Shipwreck Bolt Acitons

[elkhorn]

A customer who is a first responder on the Great Salt Lake here in Utah brought me a plank recovered from the W.E. Marsh that sank in the Great Salt Lake in the mid-1930's and ordered two bolt action pens.

The W.E. Marsh was part of a fleet of boats that the Union Pacific kept on the lake to maintain the Lucin Cutoff, a train trestle that traversed the lake. The boat was built in 1908. A picture of the boat and the Lucin Cutoff trestle is shown above.

Even though the wood was well preserved by the minerals in the lake, I had to stabilize it in cactus juice and kept applying thin CA in the cracks as I was turning it. Finished with Pens Plus.

C & C welcome.

 

[Arbetlam]

Those are nice looking pens.

 

[avbill]

Beautiful !!

 

[D.Oliver]

Nice job, John. I love pens with a story.

 

[1080Wayne]

Has the lake dried up enough that the boat came to light ? Nice piece of history .

 

[larrystephens]

Great looking pens and a very good story!

 

[qquake]

Very nice. Do you have a photo of the plank he gave you?

 

[elkhorn]

David, Bill, Derek, Wayne,Larry & Jim: thank you all for the kind words.

Wayne here is the story on how they found it: "The keel of a sailboat had fallen off in the main channel, and with the low water Utah State Parks officials were concerned it could prove a hazard for other sailboats. The crew was using side-scan sonar to search for the keel when they found something they thought fit the description.
"The diver went to check it out and came up with a chunk of wood," said Shearer, who lives and works at the marina (Note: Shearer is the Harbor Master at the Great Salt Lake).
Using measurements and historical records of the W.E. Marsh No. 4, Shearer is convinced it is the missing boat which launched on Great Salt Lake sometime before 1910."

Larry, I'm posting a picture of the plank I received, minus about 2" in width.

 

[Sataro]

Great looking pens! The history really makes the pens special.

 

[elkhorn]

Thanks, Billy. I agree with you and the others - the back story really adds to the pens. On my web site I have quite a few historic/woods with a story that I use for my pens. It's hard to beat holding a piece of history in your hands.

 

[SteveJ]

That's one nasty looking piece of wood that you've turned into a couple of nice pens!

 

[triw51]

WOW great looking pens and great workmanship in maintaining the integrity of the wood. That is a great story thanks for sharing

 

[hcpens]

Casting is in your future, if not send me some and I'll cast them for you.

 

[elkhorn]

Steve, Bill and Richard: thank you all for the compliments! I was nervous about the wood holding together. I don't know if it helped, but I kept the wood under vacuum (in cactus juice) for 24 hours, then after the vacuum was released, it sat in the cactus juice for 48 hours.

Richard, I don't know if I'll ever get into castingbut I may contact you about doing some for me. I've also got some Model T spokes that could use some help. I'll get in touch with you at a later date.

Hope everyone has a great day

 

[Edgar]

Nice looking pens!
You did a great job of turning that wood into pens.
Now you really should make photo castings of that boat & trestle to go with the wood pens. That would make an awesome pen set.

 

[turncrazy43]

John, great pens, great work and a great story. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. It is so much more special when the back story and history are revealed.
_________________________________Turncrazy43

 

[elkhorn]

Thanks, Edgar and Wayne.

Excellent idea, Edgar. Thanks for the suggestion and help.

Wayne, my pleasure in sharing the story.