Made of Florida Cypress
Includes Ditty Box
 
This sea chest is handbuilt, and is very durable.  It is a little more fancy than a traditional sea chest as it is designed to look good in a living room.  The traditional sea chest would have been painted with a color.  If this is your need, let Terry know, and he can build you exactly the chest you want.
 
Sea Chest
The first known use of the word sea chest according to merriam-webster.com is 1613.  Sailors this long ago would have been lucky to have such a chest to hold their belongs.  It was more common for a sailor from 17th and 18th centuries to have had such a chest.  The sea chest held personal belongings, but was also used as a table, and chair.  Sea chests were often decorated by sailors with personal carvings, and paintings.  They were usually built of pine because it was light to carry and inexpensive, and the corners were usually dovetailed together at least for the ones that have survived.
 
Rope Work
Some sailors had lots of idle time during long ocean passages.  This gave them time to create decorative handles made of ornamental rope work.  Called a becket these handles were comprised of many type of knots and showed off a sailors skill.  As confirmation to the intricacies of this rope work, it take Terry more time to tie these beckets together than make the sea chest itself.
 
Slope Sides
Many antique sea chests had sloped sides.  It is speculated that this is because it gave the chest a lower center of gravity, preventing it from tipping and spilling during turbulent seas.  But some were sloped front and back, some only the front.  It is more likely the sloped sides were developed because of the cramped condition in a sailors living space.  With many men living in the fo’c’sle the chests were kept on the floor in front of bunks and as a man passed in that low light space, the sloped side would prevent him from outright banging his knee on the top edge.
 
Ditty Boxes
A ditty box was commonly kept inside a chest to keep small items. Ditty Boxes have been carried by sailors of most nations throughout history.  These small inexpensive wooden boxes were used to store sailor’s personal items, including important documents, tobacco, saved letters, photographs, and other possessions.  Also stored in the ditty box were practical items such as sewing kits, knives, utensils, soap, razors, toothbrush and toothpaste, and other toiletries.