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Background
Creating a Distinguished Service medal specifically for the American Merchant Marine began as an extemporaneous idea floated between J. Franklin Carter and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The rationale for granting members of the Merchant Marine medals is recorded in Carter’s “Report on medals for the merchant marine.” Unfortunately, the original report from Carter is lost, but granting medals may have been a calculated act as J. Franklin Carter operated in the capacity of President Roosevelt’s political spy; his job was to bolster the President’s image and maintain a finger on the Amercian people’s perception of the Administration. At the time, shipping losses were on the rise and Congress, at least, saw a need to bolster the spirits of merchant seamen symbolically. J. Franklin Carter’s union connections may have grabbed his attention since many of his reports came unsolicited from the President; this report came a few months after the passage of “Decorations for heroic service in the American merchant marine” (H.J. Res 263 12 Feb 1942) into law on 11 April 1942 – which President Roosevelt signed and parked. Within a month after the report’s receipt by Admiral E. S. Land, the U.S. Maritime Commission began work on the medal’s design. The President’s directive for the medal was to honor the extraordinary. Wishing for the artistic blessing of their work, and after several telephone conversations, the Commission sent their sketch of an acceptable medal design to the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) – at the time, the medallic authority through which Federal Executive branch departments sent design requests for consideration.
After a scant review of the U.S. Maritime Commission’s sketch, the Commission of Fine Arts rejected it.
The CFA went so far as to say that a satisfactory medal could be created, using the ideas presented by the U.S. Maritime Commission, by a competent sculptor – namely, Paul Manship.
Taking CFA’s recommendation, in late August 1942, the U.S. Maritime Commission contracted Paul Manship to design the medal. Paul Manship was a prolific designer and took to the task with aplomb; at breakneck speed, he had the final product ready by the time of the medal’s first award ceremony on 8 October 1942 to Edwin F. Cheney, Jr.; Cheney’s medal was the second example of the medal.
The number of points cited was erroneous… eight would be the correct number.
Counting error aside, overall, Manship followed the process outlined in a New Yorker article published on 14 November 1942:
The design process went from the sketch above to the medal below over the period of a month and a half; the iterations and trials between did not have the best results. At one point, the eagle appeared cross-eyed, and strategic metal rationing prevented the use of some metals Paul Manship commonly used in the production process. Traditionally, United States Military medals had a base of red bronze and were sometimes gilded or covered in silver plate. The wartime Merchant Marine Distinguished Medal was originally made of solid silver “touched up” to look like gilded bronze – in a process known as vermeil or silver gilt. The medal’s abundance of silver presented an issue at the time of Cheney’s award; since the metal is so soft, the medal pendant and hinge fell from its suspension device when the President pinned the medal to Cheney’s jacket – Manship was on hand to make a quick repair (this might explain the E.S. Land’s rollicking smile in the official presentation photograph).
Mr. Roosevelt fumbled with the medal’s clasp, protesting: “They are all this way. They are terrible.” The Chief Executive turned the medal over to Admiral Emory S. Land, War Shipping Administrator, remarking that “I still can’t get the damn thing undone.”
Construction & Components
In designing the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal, Paul Manship followed the guidance set by the U.S. military. Regulations at the time called for a medal of unusual shape for personal distinction – e.g., a cross, a medallion on a hinge, &c. – otherwise the general rule for campaign and service medals was for them to be round. Manship’s inspiration for the overall construction of the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal stemmed from his successful design of the U.S. Navy Distinguished Service Medal. With the Navy medal, he employed the novel design element of a white enamel star with ball finials as a hinge between the suspension and the pendant. He followed a similar tack for the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal and used an eagle as a hinge – but it was far more complex and involved several parts. The Merchant Marine medal’s pendant echoes his Greek and Etruscan archaic style as it displays a discrete balance between academic classicism design and Deco but does not quite approach Modernism. In a word, it was innovative, yet conservative. In my opinion, the medal is striking for the quality of detail and balance in composition.
Hinge & Suspension
The hinge between the ball suspension and the pendant is central to the medal. On the obverse of the hinge is a Federal eagle superimposed upon two crossed, traditional anchors. The eagle’s head is facing its dexter; the anchors rest on a laurel wreath. The reverse of the hinge has the sculptor’s initials P M incuse on a stylized band of cloth holding the wreath together.
Ribbon & Brooch
The silk moire ribbon is a simple affair of five red, white, and blue stripes. The stripes, outward in are: blue, white, and red. See below the United States Army Institute of Heraldry specifications which govern the ribbon’s color pattern.
The brooch was not a concern of a medal’s sculptor but was determined by the medal’s manufacturer. When ribboning a medal, the manufacturer usually uses available stock until depleted; and, as such, the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal looks to have had at least three production runs by virtue of the observed brooch type found on existing medal specimens. The first brooch, as evident in the CFA photograph, is a split brooch with lock catch; this type of brooch appeared in 1918 and was used by manufacturers through the 1930s. The second brooch used with the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service medal is the wrap brooch with lock catch. These were common in the 1920s through early-war; unfortunately, they present the same profile on the ribbon when observed from the obverse as the earlier split brooch – thus positive identification is fraught. The third brooch style found on the wartime Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medals is the slot brooch; these appeared in 1944. The latter brooches’ “tabs” were barely visible from the obverse.
Pendant
The pendant conveys Manship’s grounding in academic classicism. The obverse is comprised of a classical compass rose with the eight winds. A star depicts the winds; it is silver with rays tipped in ball finials; the remainder of the pendant is vermeil. The pendant’s reverse reads “United States Merchant Marine Distinguished Service” surrounding a striped Federal shield; the lettering utilizes an archaic font, evoking a link to ancient heroism; spaces between words are punctuated by stylus marks, and stars bookend “United States.”
The North Wind ray is incorporated into a pendant link to the hinge. The link is slightly beveled on the obverse and reverse abutting the compass card, imparting delicacy.
Official Strikes
The number of known awards of the medal was 154 during and immediately after the Second World War with at least one display medal at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. This supply came from The Medallic Art Company and the U.S. Mint with production at the former beginning in 1942. By 1952, all production and award of wartime Merchant Marine medals ceased – the Distinguished Service Medal, included. However, in 1956, the Merchant Marine Distinguished Medal was revived for use; no orders for the medal came at this time. The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD), the successor to the U.S. Maritime Commission, continued to draw from its existing stock. It presumably exhausted its supply in the early 1970s; this brought the first post-war order to fruition in 1973 with 50 medals from The Medallic Art Company. Stock may have dwindled by the 1980s due to co-terminus awards of the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal and the Gallant Ship Award, causing MARAD to place its final order for the medal in 1987. The last number was 200 from HLI Lordship Industries. Since the last order, MARAD has not issued any new purchases. And, since 2000, only one medal has been awarded – albeit posthumously to Dr. Leonard H. Conley in 2019.
1942 The Medallic Art Company
The trial and first strike of the medal was manufactured at The Medallic Art Company; this makes sense as most of Paul Manship’s art medal and work went through MACO – most probably due to proximity to Manship’s studio in Manhattan. A late-war photograph in Fortune on MACO shows the Merchant Marine Distinguished Medal in the upper-left quadrant. Examples of the gold-colored gilt split brooch with lock catch are probably from MACO.
1942 U.S. Mint
The U.S. Mint had the first contract to mass-produce the medal. I posit that the wrap brooch and slot brooch are U.S. Mint products. The wrap brooch medal was awarded as late as 1946 – as an example to OS Richard G. Matthiesen attests. Brooch design suggests the U.S. Mint began production in 1943; but lack of corroboration leaves this solely as speculation on my part.
The pendant and hinge weigh 40g. The former is vermeil and silver; the latter is vermeil.
1973 The Medallic Art Company
Exhausting its supply of Merchant Marine Distinguished Medals and perhaps anticipating an increase in Gallant Ship citations in the wake of the Vietnam War, MARAD ordered 50 medals from The Medallic Art Company of Danbury, Connecticut. Medals at this time continued to have P M on the reverse of the hinge. The brooch is an unmarked crimp with a lock catch.
The pendant and hinge weigh 45g; both are made wholly of red brass (85% copper/15% zinc) and follow the same gilding pattern except the pendant and hinge are nickel plated over which is applied gold or silver plate depending upon the element.
1987 HLI Lordship Industries of Hauppauge, New York
The last contract for Merchant Marine Distinguished Medals went to HLI Lordship Industries of Hauppauge, New York. MARAD ordered 200 medals.
I have no examples of the HLI medal to weigh and measure nor brooches to analyze; it may be similar to the 1973 MACO contract strike; stylistically it lacks Paul Manships’s initials. This latter detail is probably due to them not appearing in the United States Army Institute of Heraldry CAD-generated detail specification sheet.
Note: Unfortunately, HLI became embroiled in a scandal for the sale of 300 unauthorized Congressional Medal of Honor on the sly and lost all Federal government contracts in 1996. However, it was able to purchase the ailing Ira Green, Inc. after it was found guilty of AAFES price fixing (in 1996), and under a new name, HLI re-gained its old government contracts.
1942 The Medallic Art Company
Col.: Anon.
1943 U.S. Mint
Col.: IW
1973 The Medallic Art Company
Col.: IW
Cast Copy – 2000
Sad cast at 28g. LI-GI crimp brooch is simply an artifact of the manufacturer taking the brooch from common medal and re-purposing it. This is probably a Wadim Nensberg production.
Col.: IW