In a scant year after its creation, the War Shipping Administration (WSA) thought it wise to create another uniformed civil service organization under its jurisdiction. At the time, the other uniformed divisions within the War Shipping Administration were the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps and the Maritime Service. The new uniformed service would comprise members of […]
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 […]
Kings Point Bandsman
In searching through the National Archives, a friend forwarded me a curious set of images that originated from a file on United States Maritime Service uniforms. It brought up a couple of questions: Where are these from? And, who wore this uniform? The first question has an easy answer. The moniker in the specifications – […]
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 […]
Mementos and trauma
Unlike today’s freighters where a crew can be aboard for several soul-crushing months at a time without seeing a port, freighters in the 1940s and 1950s made frequent port calls – either for replenishment of stores or cargo transfers. Port calls for a ship’s crew meant a jaunt around the port district or visits to […]
congressional gold medal for merchant mariners of world war ii
Earlier this week the Congressional Gold Medal for World War II Merchant Mariners arrived in my mailbox. I was tapped to participate in the Design Committee in mid-2020; it was the greatest of honors to be involved in the committee to help guide the designers in crafting the medal – and even more an honor […]
Two garrison caps
At its outset, the United States Merchant Marine Academy’s predecessor, the United States Maritime Commission Cadet Corps bucked the prevalent sartorial trend and uniformed its members in the garb of a ship’s officer, eschewing the popular eight-button coat of the maritime cadet or midshipman. This ethos of non-conformity continued through the Second World War – […]
Nuclear Ship Savannah
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. […]
Samizdat
In 1972 the Soviet Union and Europe suffered a drought that resulted in catastrophic crop failures. Although the Soviet Union was perenially plagued with periodic droughts and crop failure, 1972 was significant since the main crop affected was wheat – a dietary mainstay for both people and livestock. This failure brought about talks between the […]
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 […]