HMS Captain 1870         

 

General Memorabilia (cont)
 

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Bolt from the ship's binnacle (the binnacle being the casing in which the ship's compass is kept) - according to Hawkey, the fleet, searching for survivors, found various items of flotsam from the Captain, including the binnacle.

This interesting item is owned by Mark Berry, who says - 

"The length of the bolt is 9.5cm and diameter about 2.25cm. Appears to have been sawn quite cleanly at the right hand end, maybe the bolt was quite long and more than one of these souvenirs exist. At the left hand end, the break was obviously quite traumatic as the metal appears twisted and wider than at the other end. I think this may be where the bolt head was, and was wrenched from the deck when the ship foundered. 

I suppose that if still attached to the binnacle, the bolt was maybe sawn free as a souvenir. The actual recessed part where the engraving is has been "machined" perfectly level, so someone had access to a workshop." 

 

 

Enlargement of engraved text

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