Boatswain Pipe collecting

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river rat

·Jul 20, 2026

I am a retired US Navy Boatswain Mate. On the bridge one of our tools was a boatswain pipe. We would pass messages to the crew using the 1MC a speaker system throughout the ship. We used a Boatswain pipe there were different calls like attention we would blow then the word the officer of the deck wanted like a warning like if we had a fire on board and what repair locker to go to if on the fire party. Out as sea we would do a very long call for supper for the crew chow call was about a minute you almost ran out of wind. They been used since the days of sail for doing orders the sound of a whistle goes a long way when we did not have a 1MC speaker system.
Just bought this one. British Navy issued an early one.

This one came from the time when the US Navy had gun boats in China anyone remember the movie the sand pebbles with Steve McQueen. The dragon on both sides

An early Russian one from the Cruiser Aurora commissioned in 1903

One for the US Navy in WW2

I got more I can post later if anyone is interested. It was like the tool of the trade we would make lanyards from scratch marline spike seamanship to attach the pipe to and have the lanyard hang around our necks. See the bowl at the end of the pipe see the dimples punch in we did that to tune the pipe we would also melt bees wax in the bowl and sometime solider the edges of the hole of the bowl to get a better sound.

 

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noelekal

·Jul 20, 2026·Home For Wayward Watches

Great topic!

I would love to see more out of your collection!

 

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Waltesefalcon

·Jul 20, 2026

These are great, I would also like to see more.

 

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river rat

·Jul 20, 2026

This is a Japanese Navy one from WW2 there hard to find got a good deal on eBay on this one some ask to much for these since there sort of rare.

 

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cverstegen

·Jul 20, 2026

These are really cool! Would love to see more.

 

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Harbormaster

·Jul 20, 2026

Very cool! I was in the Navy too and remember the whistle all too well. Especially
Reveille! “All hands heave out and trice up… the smoking lamp is lit” ! 😁

 

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river rat

·Jul 20, 2026

This was a weird one had to do homework to figure what it was used for. Was used by us navy air-dale's when moving aircraft on aircraft carriers like a horn so crewmembers have a warning to watch out for it being moved. Had to find photos of it to believe it. Kind of a cool lanyard the dice a cool touch. Think this is from the 1960's. Don't see many of these for sale found it by accident on eBay and had to go to the US Military collector's forum to find out about it if the whistle belonged to it so all legit.

 

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redpcar

·Jul 20, 2026

Boatswain Pipe: Interesting but where do you put the tobacco?

 

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ghce

·Jul 20, 2026

Really cool artifacts, had not been in my wheelhouse so to speak and would not have known what they were had I chanced upon them in the past.
Now I will keep my eyes open for them should I be lucky enough to stumble across one.

More photos please!

 

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river rat

·Jul 21, 2026

You can see the change in issued marks on Boatswain pipes issued to the British Navy from the anchor crown mark to the crow's foot mark probably WW1issue marks when they transformed to all issued stuff had the crows foot. If anyone wants to collect these beware a lot made for the tourist trade out there do your homework. I like the real McCoy and vintage do got two that are sort of modern US Navy issued one I was issued and one a friend a retired master chief gave me.

 

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river rat

·Jul 21, 2026

Here is the one I used in my shadow box was given this shadow box from my last command when I retired. You can see the work we put into our lanyards. The white lanyards were for our blues, and the black lanyards was for our whites' uniforms. If anyone wondering why a beret in the box in SBU XI I was issued that beret and the flash on it you get after earning you NEC 9533 a early SWCC it's outdated now they have a new set of requirements now and changed the NEC with a new pin.

 

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river rat

·Aug 2, 2026

Well bought another this morning on eBay got this one for 28 bucks cheap that don't happen often. Mainly wanted the lanyard the pipe that came with it a plus. Figure the lanyard was made in WW2 we boatswain mates make our own lanyard for our pipes we call it marline spike seamanship. The pipe you can see was tuned. To tune a pipe, you put those dimples on the bowl and solder the edges of the bowl where the hole is and put bees wax in the bowl use a cigarette lighter to melt the wax, so less air is needed to blow to make the whistle work better. My first pipe I beat up worse than this one I snapped the reed the part you blow into had a machinist mate weld it back together it worked wish I kept it gave it to another boatswain mate who needed one.

 

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river rat

·Aug 25, 2026

Well picked up another. Was missing the lanyard ring got a silver one ordered for it. This is Vietnam era being from 1971. With the Chinese mark next to sterling mark the sailor most likely got it in Hong Kong. The USS Kansas City AOR 3 was a oiler it supplied Fuel and supplies at sea they do unrep it's a thing to see two ships hooked together with cables going none stop in a straight-line ether a fuel probe or trolley hooked up for resupply and sometimes vertrep where helicopters are also delivering cargo all at the same time sometimes you would have two ships on each side of the unrep ship plus vertrep after the Navy if I heard a Helicopter made me think of hard work. Was on an ammo ship a floating bomb if it went up, I would never know it we delivered ammo at sea. Bet the Navy wished it never downsized these unrep ships into razor blades. Seems there having a hard time resupplying our Navy ship today a sad thing knew downsizing after the Berlin wall came down was a mistake. You decommission a unrep ship due to age you replace it and maybe bring back whole navy crews instead of using civilian crew on Navy owned ship. This ship had a cool break away music when they disconnect after unrep they play that song Kansas City a cool song.

Edited: Aug 25, 2026

 

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river rat

·Aug 25, 2026

The USS Kansas City AOR 3 still looks modern why our Navy turned these into razor blades is beyond me. We sure need them now; we were always the unsung hero of the fleet supplying ammo bullets and fuel and food. The food the important thing you're not feed you're an unhappy crew.

Edited: Aug 25, 2026

 

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bralofsky

·Aug 27, 2026

Fantastic bit of naval history. I had no idea how much communication could be packed into a simple boatswain’s pipe until reading your explanation.

 

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river rat

·Sep 10, 2026

Added two other British Navy boatswain pipes the plain one with crow's foot WW2 the fancy one made in 1905 by John Hardman & Co, Birmingham from the silver marks. Should get the plain one today the other one has not been shipped yet.

 

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river rat

·Sep 10, 2026

Here is how I show them. Anyone wondering about the dragon patches there called liberty cuffs we would customize our dress blue jumper uniform these were hidden under the cuffs on liberty we would flip the cuffs over and they can be seen. Sort of braking navy rules. Probably not done today a thing from the Navy past. And liberty is time off when we are let off the ship.

 

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river rat

·Sep 10, 2026

This one was missing the lanyard ring. I ordered a pair of sterling rings off eBay, so I have a spare one if I buy another with missing ring was the right size.

 

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noelekal

·Sep 10, 2026·Home For Wayward Watches

Keep ‘em coming.

I have one around here somewhere, picked up in a military surplus shop in Wakefield, England.

If you keep posting I may become inspired to start another collection of stuff. When our sons deal with our estate they will ask: “What was dad thinking?!”

 

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river rat

·Sep 12, 2026

Picked up this one cheap off eBay. The made in England got my attention because it was a US Navy design figured it was made for the US market in WW2 was told it could be model 543 made by Acme saw another that sold with made in England like mine but with a Meyer NY mark also a US Co that sold military wings and other devices to put on your uniform in the US military during WW2.So maybe an unmarked Meyer?