Awesome, another Magnum Mystery solved, thanks wind4fuel!
I've been wondering about this since it was posted. Now I wish I had been able to put it together, but I wasn't close to figuring it out. And that explains the fish too. I was thinking the fish were simply evocative of the islands. From the few small photos I just found online, it looks like fish on either side of the ring were common.
I wonder what the story behind it could have been in Magnum's world. Did he buy it for himself and use it on Rick's boat? Was it a gift from a friend or one of his clients? ..... Actually, I just realized it seems as far as we know it first appeared in Mad Buck Gibson (2.9), where it's been mentioned Darren McGavin plays a character (Buck Gibson) who is quite similar to Ernest Hemingway, and wind4fuel says this type of fighting belt dates from Hemingway's time. Maybe in Magnum World the fighting belt was Buck Gibson's, and then he left it behind, explaining it's appearance in future episodes.
In the real world the fighting belt could have been put on set to go with the Gibson / Hemingway character, and then left around as if Gibson left it behind and Magnum didn't move it because he isn't the most tidy, or maybe he just liked it there. Or maybe he started to use it off and on himself which would explain why it's there for some later episodes, but not others. We could assume that when we do see it in later episodes Magnum had recently returned from a day of deep sea fishing.
Speculating about small things like this gives the Magnum World even more depth.
I found a few images of Hemingway with fighting belts on. They're smaller than the Magnum one though. It looks like they were made wider in later years, thank goodness.
One
Two
Here's a few more screenshots that I've had:
The Taking of Dick McWilliams (2.10)
Black on White (3.6)
Prop question
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