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Nautical catalogue pages

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Buoys

My love affair with fishing buoys began in the early 1960s when, as a research student in biology, I worked on lobster boats in Port Clyde, Maine. Up to that time fishermen had made their own lath traps and carved their own marker buoys but already plastics and bleach bottles were creeping in, as were the plastic coated wire traps. Every trap had a marker buoy vividly painted in the identifying colors of the owner, sometimes, but not often, with the owners license number (now mandatory). Since those halcyon days wooden lobster buoys have all but disappeared, replaced by those soul-less and anonymous plastic offences! But they are light weight and low maintenance.

For years I have scoured the East coast villages for those old painted buoys. In Nova Scotia one can occasionally find those rare but wonderful fishtail buoys, used as net and long-line markers or as mooring buoys. There were elegantly shaped torpedo buoys, and shapely ball buoys. But best of all, seen only once, was a whale-tail buoy – Oh, what I’d give for one of those today! In beautiful Maine, where there are still a few colorful ball buoys to be found, many of the lobster buoys bear little upright wooden spars to make them more visible.

On a recent trip to Newfoundland my wife and I went up and down the great Northern Peninsula, going into every tiny cove and tickle hunting the elusive buoys. In only one small village in the south-west were wooden buoys still in use. Elsewhere, the ubiquitous bleach bottle ruled supreme. According to fishermen and wharf-side loafers, most of the old buoys were burned long ago as stove wood. Tragic. None the less, a few trap markers and leader buoys were uncovered including a pair of unique "plank and spar" buoys found nowhere else. We boxed them up and toted them home as checked baggage – all except the one which went into my wife’s suitcase. And my personal carry-on baggage was a model fishing boat!



Item #
EA–05–TMO-1   Very Tall High-Flyer Buoy, c1925

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:    $193.00 US   ($225.00 CDN)
plus shipping & handling.
Quantity:  1
Dimensions:   Length 50", diameter 6 ¼", approx 12 lbs
Description:   Very unusual form, an extra tall bottle high-flier from Tancook Island, Lunenburg Co., Nova Scotia. Bright yellow paint with black band around belly and at top, black initials WH for Wilfred Hurdle, who made and used this buoy in the mid 1920s into the 1930s to mark his dory moorings. Condition: Excellent; a very collectable buoy


Item #EA-05-NS-BW-1 
  FOLKY HIGH-FLIER BUOY, c1930

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:   $107.00 US   ($125.00 CDN)
plus shipping & handling.
 
Quantity:      1                 
Dimensions:   L 23" + 13" spar, W 9", approx 6 lbs
Description:  This is a really charming, folky high-flier made from split pine with a natural spruce branch spar. The paint is a dry, chalky white with a faded rose colored cross below the spar. Provenance is not absolutely certain but the buoy came from Vogler's Cove, Lunenburg Co., Nova Scotia and is thought to be the work of David Knickle. Condition: Excellent


Item #EA-04-NS8  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dmensions:  11" x 4 " x 4 "
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s, with red above white (painted over earlier yellow).
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Item #EA-04-NS9  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  12" x 3 ¾" x 3"
Description:  A painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s, having a wine-red top over pale blue.
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Item #EA-04-NS10  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  17" x 3 ¼" diameter
Description:  A torpedo-shaped wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s, with white above red paint; there some white spots and dashes on the pointed (lower) end of the buoy.
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Item #EA-04-NS11  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  12 ¾" x 3 ¾" x 3"
Description:  An attractive painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s, having weathered white paint above equally weathered dark blue.
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Item #EA-04-NS14  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity:  1
Dimensions:  15" x 4" x 3"
Description:  This wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s, has deeply weathered dark blue paint above white.
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Item #EA-04-NS16  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  11 ½" x 4 ¼" x 3 ¾"
Description:  This wooden lobster buoy, fished in the 1940s in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, has a stubby, robust appearance. It is a very pale blue with rich wine-red spots on the sides.
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Item #EA-04-NS1  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  16" x 4 ¼" x 4 ¼"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s.
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Item #EA-04-NS2  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  13 ½" x 4" x 4"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s. Condition: Flaky paint; wood split on one side as a result of prolonged drying since use.
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Item #EA-04-NS3  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  15 ¼" x 4 ¼" x 4 ¼"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s.
.


Item #EA-04-NS4  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  13" x 4 ¼" x 4 ¼"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s.
.


Item #EA-04-NS6  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  13" x 3 ½" x 3"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s.
.


Item #EA-04-NS7  
1940s INSHORE WOODEN LOBSTER BUOY

SOLD

lobster trap buoy from our Nautical catalogue - Phoenixant.com Price:  $40.00 US  ($50.00 CDN) plus shipping & handling
Quantity: 1
Dimensions:  14" x 4" x 4"
Description:  A well used painted wooden lobster buoy from Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, fished in the 1940s. Condition: Delicious flaky green paint.
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Nautical catalogue pages

1   3