Several years ago, I received a lovely collection of Merchant Marine memorabilia, and was my custom, I queried the sender if there was anything known about the original owner: James Thomas Bowling. For over a month, I had a lively correspondence with the original owner’s son. After a couple of exchanges, he shared a trove of documents with me – some captured from Ancestry.com.
Since I’m generally a stickler for documentation, I was more than delighted to be provided with copies of Mr. Bowling’s career data – from his First World War draft card to his résumé upon retirement. And one line item intrigued me:
Decorations: Order of St. Sava (Serbian)
This medal was awarded to Mr. Bowling due to his deeds in support of the Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War. The collection I had in my possession has a number of standard Second World War Merchant Marine Award cards, ribbons, and badges, but no Serbian award document nor the Order of St. Sava decoration itself. The objects alone speak to an active career: one where Mr. Bowling reached license status through the hawsepipe and experienced the horrors of the Second World War. As often happens over time, medals are sold, given away, or lost, so the medal not being present in the collection makes sense. However, after rolling it around, something struck me as off about the Order of St. Sava.
The decorations note came directly from Ancestry, yet, the website had no original media to consult. As luck would have it, I stumbled across the cited volume in a digitized library while looking for something else. I was finally able to look at the text and see if the Order of St. Sava was in his record. It was not.
Mr. Bowling’s military experience in the First World War was brief. He is identified in the record above as a militiaman who was later subsumed into the U.S. Navy proper, or more specific: “NRF (MNM) app sea” denotes him as a Seaman Apprentice in the Maryland Naval Militia, later Naval Reserve Force.
The Maryland Naval Militia was mobilized at 6:00 pm on 6 April 1917, and all militiamen reported to the USS Missouri (BB-11) for duty three days later at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Interestingly, he is noted as being on the USS Missouri from 6 April – 9 April 1917; this is probably an administrative place-holder since no militiamen were at the Navy Yard until the ninth. After 9 April, Mr. Bowling was a member of the Navy-proper. As a Naval Reservist, he reported to USS Indiana (BB-1), a gunnery and engineering training ship moored off Staten Island, New York (9 April – 16 April 1917). He was then at the Fourth Naval District in Philadelphia in an unknown capacity (16 April – 16 June 1917) – most probably for training. After his sojourn in Philadephia, he was assigned to the newly re-commissioned USS Massachusetts (BB-2) seven days after it entered service. The USS Massachusetts spent its time during Mr. Bowling’s tenure aboard steaming from Philadelphia to Block Island. On 24 July 1917, he was at the United States Naval Home in Philadelphia and then separated from service just before Christmas on 21 December 1917.
I am not quite sure what Mr. Bowling was doing at the Naval Home; it was a convalescent home for old sailors and had a medical facility during the war. If Mr. Bowling was injured during his Naval service, I could not say; a United States Maritime Service Regular Enrollment certificate from 1942 indicates him as having a “midline abdominal scar” – which may be been a result of a great many things between 1917 and 1942. However, his work with the U.S. Navy did not bring him close to Serbia or the Adriatic Sea.
The only two recorded service members from Maryland who received the medal do not include Mr. Bowling:
I would have loved to say Mr. Bowling received this exceptional and beautiful medal; however, Ancestry’s transcription of his record was in error. Also missing among Mr. Bowling’s items is the World War Victory Medal; this is due to no fault of his own – the U.S. Navy began sending it out to all those who served on active duty during the war in 1920. And, of the 500,000 people eligible to receive the medal in the U.S. Navy, about half never claimed their medal. Claiming the medal involved providing a notarized copy of one’s discharge papers to the nearest Naval Recruiting Office or the Naval Department itself; in 1920, Mr. Bowling was an oiler at sea, and going to an American Legion hall to fill out a form was probably low on his priority list at the time. He also left the U.S. Navy with a dishonorable discharge, so his love for military service was probably low as well.
So, no medal for you.
In the intervening years between my initial research of Mr. Bowling’s career and now, I became quite interested in the Order of St. Sava. As a result, I obtained an example to add to my collection. It is a beautiful object and is one of my favorite medals.
King Milan Obrenović IV of Serbia founded the Order of Saint Sava on 24 February 1883, and it remained in force through the reign of rival Karađorđević rulers of the Kingdom Serbia and later Yugoslavia (they took over after their allies assassinated King Milan’s son in 1903). However, its award ceased with the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941. Furthermore, the creation of the communist Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945 saw the order dropped as a state award. Although, King Peter II – the last reigning king of Yugoslavia – made a handful of awards in exile in the intervening years before his death in 1970. It began as a military award, but its scope expanded. It was awarded to individuals as a tribute to either humanitarian or military service to the Kingdom of Serbia through the First World War on through the 1930s.
The medal is a silver-gilt Maltese cross with balls at the tips of the cross with blue and white enamels. In between each of the arms of the cross, it has a Serbian double-headed eagle with an inescutcheon comprising of a red shield with a white cross in the midst of four firesteels.
The obverse central medallion portrays the Serbian national Saint Sava in green vestments surrounded by a blue band; on the band is inscribed “BY HIS TALENTS HE ACQUIRED ALL” (in translation). The reverse shows the silver filigree date 1883 (the year of the Order’s foundation), surrounded by a blue band with an inscribed gold laurel wreath.
The medal is suspended by a gold crown. The triangular ribbon is white with two blue stripes along the borders.
This medal is the 2nd model, 2nd pattern, Fourth Class Knight’s Cross, dating from 1921-1941.
References
Merle T. Cole. “Maryland’s Naval Militia, 1891-1940.” Maryland Historical Magazine, 90 (Spring 1995). pp. 56-71.
Alexander J. Laslo. The Interallied Victory Medals of World War I. Pieces of History; Revised edition (1 June 1992). Albuqueque: Dorado Publishing, 1992.
Maryland War Records Commission. Maryland in the World War, 1917-1919; Military and Naval Service Records. Vol. I. Baltimore: Twentieth Century Press, 1933.