My Fleet of Knick-Knacks from Ships Around The World

[leproc]

Inspired by ZacharyB's amazing thread (found here: http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=876807), I felt inclined to post my own ship slowly-growing ship collection on the forums. I'll be updating this thread daily so everybody can see the items for themselves. If you guys have some naval items for sale, please let me know in the messages. I'm mainly looking at big-gun ship (cruisers, battleships) items that commemorate a ship-launching and / or are metal.

Without further ado, here it is!

[leproc]

Ship launching ashtray for Brooklyn-class light cruiser Honolulu (CL-48) with accompanying Lion's Club pin

[leproc]

This was one of my first "big" pieces when I decided to shelve out a little bit more money for militaria.

I have a special fondness for the Honolulu because I love the city she's named after. My family and I visit the place every year to see relatives and soak up the beach.

XX

USS Honolulu (CL-48) was a Brooklyn-class light cruiser named after Honolulu, Hawaii. She did exercises in the Caribbean Sea during the interwar period and was even at the attack of Pearl Harbor, suffering a missed miss from a bomb. She served in the Battle of Tassafaronga, the Battle of Kula Gulf, the Battle of Kolombangara and the Battle of Peleliu. She was taken out of action by serious torpedo damage just before the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which resulted in her sitting most of the latter part of the war until she was scrapped in the 1950s.

[leproc]

Paperweight from USS Saratoga (CV-3) with accompanying bullets dating to the interwar period

[leproc]

This is definitely a more odd-ball piece. I picked this up from a seller who was downsizing and he said he got it from a veteran friend. After buying it, I was wondering whether this was from the interwar / WW2 CV-3 Saratoga or the more modern CV-60 Saratoga. After searching around and even consulting somebody from the Naval History and Heritage Command, it was concluded that this is actually from CV-3 Saratoga due to the crest shown.

This is the crest for CV-3:



This is the crest from CV-60:



It can be seen that the rooster on the paperweight looks more like CV-3 than CV-60.

XX

USS Saratoga (CV-3) was a Lexington-class aircraft carrier. Originally laid down as a battlecruiser, she was converted to an aircraft carrier in accordance with treaties in the 1920s.

After Pearl Harbor happened, she was a participant during the Battle of Wake Island where she was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. She later fought at Guadalcanal where she sunk the light carrier Ryujo during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. She assisted alllied fleets and bombing campaigns during the mid-1940s and even assisted the British fleet in the Indian Ocean until she became a training vessel in 1944. She returned as a night fighter carrier during the Battle of Iwo Jima where she was hit by a kamikaze and had to return to the United States for repairs. With her obsolete design and damage sustained during the war, she was nuked during Operation: Crossroads, sinking after the second test.

[Tom B]

VERY interesting !!!!!! Tom

[leproc]

VERY interesting !!!!!! Tom

Thanks! I hope you guys enjoy what I have collected thus far since the collection varies form well-known fleets to more obscure war-time ships.

I will take this opportunity to thank the forum though. You guys have helped me a lot in authenticating and translating pieces for the collection.

I really do appreciate it, especially since I'm not as well-versed in this as others are.

[kevin john]

I like them ,keep them coming Kevin .

[leproc]

Launching anchor for Italian battleship Roma

[leproc]

This is actually an item I submitted in to this forum for authenticity and the people who answered think its authentic...for a few reasons:

The Roma isn't a very well-known vessel (as with the rest of the Regia Marina), so its not likely that it was forged.

The Roma anchor bears the markings related to the ship's construction: the shipyard CRDA (Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico) and 1940 - the launch year for the battleship.

All in all, the forum concluded that this is a well-fashioned anchor commemorative object that is related to the launching of the battleship Roma. It could be either an object sold to the populace or something made for the builders of the vessel.

XX

The battleship Roma was the third Vittorio Veneto-class battleship finished for the Regia Marina. She was commissioned in 1942, but fuel shortages prevented her from being deployed. Thus, she instead bolstered anti-aircraft capacities at Italian cities, being damaged by bombers attacking La Spezia. She was then used as the flagship of Admiral Carlo Bergamini to attack the Allied ships approaching Salerno to invade Italy, which is known as Operation Avalanche. The armistice with the Allies in 1943 cancelled those plans as the Italian forces were ordered to sail to Malta to surrender.

While the force was in the Strait of Bonifacio, Dornier Do 217s of the German Luftwaffe's specialist wing KG 100—armed with Fritz X radio-controlled bombs—sighted the force. Two attacks were done and the second assault flooded two boiler rooms and the after engine room, leaving the ship to limp along with two propellers, reduced power, and arc-induced fires in the stern of the ship. Finally, one more bomb detonated the forward engine room, causing massive flooding and an explosion that blew up her magazine.

Sinking by the bow and listing to starboard, the battleship capsized and broke in two, carrying 1,393 men—including Bergamini—down with her.

[leproc]

Decommissioning ashtray for Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi

[leproc]

This ashtray was from a junior officer who attended the decommissioning party for the titular cruiser. I can't truly confirm the story since the seller didn't provide any sort of documentation (i.e. brochure, program, etc), but I do think this is from that famous cruiser and not the other Garibaldis. The older cruiser is too old for a design like this and the most recent Garibaldi is an aircraft carrier ("incrociatore" means cruiser in Italian).

XX

The Italian light cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi was a part of the final stages of the Condottieri-class cruisers with better guns and an armor scheme on par with the Zara-class heavy cruisers. She was at a couple of notable events like the bombing of Taranto and the Battle of Cape Matapan. After the armistice, she helped the Allies look for German raiders in the South Atlantic.

After the war ended, she was decommissioned. However, the Italians had the idea to turn her into a guided missile cruiser in a way similar to what the US was doing with their big-gun cruisers. So, they did that in the 1950s, giving her radar and the ability to fire UGM-27 Polaris nuclear missiles. With this, she was actually the first guided missile cruiser in all of Europe. The US didn't supply the Polaris missiles for political reasons, so she was given the ability to fire the Italian-manufactured Alfa rockets.

The Garibaldi was later decommissioned in the 1970s for economic reasons and was scrapped soon after that.

[ZacharyB]

Greetings my friend! It is great to see another collection of ship relics. Thank you very much for sharing. You have some great items there.

I particularly like the piece from the launching of Roma. For what it's worth, I have seen similar items associated with other large ships. It is my understanding that upon the completion of the ship certain workers would fashion these as souvenir pieces from scrap and leftover material.

Thanks to their size, cost, and limited numbers, these big ships, more than any other class of vessel, became instant symbols of national pride and affection. As a result, large crowds generally turned out for the launching of notable battleships and battle cruisers. At these festivities the workers were then allowed by the dock owners to establish a stall and sell these construction souvenirs to the public at large. The proceeds were then split between the workers and formed a sort of unofficial bonus. The anchor motif is one of the most commonly seen of this type souvenir item and that fact further lends authenticity to your item.

All in all, it is a really great piece from a historic ship. If memory serves, the Roma was the first ship in history to be sunk by a guided weapon.

Thanks Again for Sharing,

Z

[leproc]

Greetings my friend! It is great to see another collection of ship relics. Thank you very much for sharing. You have some great items there.

I particularly like the piece from the launching of Roma. For what it's worth, I have seen similar items associated with other large ships. It is my understanding that upon the completion of the ship certain workers would fashion these as souvenir pieces from scrap and leftover material.

Thanks to their size, cost, and limited numbers, these big ships, more than any other class of vessel, became instant symbols of national pride and affection. As a result, large crowds generally turned out for the launching of notable battleships and battle cruisers. At these festivities the workers were then allowed by the dock owners to establish a stall and sell these construction souvenirs to the public at large. The proceeds were then split between the workers and formed a sort of unofficial bonus. The anchor motif is one of the most commonly seen of this type souvenir item and that fact further lends authenticity to your item.

All in all, it is a really great piece from a historic ship. If memory serves, the Roma was the first ship in history to be sunk by a guided weapon.

Thanks Again for Sharing,

Z

Wow! Thanks for telling me the history of the anchor souvenirs. I was initially suspicious about it until people on the forum confirmed that it does happen at ship launchings. Regia Marina ships overall are a very niche market.

Quick questions: Which other ships at anchor souvenirs that you have observed in the past?

Thanks!

[leproc]

Clock affiliated to Soviet battleship Marat