Mystery Hardware

[henryat1140]

Hello one and all.

My dad and his family always had sailboats, from the 1920's racing E scows in Barnegat Bay NJ, up through WWII when he was the CO of a frigate in the Coast Guard, to his later years with cruising boats in the Chesapeake

I'm going through some boxes of stuff he left me and trying to identify what some of the items are, or were used for.

Here are links to two pictures of a particular item of marine hardware:

http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst2.jpg

The pictures show them in open and closed positions.

I'm sure there is a proper name for these, if anyone could enlighten me I'd appreciate it. What were they used for? Would they be bronze? Brass? Any idea of how old they are?

Any other information gratefully appreciated.

I am sorry to have to post them as a link rather than in the body of the message, but it seems as a new user I have a very low quota, and the forum won't allow me to post them inline.

Thanks in advance,

Henry

henry.horrocks@comcast.net

[gavinpascoe]

Funny looking things. Bronze. May be helpul in tightening up your frapping of halyards? Or some other barber-hauler type application?

The smaller ring on the hinge piece might be attached to a trip line for something out of reach once rigged: eg on a spar.

No idea really, though someone will no doubt come up with the right answer.

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

They sort of remind me of an older version of the modern day quick release snap shackle. You would have a small lanyard attached to the small ring and tug on it to release whatever was under tension on the hook.

Most older boat hardware is bronze, as it fares better in salt water environs.

(edited to add)
PS, none of us use wooden boat to upload photos to (at least that I'm aware). But, rather, you can upload your photo to your own website, as you've done, but rather than just posting the address, you can wrap the address in a set of image tags (delete the spaces between the square brackets)

[ img ]http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst1.jpg[ /img ]

gives you this:
http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst1.jpg

[henryat1140]

Thanks for the tip

Here are the images:

http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~henry.horrocks/myst2.jpg

[Thad Van Gilder]

Aren't those things used to hold a dockline loop open while you pass the eye around a piling?

-Thad

[outofthenorm]

That's a "Tripping" hook. It's used to set up an anchor for single handed or short-handed anchor handling. Typically, you would hang the anchor on the hook with the latch closed, and run it part way out the bowsprit, so the anchor is hanging clear of everything, ready to drop. A lanyard is rove through the eye of the mechanism so that when you pull it (hard) the hook trips and the anchor is released. Providing the rode is all clear, the anchor pulls it out. The best thing is that it can be tripped from anywhere on board - such as standing by the helm. I've used mine several times when I know I'm going in to tight quarters by myself. The little hole is for a locking pin - can't be tripped with the pin in place. Sometimes, you would use a sliver of wood as a pin - it would hold until you broke it by yanking the lanyard.

It's bronze, but can't say how old. Not new.

- Norm

[dredbob]

What Norm says, a tripping hook used for handling anchors in the days when anchors were much heavier than many of us are used to dealing with now.

Bob

[Michael s/v Sannyasin]

yea... what I said... a quick release snap shackle ;-)