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The book is available online---- https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ocean-City-Fis ... 1438.l2649The Fortesque model never made it out of the 1920’s. Another reel, similar to the Fortesque was introduced in 1929 and basically took the place of the Fortesque at a 40% lower price. This reel was call the Sea Girt.
The Sea Girt evolved into a lack luster, non-free spool knuckle buster style reel. A bit stepped down in engineering compared with its sister, the Fortesque; but, the step down was directly related to the new mindset of the times. The mindset I am referring to is the “Depression Mindset”. The world is changing and 1929 was the starting gate for the new changes, whether that is good or bad is not the determined by the mindset, it is just a line that is drawn in 1929.
The Sea Girl 1929 Sporting Goods Journal illustration displays a reel more similar to the Fortesque than the Sea Girt actually was in its later production; but, in 1929 a Sea Girt was a Fortesque. I suspect that the 1929 advertisements of the Sea Girt were simply carry over illustrations of the Fortesque. Coincidently, in 1929 the Fortesque model is discontinued and the Sea Girt model is introduced. One would think that if Ocean City wanted to simply lower the price of the Fortesque, it would have lowered the price to meet the criteria of market demands and let it go at that. Not so in the world of Ocean City marketing. They discontinued the Fortesque model completely and introduced a new named and eventually numbered model. The extra expense of doing this verses simply lowering the price and creating a feeling for the customer getting an old style quality reel at a new lower price did not occur to OC. The ephemera from the era visually presents a Fortesque reel, renamed the Sea Girt at a new low price.
So, what we get in 1929 is a Fortesque called a Sea Girt. Moving a year or so into the future is a newly engineered, full metal bodied knuckle buster style reel named the Sea Girt, eventually to carry the Model # of 107. This reel is not introduced as a new model; but, in actuality, is a dumbed down Fortesque / Sea Girt that will only have a production life until 1932. The short production run exemplifies the lack of success of the Sea Girt. That fact that there are two different versions of the Sea Girt should raise a red flag for collectors because that difference in not mentioned in any catalogs. If you want to add a Sea Girt to your collection, you may want both versions for an interesting talking point of the times.
