Some Schwerin hsf from Tirpitz opinions please

[RICK S]

hsf Schwerin pic

rear

[Mike Kenny]

It is the story that needs to be looked into. I thought the ship was salvaged long ago and nothing is left of this ship much less badges at the bottom of the fiord. John

Hi John,

That was my first thought but I did some net searching and found the following website;

http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz...n_and_now.html

Seems some of it, mainly the bow, is still there. Looks like lots of interesting things lying around though.

As far as I know, the ship lies in shallow seawater. I guess I was surprised by the absence of any corrosion on these examples. Maybe low water temperature is responsible?

Don, the pins on early badges should be nickel-silver - IF these are steel (I don't think so from the pics) then I'd call these badges really good fakes (and the story BS).

Regards
Mike

[Don D.]

Hi Mike, that's why I asked. I don't understand why these badges have no finish left on them for one thing. If it is due to the salt water then why does there appear to be no damage to the badges?

[John T]

Very interesting badges.

Maybe the salt water acts upon the fire gilding and the bluing in a certain way to remove those finishes, while not damaging the base metal?

I wonder if these badges were found together in the same area of the ship....perhaps in a storage box etc being un-issued pieces awaiting award.

John

[NOR_collector]

Thanks for all the replys.

Here are some more information that I got from the guy that owns these badges.
They are not mine so I can't do a "hand" check on any of them.

The badges was found in a big pile of hsf, ek's and wb's and we are talking about salt water and not fresh water.
I will ask him if he got any pictures of any ek's or wb's.

He will send me some pictures of the badges before they got cleaned so I will post them here as soon as I get them.

/André

[NOR_collector]

Here are the badges before they wore cleaned.

/André

[NOR_collector]

2

[NOR_collector]

3

[NOR_collector]

4

[Don D.]

Looks like some finish was there until they cleaned them.

[Mike Kenny]

Hi André,

Well, that settles it doesn't it! Great pics. Sounds like a stash of badges that hadn't been awarded. Who'd have thought they'd clean up that well!! I do agree with Don that at least some finish was present before they were cleaned.

This has been an interesting thread! Many thanks for showing these ?Marine bodenfund?

Regards
Mike

PS: any chance you can ask your friend for some pics of the reverse of the WBs?

[RICK S]

hsf

Hi Andre:
This is an amazing story please ask how he cleaned these hsf's up.They look as though he used an electrolis technique of some sort. These pics are night and day results. thanks, I'd love to see these listed on e-stand, truly different.
\

[Hank C.]

I'll have two each please!

Great badges, great find. And found while scuba diving. Doesn't get much better than that in life.

best
Hank

[Ludwig]

-

VERY interesting thread! Thanks!

[Christopher G.]

Wow very interesting it see that the stuff that is all over the badges came of so perfectly ! I think they look wonderful without finish.

Regards,
Chris G.