Nautical instruments
This part of the collection includes mainly navigational instruments from the early sailing period, the time when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel.
Dry card compass in a copper bowl. The compass is gimbaled mounted in a wooden case of oak. Sliding cover is missing. The inside of the bowl is painted white with lubber’s line. On the rose 32 points and the name of the maker. On the rose, north with fleur de lis. In the middle of the rose a bras top with sapphire.
At de underside of the rose is a heavily compass needle mounted with pins on the rose. The rose is not compensated for magnatic variation.
Made by Dirk Barend Selter, compass maker from 1840-1899, Binnen Bantammerstraat, Amsterdam. The details of the compass suggest an early specimen.
Catalogue: NM.7-06
Date: 1850-1870
WL case: 14x19x19 cm
D compass: 13,5 cm
Signed: + D.B. SELTER + AMSTERDAM
Origin: Netherlands
Condition: in good condition, wear consistent with age and use
Early station pointer with manual in mahogany case for coastal navigation. Made by Hughes, London.
The instrument is completely made of brass and does not yet have a silvered scale as with the later species. The scale is divided in half degrees and reads by two verniers to one minute of arc. The diameter of the circle is 162 mm.
Navigators employed a sextant or bearing compass to measure the angles between their position and each of three known landmarks. They then placed the station pointer on their chart and set its arms to the observed angles. The centre of the protracting circle on the station pointer would then show the position of the ship.
Catalogue: NM.6-39
Date: ca. 1870
HWL case: 55x500x192 mm
Signed: H. Hughes & son Ltd; 59 Fenchurch St. London; No 1920
Origin: England
Condition: in good and working condition, wear consistent with age and use
1.
Brass quadrant in cardboard box. The instrument is used for angle measurement in the horizontal plane as well as for height measurement. For the latter, a plumb line has been added that can be placed in the appropriate slit. The lid of the box is hinged on one side and can be secured on the other sides with three brass hooks.
A grid has been applied to the square plateau, which is subdivided into 10 x 10 numbered areas, which in turn are subdivided into 4 areas each. The quarter circle has 2 degree divisions from 0 – 45 degrees.
Altitude quadrants are mathematical instruments that were used for simple surveying tasks.
Catalogue: NM.7-02
Date: ca.1850
HWL box: 4.7x17x17 cm
Signed: not signged
Origin: Sweden
Condition: in good and working condition, wear consistent with age and use, the top of the plateau is slightly corroded
2.
Very rare surveyor glass plate with rectangular pattern in marbled cardboard box for field map making. Made by P.A, Höglund, Stockholm.
Another Lantmätarepollett of Höglund is tot see in the Tekniskamuseet in Stockholm: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021026349071/lantmatarepollett.
The glass plate has been cleaned occasionally.
Catalogue: NM.7-02
Date: ca.1850
HWL carton: 0.8×16.5×17 cm
Signed: P.A. Höglund, mathematisk Instrumentmakare,
Stockholm, Norra Tullportsgatan no 65
Origin: Sweden
Condition: in good and working condition, wear consistent with age and use
The traverse board was used to make dead reckoning. The circular part has 32 compass points with eight holes on each point. In the middle are eight cords secured with little pins. The pins are made of copper. The cardinal regions are marked N, NO, O, SO, S, SV, W, NV. The incorrectly indicated SV was later corrected.
During the watch at sea, the sailed course was recorded every half hour by placing a pin on the sailed course at the circular part. On the rectangular part, the miles traveled are recorded. They are indicated from 1 to 12 and 1/4, 1/2, 3/4. Four rows below each other. One for every hour of the watch. At night in the dark this could easily be done by touch. Taking current and tide into account, the position was charted with these data after or during the watch.
Catalogue: NM.7-01
Date: ca. 1800
DH: 22×32.5×1.6 cm
Signed: not signed
Origin: Skandinavian
Condition: in good and working condition, wear consistent with age and use, some ropes and pins are missing
Making position by observation of stars is done at twilight. With partly cloudy skies it can be difficult to find the right stars. This star globe helps with it. In the lid of the box there is a paper label with instructions for use. With Bernard’s Nautical Star Chart.
This globe is in the original box from the early 20th century with recessed clasps. Box and globe are both signed H.Hughes & Son. Later globes are mostly made by Kelvin and Hughes and do not have recessed clasps.
The wooden deck box of mahogany is brass-hinged and dovetailed. On the front two clasps for locking with a safety device against unforeseen opening.
The globe is mounted in a brass meridian circle. The brass horizon circle carries an azimuth ring with four vertical quadrants and two cursors.
Catalogue: NM.6-51
Date: ca. 1920
HWD case: 28×26.5×26,5 cm
D globe: 18 cm
Globe signed: THE HUSUN STAR GLOBE, H. Hughes & Son Ltd, London, 1920
Horizon signed: H.H. & S. Ltd No 3496
Origin: England
Condition: very well, in working condition, wear consistent with age and use
At sea, having the right time on board is essential to be able to make a position.
Very rare and large deck watch in a case of stainless steel made by Ulysse Nardin. Special about this specimen is the electrical mechanism by which the watch can be used as a master timekeeper or mother clock. Stored in a three tier deck box with key and carrying case lined with green baize. Both made of mahogany. The white enamel dial with subsidiaries for seconds and power reserve. The 24 is marked in red to indicate when the watch should be wound. Blue steel hands. Stainless steel case with electrical contact in the band and sprung electrical contacts and circuitry under the mahogany cover. Case and watch numbered 124500. The closing lid of the watch and the inner lid are numbered 669338.
Information of Ulysse Nardin about this chronometer: “About the closing lid number we don’t have information. Usually the wooden case has the same number as the movement, but sometimes they deviate. The electric device was to make this chronometer like a “mother clock”. Once connected to another device it could show 1/100th of seconds!”
From La Collection exclusive des Chronomètres de Marine, publication 1947, page 10 and 11.
Catalogue: NM.6-50
Date: 1943
HWL: 12×21.5×19.5 cm
Diam: 65 mm
Signed: Ulysse Nardin, Lockle Swiss, 124500
Origin: Switzerland
Condition: excellent
Marine chronometer of Parkinson & Frodsham with rare display in original mahogany box with key and brass mountings. Bone plate 355 numbered. Gimbal suspension, brass case, spring detent chronometer with helical hairspring. Signed and numbered 355. Original dial with rare rotating power reserve indicator for 8 days of power. Blued steel hands, large seconds indicator.
Chronometers by the important London manufacturer Parkinson & Frodsham are very rare and sought-after collectors’items.
Catalogue: NM.6-49
Date: ca. 1820
HWL box: 17x17x17 cm
D chronometer: 10 cm
Signed: Parkinson & Frodaham, 5 Budoe Row London, nr 355
Origin: England
Condition: very good, in working order
Making position by observation of stars is done at twilight. With partly cloudy skies it can be difficult to find the right stars. This star globe helps with it. In the lid of the box there is a paper label with instructions for use.
The wooden deck box of mahogany is brass-hinged and dovetailed. On the front two clasps for locking with a safety device against unforeseen opening.
The globe is mounted in a brass meridian circle. The brass horizon circle carries an azimuth ring with four vertical quadrants and a cursor.
Catalogue: NM.6-47
Date: 1920
HWD case: 28×26.5×26,5 cm
D globe: 18 cm
Globe signed: THE HUSUN STAR GLOBE, H. Hughes & Son Ltd, London, 1920
Horizon signed: K. & H. Ltd No 274/N
Origin: England
Condition: very well, in working condition, wear consistent with age and use
Early stadimeter made of brass in full working order. It’s complete with box of mahogany and adjustment instructions in the lid. That the instrument is made of untreated brass, the case is made of mahogany and the no. 352, indicates that it is a very early instrument. Felt has not yet been used.
The stadimeter or optical range finder, was developed in the 1890’s by Bradley Allen Fiske and designed to determine the distance to other warships. Like a sextant, the stadimeter uses a system of mirrors to measure the angular distance of two ends of a distant object (e.g. height of a light house, length or height of a vessel). The difference with the sextant is that the user can set a reference scale to a known dimension of that distant object. The stadimeter allows the user bring the two ends of the known object into coincidence, after which the distance to the object can be read from its drum micrometer.
Catalog: NM.6-52
Date: 1918
HWL: 12x27x13 cm
HWL case: 16x32x17 cm
Origin: USA
Condition: in good and working condition, wear consistent with age and use
Signed:
STADIMETER
U.S. NAVY. BUREAU OF ORDNANCE
Mark III, MOD 1, ND. 352
1918 INSPEC. C.H.D. (ANCRE)
MADE BY KEUFFEL & ESSER CO.
NEW YORK