Auction find. What is it? Update

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
a170962.jpg

a170963.jpg
 
They built a lot of destroyer escorts in Bay City, MI during WW2. They now have a museum there. I have not been to it but would like to go.
 
Very interesting and a very cool piece of history.

It does make sense for a diesel-electric vessel, since you can "pulse" an electric motor. I didn't think it was the primary telegraph, I thought maybe it was used at a remote station, for docking or refueling. The site that jh found described it as a "blackout" telegraph, so maybe it was used during blackout operations when the main telegraph would put off too much light. That would explain why it has an "off" position, and why there are a few important controls on it which you wouldn't expect on a telegraph.

It certainly must have been an important control, located right between the helm and main telegraph.
 
There is a Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum in Bay City, MI and they have a destroyer docked there called the USS Edsen. They also have a website.
 
knowing our government's love of paperwork - I would be surprised if you couldn't trace the serial number of that thing back to the ship it came from.
 
Kind of off the subject here, but a couple weeks ago, son and family were here for the night. We some how got to talking about any communication that goes online and how it was out there for ever. I asked them how can that be true if the IRS has lost all those e-mails and they have the best experts known looking for them, no can find. They just kept saying all can be found but would not answer my question. He leans a little left from my thinking though.
 
Mark
I found out a little more info on my piece of navel history today. I called and talked to on of the tour guides at the USS Slater museum and this is what he told me. What I have is the lighting control off of a WW 2 era navy ship but not necessarily a destroyer it could have been on a number of different vessels including Liberty ships. What it did was control the nav lights of the ship in accordance to the position of the main engine telegraph. When ever the helmsman would make a change to the speed of the ship he would reach down and turn the control on this unit to match the setting on the engine order telegraph. This would in turn change the speed that the mast lights blinked in order to let the ships in the convoy know that he had increased or decreased speed. The switch marked screened speed was the light on the stern of the ship usually on a short mast that was covered ( screened ) so that it could only be seen from the rear by ship directly in its wake. I'm going to go on the assumption that this gentleman knows a whole lot more about Navy vessels than I ever will and intend to present this piece as what he says it is if someone asks. I just wish there was someway I could find out what ship this control came off of.
Thanks for your help
Gary
 
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. Any ship operating in a convoy needs to let the ships behind it know when it's changing speed, and convoys kept radio silence to avoid detection. In the daytime they used signal flags, but obviously that wouldn't work at night.
 
That's an interesting story, the USS Slater is or was docked about 15 minutes from here. It had been moved, I've seen articles about work being done on it, but I believe its back again, I'd have to read up on it, I remember when it first got here, years go by.... memory fades LOL ! It sure looks the same as the one you have.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top