FLOLDFORD
Well-known Member
- Location
- Lakeland Florida
Thanks to everyone who replied back to my post about the ships telegraph. Special thanks to MarkB and jh2056 as your posts got me headed in the right direction. So here is what I discovered. The piece I have most likely did come off of a WW 2 escort destroyer and unlike most of us thought including myself not all escort destroyers were steam driven quite a few were Diesel electrics similar to subs of that era mainly because there was a shortage of the complicated gear reduction boxes needed for the steam turbines. I found the web site of the last remaining escort destroyer USS Slater and it is located in Albany New York as floating museum. I was able to find pictures of the bridge and low and behold there was the telegraph just like the one I have. As you can see from the photo it is located between the wheel and the large standard engine order telegraph so I am still at a loss as to what its purpose was. I'm not saying this piece was off one of these destroyers but there is a good chance. I am going to try and contact the museum tomorrow and see if someone can explain it's purpose. Ironically the USS Slater was built in 1944 not 30 miles from were I live at the Tampa Ship Building Company Tampa Florida. Thanks for all the replies as I knew with all the knowledge and history on this forum someone would get me headed in the right direction! I have no intention of selling this piece of history it will stay unrestored and on the shelf in my shop