Marine old pharts thread

[J. Dillon]

Remember when :

Nautical charts could only be purchased at authorized dealers. He drew, pasted in or made notations as to the latest "Notice to Mariners ".

All green buoys were once black

Most batteries were 6 V

Quite a few boats had only kerosene lams for navigation.

You could just about flush your head anywhere.

Any body else...

[Bill Perkins]

You blew 3 blasts on your horn to fetch the yacht tender .If you had a distinctive horn , and /or a distinctive way of blowing it the operator would know who and where , and what your tipping history was .

[ 05-26-2005, 04:44 PM: Message edited by: Bill Perkins ]

[Dan McCosh]

Dockage while cruising was generally free.

[Bill Perkins]

...and a tube driven RDF was state of the art electronics .

[Venchka]

...and you could rent a wooden skiff with sea water in the bilge and a 10 horse motor and go fishing in the Straits of Juan de Fuca and catch salmon! Right here...

http://www.olsonsresort.com/webcam/cam.jpg?1117141587551

I figure Dad and I caught fish off the left side of the picture. I still remember that morning. Yep, the boat had a flat bottom.

Wayne
In the Swamp. :D

[ 05-26-2005, 09:09 PM: Message edited by: Venchka ]

[phiil]

If a boat wasn't wood, it was steel....

[paladin]

the only way to attach wire on the boat wuz a Liverpool splice...

[ssor]

Folks along any river built and rented flat bottom HEAVY row boats for a buck or two a day.

[Venchka]

Originally posted by J. Dillon:
Remember when :

Nautical charts could only be purchased at authorized dealers. He drew, pasted in or made notations as to the latest "Notice to Mariners ".

Any body else...That dealer still exists. In Nanaimo, B.C. Walking distance from the harbor.

Wayne
In the Swamp. :D

[J. Dillon]

Sails made of cotton. They had a nice smell & feel. smile.gif

Except when they got mildewed. :eek:

JD

[Ed Harrow]

Ya had ta really navergate.

[Dan Hall]

If you were 12 or 13 and you hung around on the dock long enough, somebody would take you sailing, and nobody worried.

Half day rental on an El Toro was $2.50 and you had to work 5 whole hours to earn that much.

The fishermen came in around 10 AM with boatloads of squid. They would fill 1 gallon buckets for the old folks no charge.

A man could earn a modest living with a 30' troller and a few crab pots.

The old guy at the fish market gave you bait for free. He knew your name. You called him sir.

Nets were made of hemp and tar and real rope. The fishermen sat in the sun on warm afternoons and made them whole again. Glass ball floats washed up on the beach.

And on and on, so it goes.

[ 06-01-2005, 10:59 AM: Message edited by: Dan Hall ]

[J. Dillon]

Yea Ed, I wonder how many here know what a Napier diagram is ? ;)

JD

[PatCassidy]

You had to to sight the north star using your quadrant.

When you went forward to the head, you dunked a frayed line in the ocean when you were done with your business.

You shrugged off steam engines as being a fad.

[ 05-26-2005, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: PatCassidy ]

[Canoeyawl]

There were derelict boats all along the coast of Maine
http://www.titanic-nautical.com/Images/Little_Luther_Large.jpg

[ 05-29-2005, 11:17 AM: Message edited by: Canoeyawl ]

[paladin]

....and there still izz.....

[J. Dillon]

A marine hard ware store featured shiny real brass or bronze fittings smile.gif not chrome plated plastic. :(

JD

[Meerkat]

Originally posted by J. Dillon:
Yea Ed, I wonder how many here know what a Napier diagram is ? ;)

JDI've never used one, but I've read about them... ;)

......

Oops, so much for me - I now went and looked it up and was completely wrong! Oh well! ;)

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/100men/images/gm68.jpg

[Bayboat]

Four-strand Manila was the best you could buy for halyards.

On San Francisco Bay, pre-1960 or so: racing sailboats did not have lifelines--they got in the way of the sheets, especially while changing headsails or handling spinnakers. Almost nobody reefed. Going to windward in heavy weather we sheeted the headsail(s) board flat and luffed the main or foresail. The bowsprits had no pulpits. Nobody wore foul weather gear. We wore wool pants and shirts, which stayed fairly warm when wet, as they almost always were. The old wooden full-keeled boats amost never broached like the modern dinghy-bottom racers do. Small one-design boats like the Birds, Golden Gates, Hurricanes and others carried spinnakers in the regular summer winds of 30-35 knots. The bigger boats often carried them until something broke. "We put 'em up and God took 'em down." We didn't call it racing--we called it beating ourselves into submission.

[nedL]

...calling & distress was done on "2182".

..."Boaters" were straw hats worn during parades, or a true sign that you you knew little of boating & were definately not a boatman.

...The boatyard was at the end of a dirt road that lead through the salt marsh, and you knew you were there by the smell of the cedar in the air.

Yep, & cans were black (as already stated).

[Dan McCosh]

Sailing a boat made in 1936, I am always conscious of the old-fashioned sail plan. The big main, fractional rig, small jibs, and using running backstays to control the draft in the main. Also--the multi-spreader rig to narrow the sheeting angles. All this stuff has been replaced today with big mains, small jibs, running backstays, and multi-spreader rigs.

[Scott Rosen]

When you said your boat was built before the war, people weren't sure which war you meant.

Kerosene running lights.

Cotton sails.

More wood boats than glass boats.

Cruising meant really getting away from it all--no cell phones, generators, tv's, stereos, and the two-way radio had tubes. You turned it on only when you needed it, which was almost never. You could still find a quiet anchorage in Long Island Sound in the Summer.

Glass boats were made to look like wood boats.

No one felt the need to have a magazine dedicated to wooden boats.

No jetskis.

No cigarette boats.

When someone called for help, it was the Coast Guard who helped, not some mercenary consumer salvage company. And no one called for help unless they really needed it.

[J. Dillon]

Thought I'd bump this oldie up again for some new additions. ;)

JD

[JimConlin]

... on the entire Maine coast, there were maybe ten pairs of osprey.
Some good thing have happened.

[Nordicthug]

We bought a penny candy sack full of shrimp or half a dozen halibut cheeks for 50 cents at Ballard Fish, fished for sole and sea perch all day, then went home and boiled and ate the rest of the bait while mom fried the sand dabs and perch for supper.

A few years later, in Sea Scouts, Ballard Oil would fill our tanks(150 gal) with diesel for $15.00, giving us the first 50 gal for free. A few of us would show up there after school during the week to wash their windows and generally police the parking lot. Scandihoovian kids don't like to be beholden. (Besides, if you give something back, the free diesel keeps flowing.)

Gerry

[Dave Fleming]

Using the Directional Loop on a Zenith Trans-Oceanic to zero in on the Loran stations.

No Sperry Topsiders nor other fancy schmancy deck shoes. It was bare feet in the Summer and heavy wool socks inside rubber boots, loose fit, in the cooler months.

A brand spanking new copy of Bowditch was about $7 or $8 dollars with real leather cover with gold leaf printing on it, from the nearest US GOVT Printing Office. More than likely in the local Customs House.

Seaman were given medical care including innoculations(sp) at NO CHARGE if needed, at the US Public Health facility in each port.
USPH MDs wore uniforms similar to US Navy orficers. Decorations ie: gold braid was of a different configuration.

ALL paints had linseed oil base. Calahans 'Chiltered Varnish' and real animal bristle brushes.

Kuhls products including Double Planking Cement, Bedding Compound....

Silicon Bronze screws were REALLY true Everdur alloy. Heads were either slotted or Reed and Prince.

Galv. Pipe bilge pumps with leather flapper valves with so much grease on the leather that sometimes the flapper wouldn't 'flap' it was that soft.
Bilge Pump pipe was about 5 feet long with an approx. 8 inch right angle spout that you had to lean over the gunnel, trying to balance and pump at the same time.

Summer hat wear was surplus US Navy White Canvas Seamans hats. Brim turned down all around. Winter wear was US Navy 100 % wool watch caps. You washed a new watch cap in Murphy's Oil Soap in a washtub using your feet to stomp the suds around. It was supposed to tame the itchy wool feel of the caps.
Never worked for me!

Nightwatch snack was a can of cold Heinz Vegtarian Baked Beans and a mug of coffee with evaporated milk and sugar..
If the coffee caffine didn't keep you awake the fharting from the beans would.:D

Acting all 'salty' by calling the USCG station for a ***radio check***.
Hoping your teenager voice didn't crack while speaking to the duty radioman.
Covering your bunk with a big Oil Cloth sheet in heavy weather to prevent deck leaks from making your bunk a swimming pool.

Carrying a sack of shear pins for the out board motor when fishing in the shallows and hanging off the transom with no hand grip while changing the damn thing and praying you would not loose the cotter pin down into the Eel Grass cause you forgot to buy extra cotter pins when you bought the shear pins!:o

[paladin]

Still have my book and maps from "Ocean passages of the world".....

lighting and heating were by oil.....carried plenty of spare wicks....

[epoxyboy]

Damn - 43yo and I'm too young to contribute :-)

[The Bigfella]

You could wag school for an hour or three, go down to the jetty and have a look over the freighter that was loading timber - including a tour of the engine room. Last time we did that, she broke something in her hold just after we got off - and had a 20+ degree list - fortunately while tied up - if that had happened at sea it would have been "goodnight".

[Ian McColgin]

The ferry had a steam engin and we could go down to watch the walking beams.

Old time generators set up so much of a field that we had to establish deviations and make two Napiers, one engin off and one engin on.

[Hwyl]

Quote:
Originally posted by J. Dillon:
Yea Ed, I wonder how many here know what a Napier diagram is ? ;)
JD

I've never used one, but I've read about them... ;)

......

Oops, so much for me - I now went and looked it up and was completely wrong! Oh well! ;)

http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/100men/images/gm68.jpg

I didn't know either, but I've used similar home brewed ones. It's something that hasn't changed. I just sailed a boat that had "rare earth" magnets holding the sole boards down. PM me and I'll let you know who was the very established NA who came up with that gem.

[gavinpascoe]

When I was a boy in Brisbane (Australia) during the 70s the river ferries were all beautiful old timber things. I wonder what happened to them? Some were still going in the early 90s at St Lucia.

[Tylerdurden]

...and a tube driven RDF was state of the art electronics .


I would love to find one of those.

[paladin]

crawl thru the avionics shops in Alaska and look for a "pointer" or "Bird Dog" RDF....

[ron ll]

You didn't have to hold your fishing pole in one hand, net in the other while simultaneously leaning precariously out over the gun'l trying to open the mouth of a highly animated salmon to figure out what color his gums were.

[Ian McColgin]

When 800 miles out, having to calculate departures to gain DF fix from WABC and WWVA.

Matching the waves when Loran A was new.

Actually needing the sextant.

[nedL]

And to think it was only a month or so ago I had it confirmed that the USCG no longer supports readio beacon aids to navigation. :( Now, what to do with the RDF?:(

[Tylerdurden]

crawl thru the avionics shops in Alaska and look for a "pointer" or "Bird Dog" RDF....

Don't plan on heading that way anytime soon...http://www.woodenboatvb.com/vbulletin/upload/images/icons/icon12.gif

[JimD]

You shrugged off steam engines as being a fad.

[ 05-26-2005, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: PatCassidy ]

Just how old are some of you pharts?

[paladin]

I'm the baby of the crowd at 67 (pretty darn close to 68)....:D

[CharlieCobra]

A marine hard ware store featured shiny real brass or bronze fittings smile.gif not chrome plated plastic. :(

JD

At least ONE in Anacortes WA still does.

[CharlieCobra]

Hell, I must be a premie at 51.

[Nordicthug]

Ya ain't really an Olde Pharte until some smartass 50 yr. old calls you "Sir" and you let it pass 'cos you're just too damn tired to deck the SOB.

Gerry (Hatched in '44)

[Rich VanValkenburg]

I remember a brand new cold molded wooden sailboat that showed up on the Detroit River and everyone breaking their necks to get a look at this new technology.

Having enough water in Lake St. Clair that you didn't need a GPS chart with the big rocks marked on it; also seeing Jacques Cousteau in his red watchcap, and the wooden Calypso cruising through that same lake.

The green water and big blobs of floating oil and grease in Lake Erie, and the hundreds of thousands of alewife laying dead on the shore.

Fishing for smelt was like being in a halestorm as they slammed into you in the dark along the Lake Huron shore.

[Dave Fleming]

At least ONE in Anacortes WA still does.
Marine Hardware STILL has old stock available?

[BETTY-B]

Marine Hardware STILL has old stock available?

Yep. And there is/was also a guy who was friends with Doc Freeman who bought tons, litterally, of bronze/brass harware from Doc in the late fifties right up the road from there as well. How do I know? I've seen it all. The back room is larger than the front store..... I havnt seen it since 2002. I'm going to call and see if it's still all there. If I can find those notes here somewhere.....

DAN

Update: Holy smokes! I just called up there. The guy still comes in once a day. He must be really close to a hundred years old. No exageration. The stacks and stacks of hardware "probably hasnt been touched since you were there".

[CharlieCobra]

Yeah, I go in there anytime I need something for Oh Joy. One of the few places with good stocks of bronze goodies. If they don't have it, I can always get it made at the Port Townsend Foundry, if I have the broken part or pattern.

[Tom Lathrop]

Stepping through the notches to get just one time delay line for a LORAN fix. Trying to get at least two more and trying to guess whether it was on the second or third bounce off the ionosphere.

Coming into the Virginia Capes with no sun or star sight for many days and trying to read the weak 15 mile max range beacon on an RDF. Using commercial radio stations before that.

Local fishing boats were 25 to 30 feet long and owned by the operator and the bank instead of 90 feet long and all owned by one or two rich guys.

Anyone here over 76?

Yankees were an occasional curiosity instead of making up 75% of our neighbors.

[paladin]

Them's Damn Yankees....visitors who never went home.....

Back when Quinns was a little bamboo waterfront bar.....

Vaima's was a tiny hole in the wall snack place.......

No commercial enterprises on Moorea.....and only maybe 1 other boat in Cook's Bay...

When you could find a decent place to drop the hook and row to shore on Easter Island and be the only person there.....

Tom Neale would wander down and ask you not to pick the coconuts close to the ground because he couldn't reach the ones on top....

Sailing into the Seychelles or Maldives flying your flag and the courtesy flag, going ashore and laying on the beach....eventually the customs person would find you after they found someone to speak english to take the data on your boat and welcome you ashore.

Sailing up the bay of tiajuanapec to a village, and trading an old worn out 5 hp outboard for an acre of land and a new house build by the entire village.....coulda bought a wife for a carton of cigarettes.....

Rolly Tasker just opened his new sail loft in Anthony W.K.Wongs yard in Hong Kong and you're his 5th customer....

Getting married and having the American ambassador and his wife at the wedding, and during dinner have Sasha to wander around the table looking for a tasty snack.......

Robert McNamara comes in early for the wedding and wants dinner and is met by a dozen of my montainiards, and to them he's just some dude that don't belong there.....he didn't take well to the firepower pointed his way, either....


Working upside down under an aircraft instrument panel when some idiot with a german accent is looking for Capt Phillips.......turned out to be Werner Von Braun, on a hunting trip, and needed some airplane work fast....

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Mooring buoys made of cork, covered in canvas and painted, attached to coir rope puoy ropes. You got the buoy on deck with the boathook, hauled in the buoy rope, covered in weed and green slime, and got to the chain, which you made off round the Samson post or bitts with a lighterman's hitch so it would not jam.

Coir rope fenders (useless!)

Rope was sold by weight, not by length, and you had the choice of "Number one" or "Yacht" Manila, or Italian hemp if you were incredibly rich.

You took the battery ashore to get it charged.

You always had some Hambroline around for lashings.

Bilge pumps were made of bronze, and they worked up and down.

You never turned the cabin light right out, just in case you needed it in the middle of the night and could not find the matches.

You aired the sails before putting the sail cover on; if you had to leave sails wet you left them uncovered.

Antifouling paint was called Cerrux Red Hand, which was a good name, because you applied it minutes before launching and launched with it still wet. (It worked about as well as the stuff we get now!)

You never saw another yacht at night. You did not suspect that that was because everybody was using paraffin side lights.

At dawn, you went round and took down the sidelights and put them out by tapping them on the deck.

You stored canned food in the bilges after taking the labels off and re-labelling them with nail varnish. After a few weeks food was put luck as a rusty can of peaches looks just like a rusty can of stew.

You carried your water breaker in the dinghy whenever you went ashore and filled it from the tap on the hard.

(I am describing the Thames estuary in 1970)

[paladin]

You tore the labels off to get rid of roaches, then wrote the name of the canned item on the can, then varnished , 2 coats, over the writing.

kept eggs by keeping them on containers with olive oil or cooking oil, and every other day turned the eggs over to keep the oil distributed....eggs would keep for months in the tropics like this....or in a pan of boiling water, place the eggs in a mesh strainer, and lower them into the boiling water, slowly counting1...2....3....4...out. It would cook the membrane inside the egg and keep it from going bad for a few weeks.

[CharlieCobra]

Oh Joy still has a bronze bilge pump the goes up and down, in the cockpit.