathom).  This device is essentially a caliper which indicates diameter and circumferences of the objects measured and then provides a readout of safe working loads in tons.  A very accurate scientific instrument with a nautical purpose.  4  5/8 inches long by 1 7/8 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick.  It expands to provide a measurable reading of 8 inches.  Outstanding original condition in all respects.   The best! 269

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 then placed on public display ever since. Now it is time for it to find its next new home. According to the crane operator who delivered the lamp room it weighs approximately 5 tons. It will require a crane and a flat bed truck for removal.

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.