Ship's Piano, Royal Navy

[CANZAC]

Hi all,
I hope someone can assist me with finding a needle in a haystack.

I am a publican based in South Devon. The property I have recently acquired has, as one of its more charming features, a small ship's piano which I understand was once in the wardroom of a Royal Navy warship. I have a photograph of it, but do not know how one can attach such to this post.

The piano was evidently made by J.B. Cramer & Co. of London, and appears to date back to circa World War One or perhaps slightly earlier. (One can see where it was once attached to a bulkhead at either side, and there are residual marks on the front remaining from what were evidently crass candle-holders.) From my limited experience of them, my understanding is that only the wardroom of a major battleship or battle cruiser would have been large enough for such a piece of kit.

The serial number on the piano 19682, but sadly, Yamaha, who now own the now-defunct Cramer brand name have apparently not maintained the historical records and are unable to tell me anything. I would be delighted if anyone could enlighten me further as to the history of such pianos, and over the moon if someone could identify the warship(s) where this fine old piece served.

I hope someone can help.

Regards,
Stewart C. Robinson
Landlord, The King's Arms
Buckfastleigh, Devon

[Gill the Piano]

About 1887 if the Cramer numbers in Pierce's piano Atlas are right, and if you have the right number (there are also shop stock numbers and casework numbers on pianos which tend to get confused with serial numbers). Was the number stamped among the tuning pins inside?
Bill knows more about this than anyone...I expect he'll be along in a minute...!

[Bill Kibby]

Shouldn't that be a needle in a smoke-stack? Although the term "Ship's Piano" is used quite commonly, the people who use it have never been able to provide me with a definition of the term, and I have never found one in the last forty years! After all, if a ship is big enough, it can have any kind of piano on board, for example, modern cruise liners have perfectly ordinary pianos - I used to tune pianos for the P&Os! I don't know anything about wardrooms.

A "Yacht Piano" is a type of upright piano defined as having a fold-away keyboard to make it suitable for use in small spaces such as yachts. Cramers made some of these, but their "Patent Portable Piano" differs in that it has nothing below keyboard level, and is designed to be placed on a stand. This was the type taken to the Antarctic by Captain Scott, and there are many of these around, some listed on this forum. When I contacted Cramers many years ago, they had no significant archive material, and I have sadly never managed to find any piano material in armed forces archives yet. As Gill said, the number suggests 1887, but most pianos have several numbers inside, so have a look at my Datemarks page at pianogen.org

If you would like to email photos to me, I may be able to tell you more, but some of these instruments were made in very similar style over a long period. Have a look around inside it for other numbers, or repeats of the last 3 digits of the main number.