Category: Gemsco

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Insignia Houses

Where have all the insignia manufacturers of the American Merchant Marine managing operators gone? Long passed are the days of enamel flags on high-pressure caps, and so too is true for their makers. Through complex mergers and acquisitions, tools that once struck these diminutive flags found their way to the scrap heap or in the hands of other insignia houses.

GEMSCO of New York under the Elkies family once manufactured a majority of American Merchant Marine steamship company cap flags. The company was established in 1881 and later incorporated as Gordon, Elkies Military Supply Company, Inc. on 31 July 1934 with the State of New York, and in less than a month’s time re-registered as GEMSCO, Inc. on 8 August 1934 – although an abbreviation for the original company’s name, it was implied that it was an abbreviation for the trademark “General Embroidery & Military Supply Co., Inc.” which hid the company’s Eastern European roots. GEMSCO was a one-stop shop for all embroidered and metal insignia items. In time, as was a common practice among insignia houses, GEMSCO subcontracted out most of their production. Enamel flags went to The Reynolds Co. of East Providence, Rhode Island.

The period of mass cap flag manufacture was relatively short-lived in the United States – they had their heyday from the mid-1930s through the late 1940s. Until the 1930s, enamel work was not common for maritime insignia in the United States, but was widespread throughout the British shipping industry. The 1930s saw a shift in insignia styles, first with the Chapman-run United States Lines copying White Star Line’s uniform motifs, and then Dollar and Matson. Eventually, most shipping companies had an enamel flag on their employees’ caps – it was almost requisite for doing business as a serious company; along with the stock certificates with a steamship, a house flag, and buttons with said flag. This insignia innovation continued through the Second World War with GEMSCO providing the bulk of blue water shipping’s cap flags.

Style and economics brought an end to cap flags. Once an item worn by all, many mariners opted to wear their Government-issue cap eagles over cap flags while others switched to cheaper embroidered cap badges. GEMSCO provided the latter first from looms in New York, and then New Jersey. Notable exceptions were Ibrantsen, American Export, and United States Lines which continued to issue them through the 1950s and 1960s. With the collapse of the American Merchant Marine industry in the late 1960s, the market for maritime insignia items was no longer profitable, and their specialized manufacture ceased. In the case of GEMSCO, the company realigned its business during the 1970s with Denmark Military Equipment (D.M.E.) eventually buying Reynolds in the 1980s. Denmark operated Reynolds as the Topper Division of D.M.E. for about a decade, at the tail end of which they closed the East Providence location and subsequently, the tooling for cap flags disappeared – unfortunately, I am unaware as to the range of tools lost during the closure. GEMSCO went bankrupt in 1992 and went into re-organization; it decided to pursue contracts in the law enforcement market. Enamel cap flags are now created from old tools for collectors.

Below is a list of current insignia houses, from where their tools came, and the original owner. If the tools have since been discarded, I have indicated as such. After the list, I have provided vendors (Sources) who offer original or restrikes of the cap flags – and what flags they have in stock (current November 2022). As of 2022, Armour Insignia is the holder of most tools.


Argonaut Line (Armour restrike)

Tool Repositories

Armour Insignia (Nevada)

ex-Town & Country which acquired the stock of:
ex-Robbins

  • Mallory
  • Mowinckel

ex-Denmark Military Equipment [as Topper DME] (New York) which acquired the stock of:
ex-The Reynolds Co. (Lincoln/East Providence, Rhode Island) subcontractor for GEMSCO (New York):

  • Alcoa
  • American Export
  • American Export Isbrandtsen
  • American President
  • American Republic
  • American-Hawaiian
  • Argonaut
  • Black Diamond
  • Brovig
  • Central Gulf
  • Everett Orient
  • Farrell
  • Grace
  • Gulf & South American
  • Isbrandtsen
  • Joklar
  • Kerr
  • Knoch
  • Luckenbach
  • Matson
  • Moore-McCormack
  • Olsen & Uglestad
  • Panama Railroad
  • Rasmussen
  • Socony
  • Standard
  • States Marine
  • United Fruit
  • United States Lines

ex-GEMSCO:

  • U.S. Army Floating Plant & Dredges

ex-International Insignia which acquired the stock of Krew
ex-Krew:

  • The Great Lakes Dock & Dredge

ex-Blackintron:

  • Southern Pacific (Golden Gate Ferries)

ex-Blackintron which acquired the stock of Braxmar
ex-Charles G. Braxmar Co. (New York):

  • Hudson River Steam Navigation
  • New York Queens Ferry (NYQ)
  • Yonkers Ferry

☆ ☆ ☆

International Insignia (Providence, Rhode Island)

ex-Krew:

  • Hy-Line

☆ ☆ ☆

VH Blackinton (North Attleborough, Massachusetts)

current:

  • Cleveland Cliffs

ex-Charles G. Braxmar Co. (New York):

  • Clyde
  • J. H. Brown & Co.
  • Walter Runciman & Co. / Moor Line

ex-GEMSCO (New York) scrapped 1970s:

  • American Mail
  • Anchor
  • B&Y
  • Central American
  • Cunard
  • Dollar Line (Steward)
  • Dow Chemical
  • ET (Eastern Transport Co.)
  • Essberger
  • Munson
  • New York & Cuba
  • Nobco
  • Oceanic & Oriental
  • P&O
  • Panama Pacific & Bull
  • Standard
  • United States Lines
  • Ward
  • Waterman

Sources

When they’re gone, they’re gone… Below find dealers of Period – original cap flags – and only active dealer offering re-strikes.

Period

Joshua Segal of Lost Legions Militaria in Alexandria, Virginia (https://www.ebay.com/str/lostlegionsmilitaria) is the only known source of GEMSCO-manufactured United States Lines cap flags from the 1930s and early 1940s. His stock comes from the 1992 Army-Navy store close-out and liquidation sale.

☆ ☆ ☆

Stephen E. Lipski, based in New Jersey, is another merchant on eBay (https://www.ebay.com/sch/reatra05/m.html) who has some stock of original GEMSCO-manufactured cap badges. His stock comes from an Army-Navy store close-out about three decades ago. He offers:

  • American Export Lines
  • American President Lines
  • American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
  • Matson Lines
  • Panama Railroad Steamship Line

☆ ☆ ☆

For over a decade, Robert Steinberg of Pinback Paradise (https://www.ebay.com/str/pinbackparadise) in Medford, New Jersey has been offering the same two cap flags:

  • American President Lines
  • American-Hawaiian Steamship Company

His stock came from the buy-out of the stock of another dealer two decades ago.

Restrikes

Armour Insignia in Henderson, Nevada (http://armourinsignia.com/) has restrikes available of the following (November 2022):

  • American Export Line
  • American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
  • American President Lines
  • American-Export Isbrandtsen Lines
  • Argonaut
  • Grace Line
  • Great Lakes Dock & Dredge
  • Hudson River Steam Navigation
  • Isbrandtsen
  • Moore-McCormack Lines
  • New York Queens Ferry
  • Olsen & Uglestad
  • Southern Pacific Steamship Lines (via Blackinton)
  • Yonkers Ferry

Armour Insignia GEMSCO re-strikes are easy to differentiate from period cap badges – the planchets are a bit thicker and have no hallmark; from 1942 onward, GEMSCO hallmarked most of their badges.

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American-Hawaiian Steamship Company

American-Hawaiian SS Co. hat badge. 

Faint H & H (Hilborn & Hamburg) hallmark on eagle wing.
Gemsco hallmark on flag.
Eagle and shield sterling plate over copper; wreath brass/gold-plate.
Second World War era. badge: 60mm x 65mm flag: 25mm x 22mm

As follows is an essay on the history of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. Collecting the data on this specific company is somewhat responsible for the prolonged hiatus in blog postings. I hope that the history behind the badge warrants the absence of images. More images will follow in a couple of weeks… I’m going on vacation for a spell.

American-Hawaiian Steamship Company (A-H SS Co.), 1899-1956.

The story of the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company mirrors the fates of several large steamship houses in the United States: scramble for capital, a flowering of activity, failed business models, take-over by a large conglomerate, and final dissolution. A-H SS Co. is unique in the fact that at one point it had the largest U.S.-flag merchant fleet and then dwindled to nothing.

A-H SS Co. was engaged in intercoastal (U.S. Atlantic-to-U.S. Pacific coast) and foreign trade – although, as it name implied, it originally provided the majority of the steamship freight service between the mainland United States and the Hawaiian Islands. After the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States on 7 July 1898, George S. Dearborn, who owned a fleet of sailing vessels, decided to establish a modern steamship service between New York and Hawaii. In order to finance this venture, he sold his fleet of sailing ships and raised additional capital from investors – notably his brother-in-law, Lewis Henry Lapham. Almost a year later, on 7 March 1899, Dearborn organized the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. Dearborn served as president of the company, with Captain William D. Burnham as general manager – Dearborn was president until his death in 1920; Burnham held his appointed post until 1914.

Immediately after incorporation, A-H SS Co. ordered new steamships from the local New York and New Jersey shipyards, with Dearborn securing contracts to bring sugar to the U.S. mainland from the Big Five (the main business conglomerates in the islands). Service was to begin in 1900, however, A-H SS Co. found its ships requisitioned by the U.S. Navy for emergency duty to counter the Boxer Rebellion in China. Only in January 1901 did the promised service begin. For the next 14 years, under the protective umbrella of U.S. cabotage laws, the relationship that A-H had forged with the Big Five proved mutually beneficial and was the source of prosperity to the company’s U.S.-flag ships.

Of the of several innovations A-H SS Co. ushered into the steamship trade, starting with their first voyage, A-H SS Co. steamships used the Straits of Magellan rather than the longer route followed by sailing vessels around Cape Horn. A problem that faced steamships in the long voyage from New York to Hawaii was the logistic problem of coaling. Although Chile was a natural stop-off point for re-supply, Chilean coal was of low quality and quickly exhausted. This very problem vexed the great powers of the period, and colonial history is rife with seemingly far-flung islands annexed for the very purpose of servicing navies. A-H SS Co. did not have the luxury of arms, therefore resorted to innovation. Alternatively, A-H SS Co. supported the efforts of Valdemar Frederick Lassoe, its chief engineer, to develop an oil burner for the company’s steamships. The oil burner was first fitted in the S.S. Nebraskan, which completed its first voyage from the Pacific to New York in 1904; the results so impressed the U.S. Navy that it launched a program to convert warships from coal to oil.

In January 1907 A-H SS Co. took advantage of the opening of the Tehuantepec Railroad across Mexico to divide its ships into two fleets: one operated on the Pacific Ocean, while the other fleet handled the cargo on the Atlantic between New York and Tehuantepec. This arrangement lasted until 1914, when revolutionary turmoil in Mexico shut down the Tehuantepec Railroad; while the opening of the Panama Canal on 15 August 1914 provided an economic alternative. However, landslides closed the Panama Canal between 13 September 1915 and 15 April 1916, thus forcing A-H SS Co. to use the Straits of Magellan one last time – albeit under oil power.

The company’s heyday was in this early period. With its offices at 8 Bridge Street Maritime Building in New York, A-H SS Co. steamers sailed from the renovated Pier 56, Bush Terminal, South Brooklyn, every six days laden with freight for Pacific Coast Ports and the Hawaiian Islands. Through bills of lading, cargo was accepted for Puerto Mexico and all points along the Tehuantepec National Railway, Vera Cruz & Isthmus Railway, Pan-American Railway, and ports along the west coast of Mexico and Central America. From Hawaii and San Francisco, steamers left for New York every twelve days. The company used San Francisco and Puget Sound as a way station for freight destined for Vera Cruz and New York. Commerce was good.

The positioning of the company in the Hawaiian trade could not have been more secure, yet when the First World War began in 1914, Dearborn gradually succumbed to the temptation of chartering out most of his fleet in order to profit from the record-high freight rates in the North Atlantic. In 1916 A-H SS Co. announced that it would suspend handling the sugar crop of the Islands; not surprisingly the Big Five and the Territorial Government of Hawaii felt betrayed. As a reprisal, the Big Five vowed that A-H SS Co. would never be able to return. Henceforth, the Matson Navigation Company, enjoying the full support of the Big Five, emerged as the principal ocean carrier of the Islands. Once the wartime profits evaporated, A-H SS Co. realized it had foolishly abandoned long-term stability for the sake of short-term gains – the company did keep its original name, in the hope of returning one day to Hawaii, but more as a reminder of the prosperous days when it had been the largest U.S.-flag merchant fleet.

In 1920, after the government returned the vessels requisitioned during the war, A-H SS Co. decided to dedicate its fleet in intercoastal trade, mainly between New York and California. After Dearborn died on 28 May 1920, W. Averell Harriman became the principal stockholder of the company and assigned the management of the company to his United American Lines; all of this he affected in April 1920. The attempted merger proved more complex than expected, and soon Harriman realized that the financially troubled A-H SS Co. required its own separate organization, and to that end, he appointed Cary W. Cook as its president on 20 March 1923. As a condition for accepting the job, Cook had specified that the company’s headquarters be moved from New York City to San Francisco – not only because this was where he lived, but also because he felt the future of the company was in the Pacific. Cook put A-H SS Co. back on solid footing and also began the negotiations with the Grace Line – which was keen to sell its six vessels on the unprofitable intercoastal service. The purchase of the ships was concluded in June 1925 by Roger D. Lapham – who succeeded Cook as president that same month. The intercoastal route sailed every five days. As a further step to consolidate A-H SS Co.’s position as the leading intercoastal carrier, Lapham acquired one of its competitors, the Williams Line, in early 1929.

Unfortunately, the intercoastal trade was proving to be rather unstable and subject to sharp rate wars, so Lapham correctly concluded that the company needed to enter into other trade routes. His most important move was the creation of the Oceanic & Oriental Navigation Company in 1928 to take over a line of U.S. Shipping Board vessels (USSB); A-H SS Co. and Matson each had a 50% stake in the venture, with Matson managing the government ships on the Australia/New Zealand route, and A-H SS Co. managing those sailing to China, Indochina, Japan, and the Philippines. When the Great Depression struck, A-H SS Co. was in an especially difficult state as the intercoastal trade so closely reflected the collapse of the American economy; Lapham considered a merger with the Dollar Line in 1930, but the negotiators failed to find a satisfactory arrangement. Ever the opportunist, in 1936, did Lapham purchase four steamers from the Dollar Line for A-H SS Co. as Dollar was desperately trying to remain solvent and not slip into bankruptcy.

In 1942, the U.S. government requisitioned the ships of A-H SS Co. and of all other lines for the duration of the Second World War. The company received a War Shipping Pennant in 1944 with four stars – “4 Star Companies” were assigned anywhere from 75-100 vessels of Victory Fleet during the Second World War. Once the war was over, the company did not want the surviving ships back, which in any case were overage, and instead preferred to bareboat charter government vessels for the intercoastal trade and for service to the Far East, at least until the post-war shipping situation became clearer. After the war, these cast-off ships ended up as troopships for the MSTS or found service in the U.S. Navy. Despite not wishing to have its assets returned, A-H SS Co. did engage in litigation to recoup perceived losses at the hands of the U.S. Government. A particularly visible case was of the Alaskan, the Federal Courts upheld the Government’s payment to A-H SS Co., claiming the A-H SS Co. was attempting to profit from war.

With the ascension of Roger Lapham’s son, Lewis A. Lapham – who became the president of the company in 1947 – the company’s headquarters moved back to New York City from San Francisco; this was the younger Lapham’s first action as company president. The company was wisely keeping its options open, but the Korean War panicked A-H SS Co. into buying six surplus ships on the mistaken assumption that high freight rates would continue indefinitely (obviously lessons were not learned from previous of the same sort). The ships had barely been brought when the intercoastal service took a downward plunge, and with each voyage piling up losses, the company had no choice but to suspend the intercoastal service in March 1953. For all intents and purposes, A-H SS Co. was no longer sailing.

The question of what to do with the idle fleet vexed the stockholders, who reached the conclusion that the hope left was to shift to a foreign flag of convenience. Because the company had exclusively operated under the U.S. flag, the stockholders decided to bring in as an investor the billionaire Daniel Ludwig, whose experience with foreign-flag operations was renowned. Ludwig decided to use the company for his own plans, and in 1955, after a bitter takeover battle, he gained full control and sold off the ships and most of the assets of A-H SS Co., whose steamship career ended at this point.

Ludwig, however, for purposes of tax advantages, kept A-H SS Co. as a paper company and involved it in real estate ventures. For the next ten years the company became embroiled in sundry schemes: first to build Roll-On/Roll-Off vessels, then container ships, and finally nuclear-powered vessels. By 1968 the last of these schemes had failed, and Ludwig proceeded to liquidate A-H SS Co. as a first step toward making an extremely lucrative deal with Sea-Land.

Principal Executives
George S. Dearborn : 1899-1920
William D. Burnham : 1899-1914
Cary W. Cook : 1923-1925
Roger D. Lapham: 1925-1944
John E. Cushing : 1938-1947
Edward P. Farley : 1944-1955
Lewis A. Lapham : 1947-1953

House Flag:
The A-H SS Co. house flag first appeared in publications in 1926; the flag was simply the white initials A-H on a blue field. After the takeover, the flag was never flown again as American-Hawaiian Steamship Company became a paper company; and in the 1970s, nevermore.

Note:
In 1937 A-H SS Co. issued a double-spread page outlining its corporate history complete with ship purchases and an executive summary.

History of American-Hawaiian Steamship Company by periods 1899 to 1936 inclusive

References:
Thomas C. Cochran and Ray Ginger, “The American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, 1899-1919,” Business History Review (Boston: The President and Fellows of Harvard College) 28 (December 1954): 342-365

Rene De La Pedraja, Rise and Decline of U.S. Merchant Shipping in the Twentieth Century (Twayne’s Evolution of Modern Business Series). New York: Twayne, 1992.

Penton Publishers, Blue Book of American Shipping (17th Ed.). New York, New York: Penton Publishers, 1913. pp. 315, 324.

New York Times, 26 November 1948, 28 February 1953.

Pacific Marine Review, November 1926.

Jerry Shields, The Invisible Billionaire: Daniel Ludwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.

War Shipping Administration, PR 2029. 24 September 1944.

F. J. N. Wedge, Brown’s Flags and Funnels. Brown, Son & Ferguson: Glasgow, 1926.

Lloyd’s, Lloyd’s House Flags and Funnels. Lloyds: London, 1912.
Facsimile edition available here:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/lloyds-house-flags-and-funnels-1912/8504627

U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, Merchant Marine House Flags and Stack Insignia: H.O. Pub. No. 100, Washington D.C., 1961. Facsimile edition available here:
https://amzn.to/3HroQFw

Legal cases:
American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. v. the United States. the Alaskan
United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit. – 191 F.2d 26
Argued May 8, 1951. Decided August 13, 1951

Marvyn Gould, Executor of the Estate of J. Donald Rogasner, et al., Appellants in No. 75-1338. v. American-Hawaiian Steamship Company et al., Cross-appellants
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. – 535 F.2d 761
Argued Oct. 3, 1975. Decided April 8, 1976

Links:
U.S. First Day Cover Cachet Display Catalog: American-Hawaiian Steamship Company Corner Card FDC’s

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Panama Railroad Steamship Company

Panama Railroad Steamship Company hat badge. 30cm x 30cm

White enamel swallowtail house pennant (flag), black enamel P and gold fill.
No hallmark, but definitely Gemsco. The rear screw and flag style dates to it to the 1940s-50s (see below). This could either have been mounted on a wool-backing in the center of a wire and thread wreath or applied to Maritime Service-style eagle (although the shank is too short for the latter).
Panama Railroad Steamship Company (also known as Panama Steamship Company and Panama Line) was incorporated in New York in 1862 (or 1889) and operated to 1981. There are differing accounts of how and when this line was established: it could have been in 1862 to funnel passengers and freight to the newly constructed Panama Railroad; or it was established in 1889 by the French Isthmian Canal Company to support its construction efforts. After Panama became independent of Colombia with U.S. support, the United States government took over the canal-building effort and purchased the assets of the already bankrupt French company, including the shipping line. The line’s heyday was during the construction period; once the canal was finished in 1914 the line settled down to a more mundane level of business supporting the maintenance and operation of the canal and its supporting infrastructure, including the railroad. During the Second World War, the U.S. War Shipping Administration militarized the ships and crew, since cargoes traveling through the canal were of critical national importance; some graduates of the Maritime Service schools in Tampa, Florida and Pass Christian, Mississippi manned the company’s ships. After the war, it was the target of constant attacks by privately owned shipping firms who disliked having to compete with a government-owned line, but the Panama Line was so efficiently run that it managed to stave off calls for privatization until Panama took over responsibility for maintaining the canal and railroad in 1981.
The Panama Line used two different house flags:
  • A white swallowtail with a black P. 1912-1950s. P. Sources: Lloyds (1912), Wedge (1926), National Geographic (1934).
  • A blue over red swallowtail with a white triangle in the hoist extending to the fork, and a blue P on the white triangle. late 1950s-1981 (conjecture). Source: US Navy H.O. (1961).
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American President Lines

American President Lines hat badge.

 

Gemsco hallmark on flag. Eagle and shield sterling; wreath brass/gold-plate. House flag, enamel with gold fill. Second World War era.
badge: 60mm x 65mm
flag: 25mm x 22mm
American President Lines was formed by the U.S. Maritime Commission in 1938 to stave off the impending bankruptcy of the Dollar Line, the leading carrier between the U.S. west coast and Asia. It is estimated that the company’s total liability in 1930s dollars was $17 million, with assets around $11 million and debt interest at $80,000 per month. Along with the government bail-out came a corporate restructuring, with allied changes in logos and insignia. The flag, as designed by the U.S. Maritime Commission, is red with a white eagle and a white star in each corner, recalling the Dollar Line’s red and white colors while evoking the U.S. Presidential flag – which at the time was blue with an eagle and four white stars.
During the Second Word War, American President Lines acted as an agent for the U.S. War Shipping Administration, overseeing vessel manning, equipping, overhaul and repair, handling of cargo and passengers, and fueling. Ships’ officers and crew insignia changed to match that of the U.S. Maritime Service; officers’ hat badges, such as the above example, changed from the usual shipping company house flag on wool-backing with wire and thread wreath to that of the house flag on Maritime Service eagle – this was a precedent followed by many U.S. shipping companies at the time.
The company’s fleet was used for the war effort alongside hundreds of Liberty and Victory ships. Later in the war, the U.S. War Shipping Administration began to use containers to ship vital supplies more quickly and efficiently than traditional break-bulk methods. As such, the U.S. government built 16 additional specially-fitted ships for American President Lines.
By the end of the war, the American President Lines’ assets were estimated at $40 million. R. Stanley Dollar, the heir of the Dollar Lines company, initiated the “Dollar Case” in order to force the government to return the company to his family. The case continued for the next seven years with Dollar eventually prevailing. By 1947, American President Lines returned to peacetime activities, once again providing passenger service on routes like the company’s celebrated round-the-world service. Insignia changes followed suite; with officers licensed by the U.S. Maritime Service wearing U.S. Maritime Service hat badges with their company uniforms – if so desired. In 1988, American President Lines officially changed its name to APL, Inc.; the company is now a subsidiary of NOL (formerly Neptune Orient Lines) of Singapore.
House flags of American President Lines:
  • Red with a white eagle and a white star in each corner. 1938-1955
  • White with a red eagle and “American President Lines” in white over span of eagle. 1955-1980
  • White with a red eagle and “American President Lines” in blue beneath eagle. 1980-1988
  • White with a red eagle and “APL” in blue beneath eagle. 1988-present
References:
A reference I found useful for tracking house flags is Lloyd’s House Flags and Funnels. A facsimile of the out-of-print 1912 edition available here:
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American President Lines wool hat badge

American President Lines wool hat badge

Gemsco hallmark on flag.
Wool backing and wreath of gold bullion thread.
House flag, enamel with gold fill.
Second World War era.
badge: 70mm x 50mm
flag: 25mm x 22mm

 

As noted in a previous post, shipping companies’ ships were appropriated for the duration of the war with seamen and officers militarized. This is an example of the cited officers’ badge of wool backing.

Some have subtly speculated that wool backed badges without an eagle (with an eagle, such hats are known as “high pressure” hats) were worn by warrant officers or chief petty officers. Whereas, the truth of the matter is that ships appropriated by the Maritime Service and run by the shipping companies by their own personnel were not as rigid in uniform distinctions between grades of officers; in fact, shipping companies did not use a rating scale: officers were ranked according to seniority and responsibility (and licensure if in the Maritime Service proper). For example, seamen’s documents from after the war, and belonging to sailors on MSTS ships, showed a corresponding rank and rate, as such things did not exist in the Merchant Marine. As for officers aboard American President Line ships, their uniforms were prescribed by their company, and any hats and devices, and reefer jackets and cuff braid were oftentimes custom made and personal purchases. This particular device came from S. Appel & Co, a uniform company that had shops in both New York and Miami.

American President Lines
House Flag.
Woven cotton and canvas, no synthetics; attached to manila rope.
Flag, 4 x 6 feet
Circa Second World War.