I find some really nice maritime items for my collection at art auctions. I went to an art auction in Charleston last month and found a pair of candle powered navigation lights that were used on ships in the 19th century. These types of candles were also used in lighthouse stairwells.

My collection also includes a maritime item that was made in 1891. It is a chronometer and it still keeps great time. It is very special because the broad arrow on it indicates that it was purchased by the British Navy and they are known to have only the best time pieces. I found this piece of my collection at an art auction in New Hampshire.

I have another chronometer in my collection that I found at an art auction in Dallas. It was sold to me in a wooden box from someone that had owned it for fifty years. They had kept this maritime relic in a closet. I plan to keep it on display.

I was at an art auction in Miami a couple of years ago and found a fantastic maritime item for my personal collection. The compass that I won was over 100 years old and was made in Persia. The compass face has all twelve signs of the zodiac engraved on it. I thought that this was a great find.

My kids thought I was crazy when I drove to an art auction is Hartford and drove back with three hundred pounds of maritime Navy anchors. I thought they'd look great in the yard. I like to have art in my yard, in the beds I made around my trees. No one wanted to help me unload them.

I found myself in a bidding war at an art auction in Mississippi over the original builder's plate from the SS Contessa. It is truly a unique and wonderful maritime item. I have polished it and it gleams in the display case I bought for it.

Maritime items don't seem to be in as much demand anymore. A few years ago, my collection got easier to add to for some reason. Art auctions everywhere I went started having really great things on the auction block.

The brass plaques from old ships have always been one of my favorite things to find up for sale at art auctions. One of my favorite maritime plaques came from a ship that was used in WWII. The ship that the plaque was on was called the Marechal Joffre and it was taken from the French in 1942. The Maritime Commission renamed the ship USS Rochambeau.

I had a friend of mine that was going to attend an art auction in Anchorage a couple of years ago bid on a bell for me. I had no idea how much the freight charge was going to end up being, but I wanted this maritime item in my collection. It was magnificent.

There is going to be a really nice maritime item at an art auction I intend to attend this weekend. Lighthouse items are of interest to me more and more lately. I have found that there is going to be an antique brass oil lamp up for auction and I plan to win it. The price will probably get up to fifteen hundred dollars, but I don't care. I need this maritime item in my collection.