Tall Ship's Wheel Stolen!

[Coastie04]

I haven't seen it mentioned here yet, so I figured that I'd let everyone here know. The historic schooner Adventuress (1903) had her wheel stolen while she was in port in Olympia, WA on October 7th. She was able to borrow and retrofit a new wheel to continue on her educational sailing schedule. Obviously, for historical reasons, she wants her wheel back and Sound Experience, the non profit organization that runs her, is offering a $100 reward and the promise of no criminal charges filed. This theft hits home a bit for me, as Adventuress was the first boat I ever sailed WAY back in middle school, which led me to volunteering on board her and other tall ships and eventually my whole career choice. Her program is wonderful for kids in Washington. So, if any of you pirates in that area hear of anything, please contact your local authorities. Thank you!

Arrrgh!

[Dutchman]

Darn. a generic looking wheel from this angle im afraid. is there anything that would stand out about it??

[Coastie04]

Unfortunately, I couldn't really describe the wheel in too much detail, as it's been rebuilt since I was sailing on her. From other descriptions, I've heard that it was a 3' diameter wheel with smaller diameter spokes than usual to fit a kid's hands better. I think the part that will distinguish it a bit is the brass hub itself.Many that I have seen are just a flat hub, whereas this one has some ridges leading up to the bolt in the center.

And lastly, an image of the wheel when the boat was new in 1913 (the wood has been redone since then)

[Coastie04]

Additionally, there was one typo in my first post. The schooner was built in 1913, not 1903. She's still an old, beautiful and working ship.

Arrrgh!

[Quartermaster James]

Who does this sort of thing?

Seriously. Is there a market for a stolen ship's wheel?

Around these parts, the crackheads consider any piece of metal they can liberate to be fair game to sell as scrap, but where do you fence historic ship parts?

Do they think someone stole this as a trophy?

Edited October 23, 2012 by Quartermaster James

[DSiemens]

People pay a good amount of money or plain steal things like ship wheels because they make great home decor and souvenirs It's stupid really there's easier ways to get them then stealing them but people are crazy. Speaking of ships wheels I heard a funny story regarding the ships wheel of the Constitution. In the battle against the Guerriere the steering mechanism was destroyed and the tiller was used for the rest of the fight. After words the Constitution took the wheel and mechanism from the Guerriere and sailed home with it.

Years later a ship yard was selling off old wheels to make a few bucks. A guy bought an old wheel for a few bucks and decided to look into the markings on it to find what ship it belonged to. Turns out it was the original wheel from the Constitution. They had thrown it in a pile at the docks and forgot about it. Suddenly this souvenir ship wheel was worth a ton of money. I don't have a refference for this story except the word of an old salt in my ship modeling club. He's built more then a dozen constitutions and has done his research. I trust his word.

[Stynky Tudor]

That theft is just a shame!