I stopped at the Art of Consignment on Gutierrez in Santa Barbara this Sunday, and saw something I’d never seen before. A wood box contained something that looked old and electronic. I spotted a light or lamp, that my partner, a professional photographer who loves to tinker, might like. But what the heck is it?
In the box I found an old white plastic keypad unit with buttons for HAIL, PA, FOG1, 2, 3 and 4, and a buttons called YELP and ANCH, and so on. One button read MAN, which intrigued me. Perhaps that one summoned the handsome young deckhand with my glass of chardonnay. I saw an old telephone cord and a green box with “12VDC” stamped on it, and a large corroded handheld spotlight about ten inches in diameter.
Any Sailors Out There Reading This?
I believe I’ve identified this gear, but maybe I’m wrong. When I see objects like this I think of how to redesign, or make them work again one more time. The big lamp looked especially inviting.
I think the keypad is part of a control box from a Standard Communications Corporation Marine Loudhailer device LH5, serviced by Vertex Standard of Cypress CA (1993). I found the manual online and learned that this was high tech in the day. 1993 somehow doesn’t seem that long ago, but it is ages in tech years. The workings include a system for hailing and listening back, an Intercom, and automatic signaling. The signals allow your boat to alert other vessels on your status or maneuverability.
I learned about the certain sounds for certain conditions. One example from the typewriter-typed 1993 manual, “A vessel underway but making no headway through the water must sound, at the same two minute intervals, two prolonged blasts separated by an interval of about two seconds (press the LH5 FOG2 button).”
What the Buttons Mean
I discovered the box contained the control for a loudhailer by googling FOG ANCH YELP. All FOG buttons repeat the sound every two seconds:
- FOG1 sends a five second blast
- FOG2 sends two five second blasts
- FOG3 sends a five second blast followed by two one second blasts
- FOG4 sends a five second blast followed by three one second blasts
- ACH sends a 5 second rapidly ringing bell, repeating every minute
- YELP sends a YELP of varying pitch, used by the Coast Guard and patrol vessels
- MAN allows the use of International Morse Code
If your vessel goes aground and you fear a collision, you might sound the letter “U’ (short-short-long). ‘U’ is the international maritime warning code for “you are standing into danger.”
What about the maritime lamp?
I imagine the green box is the electrical stuff I don’t know anything about. I believe the lamp is a signaling spotlight. Vessels back in the day mounted these in a bracketed support, and this lamp shone up to a Quarter mile in the ‘old days’ of 1993. Some models came with a permanent anchor bracket to the bow and a red and green light below the search light.
I assume the lamp dates from the 1980-1990s from the similar examples I found. Useful as a general boat light, many of these vintage lamps are called deckhand spotlights.
Those sailors reading this will chuckle, but I tried to identify the age and brand. I came up with a few similar:
- The Maritime Signaling Search Spotlight (portable) Spartan model 361 from the 1980s. 12V, and often used on Cris Craft vessels.
- Taylor Made Sport Spot #970, a Deckhand Spotlight.
- Very pretty, but perhaps too ancient: a late 1930s Quarter Mile Ray Spotlight Searchlight.
- 1990s Quest Marine Products #207 Spotlight
- Vintage Attwood Marine Bow Navigation Light.
At first I thought it was a police spotlights we used to see on the side of patrol cars, but the pitting on the shaft of the searchlight looked too much like salt air damage. If you’ve used this type of maritime gear, let me know what the value of such vintage gear goes for today. I suspect current boat owners won’t desire this gear, as modern technology surpasses such machinery.