*Not For Sale*
Large and rare 8-1/2 inch Chelsea "Yacht Wheel" clock purchased to be used on the yacht Sumar belonging to David C, Whitney of Detroit. The Chelsea Clock Records Register lists this clock having been sold to Tiffany and Co. on August 31, 1926. The clock is signed below the "12" on the dial "Tiffany & Co." and it is also signed Chelsea Clock Company Boston below the Slow-Fast adjustment. This Chelsea "Mariner" clock has a ship strike, with silvered face, Arabic numerals, slow/fast adjustment, double barrel key wind for the movement and strike, hinged face with a bronzed ten-spoke "ship's wheel" fitted to the casement, with supporting pedestal on a mahogany base. The number #172852 is stamper on the round movement plate and on the bottom of the wood base. (CL-580)
Condition: The clock is in excellent condition. It has bee polished and lacquered in the past few years and this finish is excellent. The time and strike movement is working accurtately. There are two holes lower in the back of the base and two others on the bottom of the base that were used to screw fasten the clock into the interior of the Yacht "Sumar".
Height 25, Width 20, Depth 8 1/2, Inches
Note 1: The yacht Sumar was commissioned by David C. Whitney in 1926, and named after his wife, Susan Marshall Whitney. She was designed by Henry J. Gielow and built at Todd Shipyard in Brooklyn, NY. In 1927 her captain was B. Madsen and in May she was in transit from Manila to Colombo Sri Lanka via Singapore. By April 1931 the Sumar had logged 85,000 nautical miles of cruising, including a circumnavigation of the planet. She ranged from the east and west coasts of the Americas, the Mediterranean and Black Seas, the British Isles, Scandinavia, and the Caribbean. The first part of her route took her to Port of Spain, Rio, Montevideo, then to Hammerfest Norway. Her captain in 1930 was Barney. In 1931 she sailed from the Tebo yacht basin in Brooklyn to her homeport of Detroit and Lake St. Claire via the St. Lawrence Seaway. Sumar was sold to the British Navy in 1942 and became the H.M.S. Sumar, and was used in the examination service until 1944, and then sold in 1946. Her pennant number was FY1003.
Note 2: Accompanying the clock is a Silver Bromide period which measures 6 ½” x 8 ½” photograph of the Sumar with a small newspaper cut out about the yacht. There is a three-page story that was copied from a book which gives a lot of information of the Yacht and provides two photos of the boat and three photos of her interior. There is also a write up about the clock and the story of the yacht and its travels on her 85,000 nautical mile circumnavigation of the globe. Printed ion color on one of the pages is a color reproduction of a watercolor portrait of the yacht painted by the Italian marine artist Luca Papaluca.
Note 3: Included is a two-page list titled “Todd Shipyards Corporation, Brooklyn NY” which lists information about the eighty vessels built at the yard between 1890 and 1960. The Sumar was the 37th one delivered on September 26, 1926.