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Artist/Maker Whyte, James

Datec. 1870

Mediumbrass, glass

Object number00.37

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionA binnacle with an eleven (11) inch diameter dry card with georgraphic headings. The overall height of the binnacle is four feet supported by cast iron dolphin legs. The compass is gimbal (brass) mounted and has sight vanes. There are provisions for oil lamps for lighting the compass card. The compass card is divided by 32 points, and marked NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, and in two parts of 180º by 1º. Circular brass bowl with a glass cover, gimballed in a polished brass binnacle. The cover does not fit over the bowl, and may be from a different instrument; it is fitted with two sights, one with a slit the other with a thread. The printed paper compass card is pivoted on a brass pin, and carries two heavy needles. It consists of two layers of paper separated by a sheet of mica. The North point of the card is indicated by a fleur-de-lis. The binnacle has one window with a hinged lid and a looking hole with a sliding lid (damaged); it is placed on three cast brass dolphin feet, that can be secured to a ship’s deck by screws. There are two oil lamps for illuminating the compass card, and polished brass containers on either side containing iron for compensating for the ship’s magnetism. There are two brass rings on either side of the binnacle (at the bottom), for securing it to a ship’s deck by ropes.

Literature: Clarke et al, Brass & Glass, 283-285; Brewington, The Peabody Museum Collection, 136; American Offshore Whaling Voyages database. ProvenanceAccording to the NBWM file this compass came from Captain Horace Perry Smith, master of the New Bedford whaling bark Josephine (from 1903-1907); she was built in Bath, ME in 1877 and sold in 1909. Smith was her one-but-last master. This type of dolphin-feet binnacle was probably made by Heath and Co in London. Negus will have imported the compass from Heath and/or Whyte. For display purposes the NBWM has had electric light fitted in the binnacle. In 1864 James Whyte married David Heron’s daughter Jessie; the firm’s name became Whyte and Co. about 1875.

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