U.S. Maritime Commission Cadre /U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Office cap badge (Type 1)One piece construction. Seal, 25mm diameter; Anchor, 50mm length.Obscured AE CO N.Y. hallmark (American Emblem Company)Anchor and device stamped brass; blue enamel band and red, white & blue shield.Early Second World War era; 1942. This is the first design of the […]
Category: “hat badge”
American-Hawaiian Steamship Company
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 […]
War Shipping Administration Ship Pilot
War Shipping Administration War Shipping Administration Ship Pilot cap badgeTwo piece construction; 60mm (l) x 55mm (h).No hallmarks.Eagle and shield gold-filled; anchors gold-filled.Circa Second World War era; 1943-45. Logistics and control of the supply chain is a perennial thorn in the side of military planners. In the interwar period, the U.S.’s sea-borne commerce was handled […]
Fakes and Fantasies, and Merchant Marine Insignia
For a collector of period items, there is nothing more vexing than a fake offered as an original, vintage item. The higher the rarity, the greater the amount of “fakes” circulate. Although the field of collecting merchant marine insignia is small and insignia is relatively undocumented, spurious items often appear with incorrect attribution. Exploiting this […]
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Office cap badge (Type 2a – Variant 1)One-piece construction. Seal, 25mm diameter; Anchor, 50mm length.A. E. Co. (American Emblem Company, Utica, New York) hallmark.Anchor and device stamped nickel; red enamel band and shield.Circa 1942. This is the first example of the second design of the USMS CPO hat badge; the […]
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Office hat badge (1st design, 2nd pattern) One piece construction. Seal, 25mm diameter; Anchor, 50mm length. Obscured AE CO N.Y. hallmark (American Emblem Company). Anchor and device stamped nickel; blue enamel band and red, white & blue shield. This is the second pattern of the first design of the USMS […]
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Officer
U.S. Maritime Service Chief Petty Office cap badge (Type 2 – Variant 2) One piece construction. Seal, 25mm diameter; Anchor, 50mm length. Coro (Cohn & Rosenberger) hallmark. Anchor and device stamped brass, sterling plated (marked); red enamel band and shield. Mid-to-post Second World War era; 1942-1947. This is the second design of the USMS CPO […]
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 […]