Spotlight > Collectors > 118
Whistology
From 1972 on a trip to England retired lieutenant Robert S. Benner started adding boatswain whistles to his growing nautical collection. Along with his vast collection he amassed over 700 whistles during a half a century of carefully collecting and recording from whistles around the world.
His detailed records allowed him to donate pictures and records to three nautical museums. His entire collection is pictured with his records on display in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Further images for reference are in the Mariner’s Museum in Newport News, Va. and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
All of the whistles have receipts, dates when purchased, accession numbers, where purchased, condition, materials, history if it was available, dates of vintage and in every detail. They span countries such as the UK, USA, China, Japan, Germany, Russia, Denmark, France, Holland.
Accordingly, they date from the late 1700s to the present. Pictured are some of his original displays.
Original pictures —
The purchase and recording his numbered whistles along with updated photographs took over a month. Afterwards the separating of duplicated, triplicated and so on took another week. Half the collection accumulated will be sold off to recoup travel, time, and outlay.
After breakdown of the massive collection, just the sterling and nickel plated UK and USA section.
There are several countries represented in the last table. These review all those to be sold off. However all the original recorded numbers have been transferred to the pictures.
** All the original numbers have been preserved for use by the Maritime museums.
TWG
Posted January 5, 2021
