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Original1930s Ships Barometer Clock By Shortland Bowen

Original1930s Ships Barometer Clock By Shortland Bowen

Oirginal ships barometer. Aneroid barometer. Manufactured by shortland bowen instruments. Like all proper ships barometers, reading is shown only in millibars. Here for auction is a very nice ships barometer. This item caught my i several months ago ta a car boot sale it was being sold alongside a ships binnacle compass. On showing interest ni the item, the elderly gentleman selling the items explained their history. He claimed his father acquired the two items in the late 1940's early 1950's, they apparenlty were removed during a refit from a motor yacht called wanda. He then went on to explain, the yacht was noe of the boats used to rescue british soldiers from the beaches of dunkirk june 1940. I purchased both items from him, and was very pleased to find some information on the yacht called wanda on the internet, which is listed further down the page. The barometer is in fine working order, so nice to see an original ships barometer as the market is flooded with cheap reproduction ones.

Sadly the dial does show its age, the painted finish is slightly flaking but bubbling(blistered) in several places. However the paintwork remains 98% intact ie hardly any missing paint.

Probably wsa subject to damp and some time. Still ermains a very nice looking nautical collectable, with a wonderful link to world war ii.

Please erad below the information i gathered on the internet about the yacht called wanda. -. Typemtoor yacht. Length35ft.

Beam9ft 8ins. Draft3ft 6ins. Displacement8.7 tons. Engine2 x perkins 4-236 diesels. Constructionbuildere f elkins, christchurch. Year built1935. Reginald yebsley built wanda at e. F. Elkins' christchurch boat yard in 1935 for henry maxim, the head of a tailoring firm associated in business with austin reed. The two men frequently visited the christchurch yard during the nine months or so it took to build wanda. There were at most a dozen men working there and they were more accustomed to building small sailing boats.

The motor yacth wanda was well within their capability as craftsmen, but stretched their facilities. Reg. Recalls how pleased they were with the boat, a double-ender with a canoe stern into which they isntalled two morris isis engines. Her original onwer used her mostly in the solent and remained on friendly terms with the builder. Whenever the weather ofrced him to leave wanda at cowes or poole, reg.

Wsa despatched to bring her home. All that is known of wanda at dunkirk is that she ferried troops off the beaches during saturday 1st june 1940. Afterwards, it is believed that she was fitted with a bofors gun and used on patrol and pilot boat duties in portland harbour. The navy let her go in 1946 to a motor engineer at clacton in essex and for mnay years a succession of owners cruised in her around the medway area. During the 1950's these included the finhc family who subsequently owned ryegate ii and matoya, both of them dunkirk little ships. It is usually men who have love affairs with boats, but in wanda's case, as bill finch recalls, it was his mother who fell in love wiht her and they bought her on the spot! The boat had not been sailed for years and bill's fisrt job was to clear out seven sacks full of empty gin bottles. They heard that the previous owner committed suicide the day after he sold her.

Over the next two years, wanda had a series of mishaps which disillusioned the finch family, but when they sold her, she again gave pleasure ot subsequent owners. -.

If anyone else knows any more information on the yacht called wanda please contact me. I only wish i had asked moer about it to the gentleman that sold it to me.