The watch shows a caseback engraving: TO CAPT JOHN OLSEN FROM HIS FRIENDS ON GRAY LADY, SEPT 1961. It was purchased from the original owner a few years ago. Here is his write up:
The first photo is of my grandfather (Olaf Johan Olsen, a.k.a. John Olsen), standing at the helm of the sailing yacht SKY LARK. Olaf was born June 9, 1891, in Tromso, Norway. Olaf arrived in the port of New York in 1912. My father told me he sailed around Cape Horn at an early age on a sailing vessel, skippered a rum runner from Canada to the US during prohibition for the Kennedy family, ferried Jews out of Europe during WW2 and was yacht captain for the Vanderbilt family (sailing yachts, SKYLARK and RANGER). The second photo is a Japanese silk painting of himself he picked up while in Japan. As for the “Gray Lady” it was one of the many merchant ships he served on.
