Until the First World War, every sailor had a sea chest on board. Then duffel bags and suitcases prevailed. But although for centuries the sea chest was the sailor's only private item apart from the bunk, little is known about this faithful companion. It was probably simply too banal for most observers.
"As the last testimonies of long-dead sailors, the crates still provide an insight into the harsh living conditions on the ships at the time, which had little to do with the often-invoked seafaring romance," says Peter Barrot. He has been restoring, collecting and researching sea chests for 25 years. "Unfortunately, hardly any of the maritime museums are dedicated to the living conditions of ordinary sailors."
Peter Barrot was born in Bremen in 1942. His father went to sea himself and later built up a shipping company. He awakens his son's maritime interest, who nevertheless decides after his first experiences that he does not want to go to sea professionally. Instead, Barrot studied business administration and geography and then worked in auditing, primarily for shipping companies: in London, Hamburg and Bremen.
In 1977, he moved with his family to North Friesland and from then on worked as the commercial director of an educational establishment. What does this have to do with sea chests? Not much yet.
Great interest in seafaring and maritime history
Peter Barrot is generally interested in seafaring and maritime history. He sails in the North Frisian Wadden Sea with his own 30 dinghy cruiser.
In 1994, while travelling in the USA, he saw his first sea chest in a museum in Philadelphia. In 1998, his passion for it was fully ignited. Barrot had just received a serious medical diagnosis. As he had already restored some wooden furniture, he looked for a Biedermeier chair in an antique shop. He doesn't find one, but instead buys a battered sea chest for 80 marks.
Barrot's wife forbids him to bring the old crate into the house. So it goes into the garage, where Barrot's workshop is still located today. The box is empty. However, holes in the inside of the wood indicate that it once contained a partition. Barrot visits various museums to look at other sea chests. This is how he learnt about the Beilade. He buys three or four more old sea chests - the "problem cases", as he calls them - and analyses them. He then wrote his first article about the "sailor's multipurpose furniture". "In it, I wrote that the sideboard is always at the top left. Next, I saw two boxes in which it was on the right." The hatchet is the storage compartment in which the sailor stored special belongings such as pictures and letters from the family, a diary, pipes and tobacco or even a bar of curd soap. Right-handers prefer the hatchet on the left-hand side of the box, while left-handers prefer the right-hand side.
The "treasure of the sailor"
Only what fitted into the sea chest was taken on board during a voyage. The mother or later the wife packed the "sailor's treasure". The main compartment was filled with oilskins and a southwester, thick socks, underwear, shirts, blue duffel trousers and leather trousers, bobble hat, woollen jumper, water boots, pillow and stuff sack for dirty laundry. At least two people had to carry the sea chest, which the sailor either built himself or bought, on and off the ship. For this purpose, two halyard handles were attached to the crate, often skilfully made from cordage.
Two crates each stood - lashed down - in front of two bunk beds. The multi-purpose furniture was not only used by its owner to store belongings. It was also a seat, workbench, play table or ladder to the upper bunk. If the sailor didn't want to get his mattress wet with his soaked clothes, he used the sea chests as a lounger.
Barrot has now visited and contacted over 120 maritime museums to find out more about sea chests. How were they built? Who did they belong to and what was inside? He notes the dimensions, fittings, age or special features such as a painted ship or the owner's name on an index card for each crate. He can determine the age of a sea chest to within twenty years based on the handles, straps or hinges used to fasten the lid and locks. There are even locks that ring when the key is turned. A precautionary measure to ensure that no valuable tobacco is stolen.
Symbols of faith, love and hope on sea chests
The few sea chests that still exist today date from the 19th century. However, there is evidence that the Vikings already used them. Probably the oldest surviving sea chest dates back to 1693 and was tracked down by Barrot in Finland. It belonged to Ibe Knudsen from Knudswarft on the Hallig Gröde, practically on Barrot's doorstep in the North Frisian Wadden Sea.
Over the centuries, a typical construction style has been preserved. A standard sea chest is between 0.90 and 1.00 metres long and weighs around twenty kilograms. Its trapezoidal shape, which becomes narrower towards the top, makes it easier to open the lid. Most of the boxes were made from softwood, some from oak or precious woods. Camphor, a wood from the Far East, has an aromatic scent that even keeps insects away. "Most of the crates were painted green. The colour was cheap to produce everywhere and, highly toxic as it was, it had a preservative function," says Barrot. "It was also reminiscent of meadows and forests back home." Some people decorated their boxes themselves, often with symbols of faith, love and hope, such as the cross, heart and anchor. Others hired a professional painter to depict a ship, a landscape or more abstract embellishments.
The captain's or commander's boxes usually had a "nautical compartment" inside in addition to the hatch. The octant or sextant and/or the chronometer were stowed in a smaller box in this compartment. A "high edge" was sometimes attached to the top of the rear wall - a narrow storage compartment for the telescope or rolled nautical charts.
10,000 hours invested in restoration
Peter Barrot has restored around 90 sea chests since 1998 and estimates that he has invested around 10,000 hours in the process. His first sea chest has had a place of honour in the living room since it was refurbished. His entire collection consists of around 70 sea chests, spread across other rooms in the house and neatly stacked in the garage and garden shed. They range from a whaler's chest from around 1730 to toolboxes from ship's carpenters and modern replicas. "But not a lousy replica made of painted fibreboard. There are things like that." Various smaller chests such as an on-board pharmacy, a hay box or the small chest of an English shipbuilder, which contains samples of a hundred different types of wood, complete the collection.
"I could get rid of my collection piece by piece online. It's a sought-after box size for completely unrelated uses, because a sea chest is much easier to handle than a dowry chest, of which there are still thousands," says Peter Barrot about his collection, which is the largest in the world. "But it would be much more meaningful and beautiful if what belongs together stays together," says the collector and hopes that his crates will be a permanent reminder of life on board sailing ships in a museum. This year there was a special exhibition at Bremen's Museum Schloss Schönebeck, and some of the exhibits are still on permanent loan there.
The book by Peter Barrot "Seekisten. Multipurpose furniture of the seafarers. A contribution to the social history of seafaring" was published in 2011 by Hauschild Verlag Bremen and is now only available in antiquarian bookshops. ISBN 978-3-89757-483-0
