Zane Grey has me wondering again?

[Reeltyme]

O.K. The Murphy rod question was resolved through some great detective work. Now Mr. Grey threw me another curve ball. In his book, “Tales of Fishes” on page 31, Z.G. states that he had bought the much talked of “B Ocean reel” to match up to his new double split bamboo Murphy rod. The reel was the invention of Boschen, one he was “years in perfecting”. The reel would hold 1500’ of #24 line. The only B Ocean I ever heard of was produced by Julius VomHoffe? Did Boschen work for JVH? Did JVH buy the patent for this reel? Or is it a totally different reel? The year was 1915 if this helps and he was fishing for swordfish. Any insight would be appreciated.
Reeltyme
Randy McConnell

[john elder]

Randy, Bill Boschen collaborated with Julius to make the B Ocean series, which featured the star drag developed by Boschen. The story goes that he refused to patent it and didn’t want it named after him, so Julius came up with the “B Ocean” name to honor him anyway.

[Reeltyme]

Thanks for that John! Zane keeps throwing interesting information at me. Can’t wait to see what’s in store in the next few books!
Reeltyme

[john elder]

Randy, read Harlan majors book if you haven’t done so. That’s the best source for information about early saltwater tackle

[Steve]

Did JVH buy the patent for this reel?

JVH had two patents granted on the patent date stamped on the B/Ocean. Neither had anything to do with the star drag itself. See:
Reel News, Nov., 2004, pg. 6
Reel News, Jan., 2005, pg. 9

[Deepfins791]

I believe a standard 9/0 reel would hold around 500 yards of #24 thread line. It would take a pretty good sized reel to hold 1500 yards of #24. I have one of the rare 12/0 JVH's, with the star drag, but it is not marked B-Ocean. Maybe this is the reel ZG is referring to. My 12/0 has a narrow spool. In the second picture, the 12/0 is next to a 9/0 B-Ocean for comparison.

[m3040c]

I have one of the rare 12/0 JVH's, with the star drag, but it is not marked B-Ocean. Maybe this is the reel ZG is referring to. My 12/0 has a narrow spool. In the second picture, the 12/0 is next to a 9/0 B-Ocean for comparison.

I believe your 12/0 is a B Ocean. I do not believe that JVH marked all of the B Ocean reels. Many were sent out without the B Ocean title and many were marked differently.

I had a B Ocean 4/0 years ago. It was marked B Ocean on the tail plate oil cover but the patent date was stamped onto the star wheel. That might be a tell.





I have a B Ocean 6/0 in my collection that is faintly marked into the hard rubber of the head plate

[Nick in NY]

The "B" ocean question.....about 20 years ago I had a 12-0 Julius in a standard spool meaning the same width as an Edward 12-0! Condition was only good as it was well fished. To today it was the only Julius in wide spool that owned although it wasn't stamped. In all I've had the pleasure of owning 3 versions the last being sold to Ray I. Australia about 8 years ago. I believe I actually delivered it to Mike C.house. All had completely different characteristics. When time allows I'll attempt to locate photos although I believe they could be on a disc. Tight Lines Nick in NY Holzman reels collector!

[Reeltyme]

Gentlemen, I believe the quote was 1500’ (feet), not yards. This would account for question of the reel size.

[m3040c]

In all I've had the pleasure of owning 3 versions the last being sold to Ray I. Australia about 8 years ago. I believe I actually delivered it to Mike C.house. All had completely different characteristics. When time allows I'll attempt to locate photos although I believe they could be on a disc.

Have not seen you in very long time. Hope all is well with you Nick.---------------Mike C.

[Deepfins791]

Yep, feet not yards. I missed that. So would have been a 9/0.

[Nick in NY]

Hi Ray, Am I correct about the reel being dropped off at your home? Thought it odd that twice dropped off serious reels without actually meeting the buyer....I believe the 12-0 B pictured is also 1 that I've owned. Look closely on the rear plate for a hair line. I tried contacting the seller of Rays collection in an attempt to buy it back. ..even with an accurate description and 2 standout features noted I continued to get photos of every other reel. Maybe than was his wY of saying it was sold OR didn't want to sell it.......the actual wide spool Julius I had was clearly marked Julius. Tight Lines Nick in NY Holzman reels collector

[Teal]

There's lots of good information on the B/Ocean and its history in the Julius vom Hofe book available from the ORCA store.

[m3040c]

Hi Ray, Am I correct about the reel being dropped off at your home? Thought it odd that twice dropped off serious reels without actually meeting the buyer....I believe the 12-0 B pictured is also 1 that I've owned. Look closely on the rear plate for a hair line. I tried contacting the seller of Rays collection in an attempt to buy it back. ..even with an accurate description and 2 standout features noted I continued to get photos of every other reel. Maybe than was his wY of saying it was sold OR didn't want to sell it.......the actual wide spool Julius I had was clearly marked Julius. Tight Lines

I do not remember sending Ray a JVH12/0. Being that I sent him over 500 reels, I could easily have forgotten. Ray's estate sales are postponed until September at this time. At least half of his reels are sold. Many more to come in the fall. The person liquidating his estate knows nothing about fishing collectibles. Everything, as far as I know is to be sold.

[Dan Z]

great ZG discussion. I have one of Zane Grey's handwritten Tackle notebooks. i'll have a look when I can and see if he lists anything on the topic. good to see ya all commenting here. Zg collector... Dz

[reeltackle]

The B-Ocean has a great history and is a very underrated reel.

Zane Grey did quote the B-Ocean's capacity in feet as previously mentioned, 1500 feet (500 yards) to be exact. Some advertisements from the day mention the reel's line capacity in yards, however, there are no reels in these ads that have a 500 yard line capacity. The closest would be the 6/0 which in the many of ads state that the reel held 450 yards of 24 thread. Another suspect would be the 9/0 which held 600 yards. Some of the ads that specifically state the 24 thread line capacity of the 6/0 say it held 390 yards of 24 thread and others say it held 350. Did the reel shrink and expand, did 24 thread vary in size from maker to maker? It is hard to account for these differences. Many other ads don't mention what size line would fill the reels to the specified yardage so perhaps a different size line would explain the difference. More likely Grey just winged it on the yardage and fell short, or long depending on the size of the reel. After-all, this is the same guy who said in his book “Tales of Tahitian Waters” that he saw bonefish weighing in excess of 40 pounds.

As mentioned previously in this thread, the B-Ocean reel with its externally mounted star drag was the brainchild of William C. Boschen. Boschen worked with Julius vom Hofe to come up with prototypes of the reel which he took to California and tested at the Tuna Club on Catalina Island. In Joe Coxe's book, Men Fish & Tackle, Joe claims that the star drag was his idea but the truth is most likely that he got a whiff of it while Boschen was testing the prototypes on Catalina Island as both men were members of the Tuna Club. Boschen may have even worked with Coxe to tweak something here or there but it would be a stretch to credit him with the invention.

Here is a photo of Boschen in 1911 using an Edward vom Hofe collar adjustable drag reel with a pop-out anti-reverse. If you blow the photo up you can see that there has been something added to the reel under the handle, perhaps one of his early attempts to add an external drag adjusting device.



This picture, taken in 1913, shows Boschen posing with the first broadbill swordfish ever taken on rod and reel. At this point Boschen had been working with Julius vom Hofe to develop an external means of adjusting the drag on a reel while fighting a fish, the star drag. As if to prove his star drag concept a success even before the debates began, Boschen landed the first broadbill swordfish taken on rod and reel weighing 315 pounds with a working prototype reel. Here is a photo of Boschen and guide George Farnsworth with the reel and the fish. Notice that the prototype did not have a German silver face-plate.



Here is a picture of Boschen with a large tuna taken in July of 1915. The reel in the photo has the German silver rim bands on the inside near the spool like the hard rubber face-plate reels. The German silver face-plate reels had the bands on the outside of the rim. Was this the same prototype reel he used in 1911? Were the German silver face-plate reels being sold at this point in time? If they were being offered in a 1916 catalog then they were most likely being produced in 1915.






The first version of the commercially produced B-Ocean reel was a "reel" beauty with its German silver face-plate and hard rubber side-plates. The name was not stamped on the oil caps like later reels but rather there was a large B-Ocean logo stamped in the hard rubber on the back side-plate. The two reels below, a 4/0 and a 6/0, are the only two sizes I have seen with the German silver face-plate. The 4/0 is stamped with serial #6 and the 6/0 is stamped with serial #3. The 6/0 is stamped both Julius vom Hofe and Thos. J. Conroy and has a fancy lathed back-plate and a hard rubber click.









The first advertisements that I have seen for the B-Ocean reel were dated 1916 and were run by Abbey & Imbrie, Abercrombie & Fitch, William Mills & Son, and Thomas J. Conroy. The line drawings of the reels from these early advertisements show reels with German Silver face-plates like the early examples pictured above.



I do not know when vom Hofe started making and selling the B-Ocean reels with the German silver face-plate nor do I know how long he made them. Although the ads with line drawings of the B-Ocean with the German silver face-plate continued to run for several years in a few of the catalogs, I believe they changed the reel to the more common hard rubber face-plate reel within a year or less. I also believe that the reels were being produced and sold by vom Hofe, perhaps not through dealers but just by him, prior to the 1916 catalogs. In the 1916 William Mills & Son catalog the reels were being offered in four different sizes. In the 1918 Herman H. Kiffe catalog they were being offered in five different sizes. To date, the early German silver face-plate reels have only been found in the 4/0 and 6/0 sizes which makes me speculate that they are the only two sizes that the German silver face-plate reels were produced in. If it is true that these early versions only came in the 4/0 and 6/0 sizes than the reels in 1916 and 1917 catalog would have had hard rubber face-plates as no reels have been found with German silver face-plates in the additional sizes mentioned in the ads.

Below is a picture of the next iteration of the B-Ocean reel. The reel has a hard rubber face-plate that is stamped with the large B-Ocean logo and just the Julius vom Hofe name and patent date on the oil cap. The reel also has the locking handle retaining nut like its predecessor.





Many features changed on the B-Ocean reel over the years. Handles would screw off without a handle retaining nut and the sliding clicker would vanish. Later reels would be made with Bakelite side-plates and the B-Ocean logo would be stamped on the oil caps.

Here is a scan of the B-Ocean pamphlet that came with the reel.







Boschen died in November of 1918, his reputation as a fine angler and father of the B-Ocean intact. Here is one of his many glowing eulogies.