Belaying pins

[hink441]

I have a small collection of belaying pins and I was wondering about the large metal one laying in the picture. The metal one is 20" long. I was curious as to how old this might be and is it USN? Does anyone have some thoughts or comments (Steve H)?? Also does anyone have some more pins to share? Thanks for looking.

 

Chris

[sigsaye]

I have a small collection of belaying pins and I was wondering about the large metal one laying in the picture. The metal one is 20" long. I was curious as to how old this might be and is it USN? Does anyone have some thoughts or comments (Steve H)?? Also does anyone have some more pins to share? Thanks for looking.

 

Chris

Chris, Wonderful collection. Man, have I spent a LIFETIME shining those things? OK, heres what you have. Yes, the brass pins are from a Signalbridge. You have machined (which were the best) and a cast one there in the holder. I hated the cast ones. I only had one set of those and swapped them out to a decom for their machined pins. The cast ones don't shine up as well. Yeah, sounds superficial, but it's improtant with the taking pride in the spaces and such. As you can see, the cast pins are not a strong. They can be bent (like yours) or broken, both of which are bad. These things actually take a lot of pressure. You get six or eight flags up in a hoist in 30 or 40 knots of wind and there is some force. I have seen a guy lifted off the deck trying to haul down a hoist in a wind. Any way, some times you need to "pull the Pin", litterly pulling it out of the pin rail. We used a special knot called a "Slippery Knot" to make halyards fast to the pin. You just yank the free end and it's loose. Some times you would also make more than one halyard off to the same pin, and the pressure gets too stiff to pull all three of four ends, so you Pull the Pin. It has to do with speed. Any way, itf the pin is bent, it wont work. All of your pins are standard pattern, used for ever in the Navy on Signalbridges for signal flag halyards.

 

That great big one is not a belaying pin per sae. It is a keeper pin for a piece of equipment such as a boom or crane. From here looks to be aluminium, so for something light weight, maybe a shackle pin. Don't know for sure, but not for signal flags. Really nice collection. I generally had several sets on my bridges. I would submit to have them made every other quarter or so. Oh yeah, these are individually made in a shop, not cranked out in a factory. At one time, newly built ships did not have these, but welded steele pins that were more like cleats. Horrid affairs, rust since the paint was always worn off, and imobile. First thing SMs did was to cut them off, drill holes and get belaying pins. One reason I kept spares was that sometimes, when you're really hopping on the flag bag, it was not unknown for a halyard to foul a pin and jerk it out of the rail and fling it over the side. Very bad.

 

You guys come up with the neatest stuff. I found an old Tack Line I made back in the '70s when I was on the Bradley out in my garage. have to shoot apic and post it some day. Thanks for saving this stuff.

 

Steve Hesson

[hink441]

Steve,

Thanks for the great detailed response. I was surprised to learn that the pins were made to order. I guess the MRs in the machine shop would crank these out when required. The large pin in the picture does look like aluminum, but it is actually hollow steel. It is quite hefty, I would say it weighs around 2 lbs. It appears the handle was once painted yellow, and I have no idea what the white numbers means.

 

Thanks Steve,

 

Chris

[67Rally]

You guys come up with the neatest stuff. I found an old Tack Line I made back in the '70s when I was on the Bradley out in my garage. have to shoot apic and post it some day. Thanks for saving this stuff.

 

Steve Hesson

 

Love to see some of your stuff, Steve!

 

Your responses are always very well-thought and detailed.

 

Btw, I am planning on sending you a check this weekend to get that item we communicated about.

[hink441]

I found another belaying pin in a local antique store today. It looks like it was turned on a lathe and it is 10" long. This one is pretty cool.

 

Thanks for looking,

Chris

 

 

[sigsaye]

Dude, you are making me so home sick with these things. Quick story. Mid '70s, I was on a Tin Can. One of my pins turned up missing. Looked all over for it, figuered some one snagged it for a souviner. (I learned to keep them locked up in port after that). Months later, doing a locker search on a doper we busted. While going through his area around his rack, we took the access off a vent duct. Along with a bunch of ward room silver, found my missing belaying pin. Knuckle head was in the process of drilling it out to make a pipe out of it! Wanted to beat him with it but MA1 took it away from me and dropped it in an evidence bag. Was very happy to see that heritic booted out into the streets.

 

Steve Hesson

[Patriot]

If I wanted to find a belaying pin from a Man of War, or perhaps a Civil War sloop, what would I look for?

[hink441]

If I wanted to find a belaying pin from a Man of War, or perhaps a Civil War sloop, what would I look for?

 

Well, I am not real sure about the really old ones. I do know that alot of the sailing ships used wooden belaying pins and therefore probably did not last too long. Might be a little hard to find but I would bet that there are some out there.

 

Steve, Thanks for another great story. I was really surprised when I found this pin at the antique shop. I'll keep looking for more.

 

Chris

[sigsaye]

If I wanted to find a belaying pin from a Man of War, or perhaps a Civil War sloop, what would I look for?

Pins were wooden until about the late 11880s when the Navy switched fully to steam and they were only for light work like signal halyards. The earlier ones from sailing ships were much thicker and longer and made of wood. They had to be bigger as there was much more line secured on them and that line was very thick and heavy. Metal pins of the size needed would be massivily heavy. Not sure if they could have even been machined, and cast would not have been able to withstand the stress. I've brokes cast signal halyard pins and relitively there is no comparison in the stress of that and a sail.

 

Steve Hesson

[Patriot]

Thank you, gentlemen for the insight! :thumbsup:

[hink441]

Just went to the Norfolk Tallship Opsail 2012 and saw tons of belaying pins on the ships. Here are a few. These were for the sails rigging and are much larger than the signal flag belaying pins. Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

 

[hink441]

Found another pin. This one is heavy and 15” long.