❖ VIKING TELL-TALE COMPASS ❖

Viking Tell-Tale Compass

Manufactured circa 1760 by
Iver Jensen Borger, founder of the
Iver C. Weilbach & Co Ltd.
 1955 brochure from the archives of the S.P.H.S 

"Manufactured by Iver Jensen Borger, founder of Iver C. Weilbach & Co Limited, Copenhagen, the oldest company specializing in making magnetic compasses in Scandinavia, if not Europe.

      With permission of the authorities, a Compass Bowl was designed as a replica of the Danish Royal Crown, this operative instrument was normally sited and slung on the skylights in the saloons of vessels belonging to the Danish Navy and East Asiatic Companies.

      The Compass Card is illustrated with very interesting and unique features, and picturesque yet meaningful symbols. The magnetic north is indicated by the well known "Fleur de Lys" pattern, supposedly originating from Portugal, home of famous early navigators, but considered by some to have East Indian influences.

      The remaining cardinal and inter cardinal points are decorated with figures from mythology, symbolizing the seven days of the week by representation of:

      The Sun for Sunday (South)       

      Luna for Monday (NE)

      Mars for Tuesday (SW)                

      Mercury for Wednesday (E)

      Jupiter for Thursday (W)

      Venus for Friday (SE)                   

      Saturn for Saturday (NW)

                                         

      The east point is prominently marked representing the direction towards Jerusalem in the Mediterranean, reminiscent from the time of the Crusaders.

      The centre of the Compass Card is embellished with a picture of the goddess "Fortuna" leaning up against the "Anchor of Hope" and holding the "Parrot of Good Fortune" in her left hand. Behind are seen vessels of the period, and the maker's name, Iver Jensen Borger, Copenhagen, is conspicuously printed round the picture. The card being graduated into points and degrees 0˚––90˚––0˚.

      The limited reproduction of this Tell-tale Compass, identical to the original compass in our possession, was made on the occasion of our bicentenary, 24 November 1955, with all the skill and pride of our craftsmen."

Graphics and text from the above listed brochure.

TWELVE DAYS OF WINTER

SANTA SAILING THROUGH

Pender Highlanders 2004

See you next year Santa!
Harney Channel, San Juan Archipelago.
2009.

Goodbye Santa.
1984, San Juan Islands

❖ KING ISLAND

BERING SEA from the archives.

King Island, 1950
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

King Island houses are sturdier than they look, to withstand almost constant high winds and heavy SNOW. A network of stairs connects homes and the Alaska Native Service school, and serves as a precarious playground. The Eskimos have learned to scale the rocky 1,100-ft cliff with the sure-footedness of mountain goats.
      When this image was captured by Frank Morgan, it was reported that once each fall a government boat called at the farthest north Alaska points. The government boat would anchor off from the rocky shore and the skin boats would work back and forth from ship to shore unloading a years supplies for the isolated village in the Bering.
Text by Ethel MacNair for The Seattle Times, 1952.

🎄 FESTOONED FOR CHRISTMAS 🎄

C.P. PATTERSON, Survey Ship
Seattle, WA., 1916.
Photo by Asahel Curtis

"In 1885, the 163-ft steam barkentine C.P. PATTERSON began plying the waters between Puget Sound and Alaska, undertaking survey missions for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey. Here, near the end of her survey career, in 1916 (before she was drafted for service in WW I), the PATTERSON rested her weary timbers in her berth on the placid waters of Seattle's Elliott Bay. It's a cold, damp December day, yet members of the PATTERSON's 61-man complement are pleased to be in port for Christmas, and they've spruced her up with some holiday cheer. Her masts and bow-sprit are festooned with Christmas trees, and even her anchor port has a sprig of yuletide evergreen. Asahel Curtis recorded the scene, a reminder of the seaman's indomitable spirit––and his links with home."

Apologies, source unknown. Perhaps past issue of PNW Quarterly.

❖ MERRY CHRISTMAS ❖ 2014

Top left is dated December 1932.
The beautiful classic DISCOVERY, with Santa Claus
on the foredeck, off the Shaw Island landing, c. 1982.
Cap Raynaud's personal card has a photo of the
EDWARD SEWALL on reverse side.
 She can be viewed elsewhere on this Log.
Click to enlarge.
Random pieces from the archives of the S.P.H.S.