Hail mariners--what is it? N/A

Richard

Richard

Final Approach
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Ack...city life
As seen at the nav station on a Cheoy Lee ketch. What is the thing on gimbals that looks like an ear trumpet?
 

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Is that the base for the compass, perhaps? Kind of a small picture.
 
Compass is my guess - the long tube keeps the weight at the bottom from adversely affecting the compass readings.
 
SCCutler said:
Well, DUH! :D

But, ummm....

.... what's a Pelorus? :confused:
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This

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Actually a pelorus is one of those things with two sticks on it that you use to site a bearing. You would see them in WW2 movies where the Navy guys would be shooting a bearing on each side of the ship to figure out exactly where in the channel they were.
 
It is not a Pelorus, although that is a great guess. The thing is permanently secured to the cabin wall. It's fully gimbaled, looks like a trumpet.


I'll try to enlarge the picture.
 
A special gimbaled peg-leg holder? That would go great with a gimbaled parrot cage... yar! :D
 
Ancient Chinese secret.

Holds Calgon.
 
Richard said:
It is not a Pelorus, although that is a great guess. The thing is permanently secured to the cabin wall. It's fully gimbaled, looks like a trumpet.


I'll try to enlarge the picture.
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Does it have a burner or a way of mounting a lamp?
 
I don't know why you'd need one on such a small boat, it has no scale of any kind, and moves on 2 axes, not one... but could it possibly be an inclinometer?
 
smigaldi said:
Could it be a mount for a compass or clock?
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I ain't never seen nothing like that. Compasses usually have their own internal gimbals.

My money is on it being an obscure bit of antique junk that the owner thought looked "nautical"...
 
Richard is the entire "trumpet" gimbaled or is just a gimbaled holder for the trumpet. Looks like you drop the trumpet in the holder. If so is it just a horn in a gimbal?
 
I thought maybe it is a fog horn but why the gimbals? Who's horn is gimbale, just stick it away wen not in use, but gimbaled? C'mon.

I thought maybe it's an inclinometer and I thought maybe it's some kind of instrument to record pitch and roll with sand coming out the bottom.

I disregarded all of those.

If it's some obscure piece of nautical junk, why was it made in the 1st place? Maybe you're right though.
 
bbchien said:
It's a Pelorus.
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Henning said that too. But it does not look like a pelorus that I have seen before.

Here is one that I am more familiar with, http://www.ion.org/museum/photos/PelorusPhoto9R.jpg

The one in the photo of my link is circa 1940's and that boat that Richard is askign about is 1930's vintage.

But even it is some sort of ancient pelorus why would it be mounted inside?

Description: In appearance and use, a pelorus resembles a compass, with sighting vanes or a sighting telescope attached, but it has no magnets or independent directive properties. That is, it remains at any relative direction to which it is set. It is generally used by setting 000° at the lubber's line. Relative bearings are then observed. They can be converted to bearings true, magnetic, grid, etc., by adding the appropriate heading. The direct use of relative bearings is sometimes of value. A pelorus is useful, for instance, in determining the moment at which an aid to navigation is broad on the beam. It is also useful in measuring pairs of relative bearings which can be used to determine distance off and distance abeam of a navigational aid, or to determine whether a nearby vessel’s course is closing.
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http://www.ion.org/museum/item_view.cfm?cid=2&scid=18&iid=21
 
Okay. Let em be more precise. It's a Pelorus table. You can use the mount for anything- a cup of coffee, etc....
 
Ask the dude who's selling it, then report back..:smilewinkgrin:
 
flyersfan31 said:
Ask the dude who's selling it, then report back..:smilewinkgrin:
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I've sent him/her a query--will let you know what reply I get.

Could it be an old gimbled contraption for a candle or oil lamp? I'm thinking something like this:

http://www.bathamquest.com/images/Picture16_OIL_LAMP.jpg

If that's a lead weight at the bottom of the copper/brass "trumpet" fixture in the original post, it would put the CG really low and help it stay stable.
 
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Richard said:
I thought maybe it is a fog horn but why the gimbals? Who's horn is gimbale, just stick it away wen not in use, but gimbaled? C'mon.

I thought maybe it's an inclinometer and I thought maybe it's some kind of instrument to record pitch and roll with sand coming out the bottom.

I disregarded all of those.

If it's some obscure piece of nautical junk, why was it made in the 1st place? Maybe you're right though.
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He's right though, it is a reed type fog horn, the gimbal is just a mount it drops into. It picks right out of there. One time I was getting inspected and they asked me for my horn and I pulled out my trumpet and blew a G. Dumba$$ accepted that....
 
Henning said:
He's right though, it is a reed type fog horn, the gimbal is just a mount it drops into. It picks right out of there. One time I was getting inspected and they asked me for my horn and I pulled out my trumpet and blew a G. Dumba$$ accepted that....
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I'm surprised - considering that a G on a B flat trumpet is really an F...:goofy:

(I've sailed with worse...)
 
smigaldi said:
Actually a pelorus is one of those things with two sticks on it that you use to site a bearing. You would see them in WW2 movies where the Navy guys would be shooting a bearing on each side of the ship to figure out exactly where in the channel they were.
Click to expand...

That would be real handy at the nav station - you could track the relative bearing of the head door...
 
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