The following collection of insignia details an interesting career arc of a licensed engineer in the American Merchant Marine. It also illustrates a transformative period of the American Merchant Marine from its zenith in the 1940s through its struggle for relevance in the Cold War.
[T]he person that owned this collection graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point as an engineering officer. Then worked for United Fruit Company and the American Export Lines. Both companies used the B.M.O. (Brotherhood of Marine Officers) – this union represented both Deck and Engine Officers and it was easy for officers of United Fruit to change to American Export Lines.
Mr. Chet Robbins of N.S. Savannah Association, personal communication.
As an officer in the employ of latter, the owner ended up on the NS Savannah as a nuclear engineer with American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines, F.A.S.T. (First Atomic Ship Transport); after a sea-going career that began during the Second World War, there is evidence of work with General Dynamics and support for the creation of the American Merchant Marine Museum. Unfortunately, I do not know the full provenance – perhaps someone may know the contours of the career and individual.
NS Savannah significance
As part of the “Atoms for Peace” program as promoted by the Eisenhower Administration at the height of the Cold War, NS Savannah was a demonstration vessel to illustrate the technical feasibility of nuclear propulsion for merchant ships. She was not expected to be commercially competitive, rather was designed to be a set-piece: she was to be visually impressive with a look more akin to a luxury yacht than a bulk cargo vessel. Her design called for thirty air-conditioned staterooms (each with an individual bathroom), a dining facility for one hundred passengers, a lounge that could double as a movie theater, a veranda, a swimming pool, and a library. Even the often utilitarian cargo handling equipment was designed along the lines of the era’s Atomic Age aesthetics. As a demonstration vessel, by many accounts, the ship was a success. She performed well at sea, her safety record was impressive, and since a nuclear reactor powered her, her gleaming white paint was never smudged by oil or diesel exhaust smoke.
Yet, no amount of positive design could paper-over NS Savannah‘s impracticalities. Her cargo space was limited to 8,500 tons of freight in 652,000 cubic feet – which was a fraction of the space her competitors could accommodate. And, despite her modern appearance, she was still a creature of her times – cargo-handling was done by longshoremen. Her streamlined hull made loading the forward holds laborious, which became a significant disadvantage as ports embraced automation. Her crew was a third larger than comparable oil-fired ships and received special training in addition to that required for conventional maritime licenses. Although she was initially chartered by States Marine in 1963, from 1965 to 1971, the Maritime Administration leased NS Savannah to American Export Isbrandtsen Lines for revenue cargo service. This change was due to a labor dispute which erupted over pay scales. NS Savannah‘s engineering officers had been allotted extra pay in compensation for their extensive additional nuclear training. The deck officers, however, cited the tradition where they received higher pay than engineering officers. A labor arbitrator ruled in favor of the higher pay for the deck officers, in keeping with the traditional pay scale, despite the lower training requirements of the deck officers. The pay issue continued plagued States Maritime’s crew, resulting in it dismissal and the Maritime Administration canceling its contract with States Marine Lines and selecting American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines as the new ship operator. The resulting need to train a new crew interrupted NS Savannah‘s demonstration schedule for nearly a year.
Although the change in operators alleviated the immediate labor problem, the failure to resolve this dispute would forever cloud the feasibility of nuclear merchant ships. Many feared that abandoning the
Masters, Mates, and pilots (M.M.& P.) and the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA) trade unions merely deferred the necessary resolution of this conflict. After all, these two unions represented deck and engineering officers on a majority of all other U.S.-flag operated ships.
As a result of her design handicaps, training requirements, and additional crew members, NS Savannah cost approximately US$2 million a year more in operating subsidies than a similarly sized Mariner-class ship with a conventional oil-fired steam plant. The Maritime Administration decommissioned her in 1971 to save costs, a decision that made sense when fuel oil cost US$20 per ton. In a note of historical parallel, the ship’s ill-augered namesake, the SS Savannah, which in 1819 became the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, was also a commercial failure despite it being an innovation in marine propulsion technology.
Note: above text is spindled from a Chatham County Georgia Historical handout on NS Savannah.
Below are the items in chronological order. All may be seen viewed together on the Collection page: NS Savannah ex-crew.
1940s Kings Point
The collection begins with a Kings Point “4.” These items were worn on athletic uniforms; the USNR badge is circa 1942-1945; finely woven and pin cushion style badges replaced these generally flat woven examples immediately following the close of the Second World War.
Kings Point “4” 
USNR badge
1940s United Fruit
The two following cap badges show a progression of responsibility within the United Fruit fleet. Senior officer wore cap badges with anchors and small flags above; this innovation was an innovation begun in the United States Merchant fleet by United States Lines under the management of Internation Merchantile Marine; hierarchical badges were largely abandoned by the end of the 1940s in favor of command positions being denoted by felt-covered visors with embroidered oak leaf clusters.
United Fruit, Officer 
United Fruit, Senior Officer
The insignia from United Fruit also shows a steady progression of responsibility. The shoulder boards illustrate promotion from 3rd to 2nd Engineer, and the insigne (for further details please see the collection page) shows the wearer as belonging to the Engineering department. United Fruit insignia is a bit confusing as at first glance it appears to look like United States Merchant Marine cadet-midshipman insignia as USMMA insignia has program identifiers ringed in bullion rope; this insignia lasted at least through the 1950s as it was current during the Korean War.
United Fruit Co. engineer insigne 
United Fruit Co. 2rd Engineer 
United Fruit Co.
1st Engineer
1960s American Export Lines
American Export Lines cap badge features the outline of the globe. This cap badge was worn for a short duration since American Export Lines did a corporate livery change in 1962 and was later absorbed by Isbrantsen Lines in 1964. It was in this last year when it was probably briefly worn while the NSS Savannah was under Isbrantsen’s ownership of the ship and F.A.S.T. lacked shipboard insignia of its own.
1960s First Atomic Ship Transport
Rounding out the collection are items from when the original owner worked aboard the NS Savannah as a junior engineer. These would have come with American Export-Isbrantsen award of the contract to operate the NS Savannah in May 1963 through the subsidiary First Atomic Ship Transport (F.A.S.T.); this contract lasted until 1971, at the end of which the ship was taken out of service. By 1972, the ship was mothballed.
Of particular note are the cap badge and the shoulder boards. The construction of the cap badge points to manufacture or fitting in the United Kingdom or an English-influenced tailor since the stitching pattern of the band has band seams fore as opposed to American aft. This cap badge is that of F.A.S.T. and was worn from at least 1964 onward (see images below). Although the American Merchant Marine industry closely followed United States Navy insignia patterns after the Second World War, the US Navy had no specialized identification for nuclear engineers despite a great many reactor operators in the fleet; thus the shoulder boards are unique to the NS Savannah. There is evidence that the deck officers first wore shoulder boards with an atomic orbital model superimposed over anchors beginning with the maiden voyage of the NS Savannah in January 1962 while she was under contract with States Marine Lines.
As of this writing, I do not know the significance of the blazer badge’s Latin motto nor what the tie tack represents. “Arduus Ad Altatus” (lit.: “Striving to Dance”) could be an allusion to getting atoms to dance in the reactor; and the tie tack could be styling representation of the ship’s reactor.
F.A.S.T. cap badge 
F.A.S.T. Junior Engineer 
F.A.S.T. blazer badge 
F.A.S.T tie-tack
Captain Gaston H. DeGroote, January 1962. 
Captain David B. McMichael, port demonstration in Dublin, Ireland, July 1964. 
Captain David B. McMichael, port demonstration in Dublin, Ireland, July 1964.
Note above the shoulder boards worn by Captain DeGroote with his States Marine Lines cap badge, and the F.A.S.T cap badge worn by Captain McMichael along with the specialized deck shoulder boards. Images of Captain McMichael are from the Port Agent of Dublin, Irish Shipping Ltd. newsletter Signal; the article on the port demonstration is here.
Many thanks are due to Mr. Chet Robbins of N.S. Savannah Association for offering a synopsis of the original owner’s possible career and identification of the F.A.S.T. items.
References
Chatham County – Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission (2005). Regular Meeting, Thursday 20 January 2005 Handout “Historical Document.” Chatham, Georgia.
Irish Shipping, Limited. “Nuclear Ship ‘Savannah’ in Dublin.” Signal, Volume 2, No.4, August 1964. pp. 2-3, 8-12.
NS Savannah Chief Engineer shoulder board
Late-1960s F.A.S.T. shoulder board of the Chief Engineer.