12 " signaling light

[Bigfoot]

Here's a pic of my Navy 12' signaling, dated 1944. I installed a halogen lightbulb in place of the original. I used to have it in my nautical themed home bar, nice mood lighting! Whoops, posted twice.

[Teamski]

Nice lamp!

 

-Ski

[Bigfoot]

This is the only other one like it I have seen for sale. $875 seems a bit excessive, but what the hell. Under link look at 'vintage lighting'. I think this one is a 16' and a bit older.

http://www.antiquesofthesea.com/lamps.html

[sigsaye]

This is the only other one like it I have seen for sale. $875 seems a bit excessive, but what the hell. Under link look at 'vintage lighting'. I think this one is a 16' and a bit older.

http://www.antiquesofthesea.com/lamps.html

a basic 12 inch signal search light. I got four of those issued new when I was on USSS Bradley in 1975. Ssaw them off and onn for the next 20 years. We really did not like them all that much. The handels are at the wrong angle being straight up and down. They should be at about a 45 degree forward. I used to have the handles cut off the ones on my ships and re welded in the correct position. The lights were a pain to maintain with that bell housing over the spring return, requireing the dis-assembly of the handel qroup to clean and oil them. The gaskets never really sealed well either and they tended to fill with water, or fog up. Neither was a good thing being electrical and all. The front lense also had a series of screws that had to be removed to get into the front to clean the lense, and oil the shutter assembly. Pure pain in the butt.

 

The light in the original post is a WW2 era light. Those were considered gold as as they were made of good steel and not aluminium or sheet metal like the newer ones. Also you can see that the handle springs are exposed. Many think this is a dis advantage, but it makes it soooo much easier to clean the salt off and oil them. The handles are on friction clips, so they are easily adjusted for the proper angle. The front and rear of the light are hinged with securing dogs. This made it a snap to pop them open, clean and maintain them and get them back into service. We were lucky to get two of them from a scrap metal dumpster in Long Beach at the wrecking yard where they were scrapping the Los Angeles (Heavy Cruiser). Eventually the Navy dumped to one in the sale, and returned to the WW2 style, with the same steel construction and ease of maintenance. Much cheering on signal bridges when the new "Old Style" lights were received to replace the aluminium junk lights.

 

Steve Hesson

[bigjohn327]

hi great photo and info . Is there any way to tell what ship your lights came off of?

[sigsaye]

hi great photo and info . Is there any way to tell what ship your lights came off of?

Not really unless you actually carry it off your self. They were turned back into supply like any other piece of gear (radios, radars etc) when a ship was decommissioned and they refurbished and reissued. Some ships were declared too old to re use so the lights would be left in place. We would get replacement lights through the supply system if we could afford it when what we had was beyond repair. Mostly we would scavange parts and keep fixing up our old ones. Some times the "Rich" ships (carriers) would actually have extras and you could some times work a deal. I got two of the good lights from a ship that had eight of them still in the box (supply mix up) for the cost of taking the Chief out on the town in Subic. We were old buddies and Subic was cheap and I really needed the lights. It was a good deal.

Steve Hesson

[bigjohn327]

thanks steve great story, so a serial number would be just a part number? did these lights come in any other sizes? I would expect that one size fits all on something like this. thanks john

[sigsaye]

thanks steve great story, so a serial number would be just a part number? did these lights come in any other sizes? I would expect that one size fits all on something like this. thanks john

I don't know, a seriel number might tell you what ship originally received it, but after that we just passed them around. In '75 I had lights that had a '42 manufacture date and they were not new.

 

As far as other sizes go, I know there were big mounted 24 and 36 inch lights. While these were also used for communication, they were also used for spotting of targets at night. They had all been removed from service by my time. There were also small hand held lights of various sizes.

 

Steve Hesson

[Salvage Sailor]

The large searchlights were very useful during Salvage operations and were still in service until about 1980.

 

In the 1970's aboard USS GRASP (ARS-24) we still had the 36" carbon arc searchlight mounted in one of the old 40MM platforms on the Signal Bridge against the stack. (the 40MM gun also still had a 'meatball' from a 1944 kill painted on it). The 'Big Eyes' was pintle mounted just forward near the signal flag locker. The 12" lights were also on the Signal Bridge. On USS BOLSTER (ARS-38) we had the same searchlight & signal light arrangement during the 70's.

 

Never saw any large searchlights on my destroyers, just the 12" signaling lights that could be used as small searchlights when the louvres were fully opened.

 

Photos: Signal Bridge of GRASP & BOLSTER showing carbon arc & 12" searchlights

[bigjohn327]

they are a part of history that should get more attention. all of this stuff has a place. the last photo really show the lights thanks,,,,john

[sigsaye]

salvage, OOOPS! Forgot about the Salvage Navy, figures right? Sorry about that.

 

Sigs