I am not a Kreigsmarine collector or even a clock collector but I stumbled upon this one recently.
It came from an aquaintance of mine out in Washington state.
Since aquiring this, I went digging and learned a lot about the German heavy cruiser; Prinz Eugen that I never knew before. It was with the Bismark during the engagement with HMS Hood. Apparently there is good evidence to show that Prinz Eugen is actually the ship that did the first and heaviest damage to the Hood before the Bismark hit it with the death-punch. Later the two ships separated and Prinz Eugen made it back to France while the Bismark was hunted down and sunk.
Prinz Eugen eventually made the "channel run" and escaped into the baltic sea. where late in the war she supported the German ground forces; lobbing shells at the Russians during the evacuation of East Prussia.
At the end of the war she surrendered in Copenhagen and was turned over to the US as America's share of the spoils. She was sailed to the US where she became "Unclassified vessel USS Prinz Eugen (IX 300)". She was docked at Long beach California and prepared to take part in "Operation Crossroads; the atom bomb test in the Bikini atoll. Prinze Eugen survived the bomb blast but was leaking so was towed near to shore in Kwajelein and left to founder. (she remains there today; upside-down with a portion of her stern sticking out above the water line)
Back when she was anchored in Long beach, a skeleton USN crew was kept aboard. The Chielf engineering officer removed this clock and several other souvenirs before Prinz Eugen went on her final trip. Years later he gave this clock to a friend of his who belonged to the same yacht club. That man was the father of my aquaintance in Washington state. I have all of this documented.
The clock was made; I believe by Keininger & Obergfell. It is the same type of clock that can be found on U-boots and most other surface vessels.
Below is a photo of a portion of the bridge of Prinz Eugen which shows a wall of instruments including the clock. I cannot say with certainty that this is that exact clock as I am sure there was more than one aboard Prinz Eugen. But it is a clock from that ship.
This clock has been professionally cleaned. The radium has been removed from the hands as well as from the numbers 3, 6, 9 and 12. It is a key-wound, 8- day mechanism and it works just fine.
Not sure what I am going to do with it; but at the moment it is ticking away on my desk. Hard to believe that this clock was present at the ' Bismark- Prinz Eugen- Hood ' engagement. It was there and ticking while the ship was sending salvos of 8 inch shells at the advancing Russians during the siege of Danzig. And now I use it to tell me when to go and watch "Seinfeld" re-runs.
My boy is 6 years old. Time to learn how to tell time on a hand type clock rather than a digital one. This is the clock that I used to teach him. You know: "the big hand is on the four and the little hand is on the six" and all that....
It came from an aquaintance of mine out in Washington state.
Since aquiring this, I went digging and learned a lot about the German heavy cruiser; Prinz Eugen that I never knew before. It was with the Bismark during the engagement with HMS Hood. Apparently there is good evidence to show that Prinz Eugen is actually the ship that did the first and heaviest damage to the Hood before the Bismark hit it with the death-punch. Later the two ships separated and Prinz Eugen made it back to France while the Bismark was hunted down and sunk.
Prinz Eugen eventually made the "channel run" and escaped into the baltic sea. where late in the war she supported the German ground forces; lobbing shells at the Russians during the evacuation of East Prussia.
At the end of the war she surrendered in Copenhagen and was turned over to the US as America's share of the spoils. She was sailed to the US where she became "Unclassified vessel USS Prinz Eugen (IX 300)". She was docked at Long beach California and prepared to take part in "Operation Crossroads; the atom bomb test in the Bikini atoll. Prinze Eugen survived the bomb blast but was leaking so was towed near to shore in Kwajelein and left to founder. (she remains there today; upside-down with a portion of her stern sticking out above the water line)
Back when she was anchored in Long beach, a skeleton USN crew was kept aboard. The Chielf engineering officer removed this clock and several other souvenirs before Prinz Eugen went on her final trip. Years later he gave this clock to a friend of his who belonged to the same yacht club. That man was the father of my aquaintance in Washington state. I have all of this documented.
The clock was made; I believe by Keininger & Obergfell. It is the same type of clock that can be found on U-boots and most other surface vessels.
Below is a photo of a portion of the bridge of Prinz Eugen which shows a wall of instruments including the clock. I cannot say with certainty that this is that exact clock as I am sure there was more than one aboard Prinz Eugen. But it is a clock from that ship.
This clock has been professionally cleaned. The radium has been removed from the hands as well as from the numbers 3, 6, 9 and 12. It is a key-wound, 8- day mechanism and it works just fine.
Not sure what I am going to do with it; but at the moment it is ticking away on my desk. Hard to believe that this clock was present at the ' Bismark- Prinz Eugen- Hood ' engagement. It was there and ticking while the ship was sending salvos of 8 inch shells at the advancing Russians during the siege of Danzig. And now I use it to tell me when to go and watch "Seinfeld" re-runs.
My boy is 6 years old. Time to learn how to tell time on a hand type clock rather than a digital one. This is the clock that I used to teach him. You know: "the big hand is on the four and the little hand is on the six" and all that....
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