Nautical Trading Co. Brings Old Treasures to Lake Erie Shore
Discover this Port Clinton, Ohio, shop that finds, restores and sells salvaged ship parts.
When you spot the swashbuckling pirate statue standing outside, you’ll know you’re there.
Enter The Nautical Trading Co. to find 2,000 square feet of salvaged-ship treasure, like the functional and classic solid brass pendant lights. Glass-blown orbs in green, blue and yellow — once used for Japanese floating fishing nets — are suspended with rope. Then, there’s a replica diving helmet and several impressive captain’s wheels.
Everything is for sale, but it’s more than a shop. The space, which opened in June in Port Clinton, Ohio, feels like a nautical museum — and its inventory has caught the eye of designers for high-end beach homes from Nantucket to Miami, resorts in Belize and Florida and even Hollywood sets.
“We buy from two of the largest ship breaking yards in the world, mainly from Bangladesh,” says owner Jim Unger. “Then, we repurpose it, rewire it, polish it to sell.”
Before opening his retail shop, Unger worked solely out of his warehouse, Big Ship Salvage, in Milan, Ohio, selling online and at markets. He bought the business in 2018 from a South Carolina man, whom Unger credits with starting a new mini industry.
“Years ago,” Unger says, “these lights and things used to be just melted down for the scrap brass.”
Opening the Port Clinton storefront seemed the next logical next step.
“I traveled around the country, and it gets kind of exhausting,” Unger says. “The online space also has continued to get more crowded.”
Unger’s nautical pieces have appeared in movies like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Slumberland,” as well as in series like “Outer Banks” and “This Old House.” Martha Stewart even featured a few items on her blog after spotting them at a show on the East Coast.
Your treasure hunt might lead you to a $200 solid brass porthole or the same $780 ship light used in “Top Gun: Maverick” (just look next to the cardboard Tom Cruise cutout.) A $3,995 solid, mahogany replica of a Lyman boat makes an impressive conversation piece — and a bar for entertaining.
“We wanted,” says Unger, “to take advantage of all the people that who travel into the North Coast area during the summer months.”
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