Items purchased at The Nautical Trading Co. were used in the movie, “Top Gun: Maverick.” (Submitted photo)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

PORT CLINTON – There’s a scene in “Top Gun: Maverick” where Penny Benjamin, played by Jennifer Connelly, rings the bell while Pete Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, sits at her bar. There’s a fascinating tie between that scene and Ottawa County. The bell was purchased from The Nautical Trading Co. in Port Clinton.

“They bought a lot of lights from us for the movie, and the bell she rings in the bar came from us,” said Jim Unger, who owns The Nautical Trading Co. with his wife, Kelly Unger. “I’ve watched ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ dozens of times, and it’s always fun to see the scenes that have our lights in them.”

Although The Nautical Trading Co. just opened in Port Clinton on June 1, it has been in business for 23 years. The shop, which sells nautical lighting and other objects that are mostly used for home décor, got its start in South Carolina.

Jim visited an old friend who had recently moved to the South Carolina countryside next door to a man who operated a nautical merchandise shop out of his barn. They decided to walk over and see what he had for sale.

The Nautical Trading Co. opened in Port Clinton in June, but it has been in business for 23 years. (Submitted photo)

“It was glitter from top to bottom with copper and brass, with nautical things,” Jim said. “I was intrigued.”

The owner mentioned that he was contemplating retirement, so when Jim’s position at a college was eliminated a year later, an opportunity for change arose. He bought the business eight years ago and moved it to Ohio, where he operated a mostly online business out of Milan. Earlier this year, he decided to move the business near the lake, so he opened a retail store in Harbor Light Landing.

Jim still sells to customers across the nation and throughout the world. His main customers are in the New England states, the Carolinas, Florida, California and Oregon. Now, he’s gaining many local customers through his shop, which sells mainly nautical lighting but also has a wide variety of nautical merchandise, including ship wheels, ship bells, dive helmets and anchors.

Most of the items are purchased as home décor.

“That’s a large share of our business. Even though our items come from ships, less than 1% goes back to ships,” Jim said.

Now, Jim’s customers can experience the awe of walking into a shop and being awed by the glitter of copper and brass. But there is also some aluminum, a privileged choice of those living by Lake Erie.

The Nautical Trading Co. offers a wide selection of nautical lights and other items. (Submitted photo)

“Up here in the Midwest, a lot of people decorate their kitchens and bathrooms in silver. They can use aluminum décor because they don’t have to worry about the salt environment like other areas do,” Jim said.

Jim has enjoyed meeting locals who stop in the store to buy décor for their homes and cottages, and he is still selling a lot of inventory to his commercial customers.

“We do a lot of work with restaurants, TV shows and movie sets,” he said.

In addition to “Top Gun: Maverick,” merchandise from The Nautical Trading Co. has been used on “Deadliest Catch,” “Battle of Midway,” “This Old House,” and the Netflix series “Outer Banks.”

“Sometimes they go to our website and find things. Sometimes they contact me and say they are looking for certain things, and I contact my associates around the world to see if I can get them,” Jim said. “In the course of a year, I do about five different TV and movies sets.”

The Nautical Trading Co. is located at 3932 East Harbor Light Landing in Port Clinton. It is open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Jim and Kelly’s son, Mitchell Unger, operates the store. For more information, call 419-967-9000 or visit www.thenauticaltrading.com.