Sailors Table

According to P/C Charlie Obersheimer, his first recollections of the “Sailors’ Table” go back to when the House Committee reestablished dining room facilities in 1939. The stout 4’ x 12’ planked pine table had been discovered in the loft and carried down to the dining room. There had been no regular dining room service at least as far back as 1926 when P/C Obersheimer had become a member, although there had been several parties each year with food provided by outside caterers.

The original purpose for having the Sailors’ Table in the dining room was to provide a place for sailors and boatmen in sailing clothes to have dinner or luncheon without mingling with members who preferred dinner in a more formal manner.

There were many initials and dates carved into this table when it was restored to service, and a few of the initials could be recognized by the oldest members at that time.

The Sailors’ Table purpose has remained essential the same over the years, with the added function of being a place where a member or members could dine without reservations or preplanned parties. In a 1953 Binnacle one member was reported to have said, “If you want to get insulted . . . and by you best friends . . . sit at the sailors’ table.”

By 1974 the Sailors’ Table was enjoying such popularity – from increased luncheon activity and Friday night fish fries in particular – that is was always being “extended’ with several smaller tables. Why not, a member suggested, add a second Sailor’s Table to the original?

It was decided that a new table should be build and paid for by member contributions, the contributors each receiving a square foot of surface in which they could carve their own initials. The table was quickly subscribed.

The new 4’ x 12’ table, constructed by Connie Galus, made its appearance in 1974. Its hard birch surface, however, made it necessary to change the plan for adornment. After a prolonged delay in which other projects got priority, the table contributors were asked to present their inscriptions on paper instead of being allowed to “do their own thing” with a pocket knife. And finally in January and February 1976, John Hill and Jerry Stange layed out and routed the table.

When the engraved table appeared that spring, the immediate response for the “regulars” who hadn’t got in on the first table was that something had to be done now to the old Sailors’ Table to give them a square foot of identity. Always anxious for more contributions, a plan was developed by Jim Rhoads to resurface he old table and sell foot squares for engraving. This was subscribed as quickly as was the other table, but this time the press of other projects delayed the actual completion and engraving to the spring of 1979, when the routing of names was done by Jerry Stange.

It is interesting to look at the underside of the old table, where the old initials of bygone members still reside. During the tables, restoration, the least-historical side was bared to make room for the new engravings.