Category: “cap badge”

A mysterious old photograph

Last week a photograph originally in Mr. Bob Lind’s “Neighbors” column in the Fargo, North Dakota newspaper, The Forum, appeared in an online group about the Merchant Marine of the Second World War. The question in both places was, does anyone recognize the group? No one offered anything definitive. Neighbors ran this photo last year. Kimberly Paulson-Schulman, formerly of […]

British Antarctic Survey

For my son’s completion of his first week of Second Grade, I gave him a small gift: a legal tender coin from the British Antarctic Territory (BAT). He asked me where this place was, and we searched for it in his world atlas and flag gazetteer. Since the international community does not recognize BAT, his […]

U.S. Navy V-7 program insignia at Columbia and Ft. Schuyler

U.S. Navy V-7 midshipman cap badge.Single piece construction.Fouled anchor; gold-filled.Late Second World War era. Almost twenty years ago I read Herman Wouk’s 1951 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Caine Mutiny.  Recalling Captain Queeg, ball bearings, and strawberries, I recently decided to re-read the novel.  The work fashions a re-creation of the culture of urgency that both […]

Becoming a Kings Pointer

Midshipman cap badge. U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY. Single piece construction. Hallmark, V-21-N (Vanguard Industries). Circa 2006. This is the first in a series of articles where I explore the culture of the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy Regiment of Midshipmen. This first post focuses on the process of a Midshipman Candidate […]

Shipboard Organization and Stewards

united states lines.The opening chapter of the fifth edition of The Blue Jacket’s Manual United States Navy (1917), devotes some 28 pages on the subject of “Discipline and Duty.” Afterward, the first section of the book meanders into opportunities of specialization, courts-martial, and customs. Only in the second and third sections are seamanship topics covered. […]

British Tanker Co.

British Tanker Co.Officer hat badgeMetal, gold wire, silk and colored thread on wool backing.Circa 1940s. Lately there has been an increased number of television commercials urging tourists to flock to vacations on the Gulf Coast – all of which are sponsored by British Petroleum. This brings to mind that last year I presented a British […]

Robin Line

Robin Line ship officer hat badge.Three piece construction.Eagle and shield sterling; wreath brass/gold-plate. Company insigne brass and enamel. Late Second World War era.badge: 60mm x 65mm On the second page of the March 17, 1954 edition of the Wilton Connecticut Bulletin there is long column about a GOP Sunday Tea. The Bulletin reports that the […]