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    Ships , anyone?


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    Late to the fair here, but one of the things which shows up very commonly in regimental and other histories of WWI Canadians are photos of the various 'troopers' which took the boys over and brought them home.  A half dozen names come to mind at once, so I suspect the total is several dozen, most of which survived the war and whose photos are probably easy enough to find, but I wonder how hard it would be to find a post card for each.  I actually snaffled an egg cup out of a junk pile which was silver plated and named to a royal Mail ship which did troop carrying in WWII and if one were interested I suspect such souvenirs are not uncommon and probably not at all expensive, though of course the squaddies would not have had access to such swank kit during their voyages!

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    The Hamburg America Lines silver plated stuff are generaly the most expensive one's, mostly sold on militarias sites, for Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler silverware because of the LAH cypher marking  they usualy carry.

    |<ris

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    • 2 weeks later...

    The early Congo ones are now quite valuable.   I have noticed that the average price of a non-specialised photo card seems

    to be in the 5 pounds frame.  Apart from the obviously sought after Militaria cards , ones of early vehicles and street scenes

    always seem popular.     Please add any you come across.             Mervyn

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    • 3 weeks later...

    hi all I just thought I would add this silver and tortoise shell pot with a picture of the new Zealand shipping company ship ss rotorua on the lid also a post card of the ship its story shows what dangers merchant shipping faced in 1940 the ship was subject to 15 torpedo attacks on one voyage whilst in the atlantic damaged it was repaired in panama on a later convoy (hx92) in 1940 outward bound to Australia the convoy was attacked by a wolfpack and lost 15 ships the ss rotorua had 75 feet of a stabilizer blown off and again was repaired in panama homeward bound in December 1940 it was struck by a torpedo fired by u96 and sank with the loss of 21 lives including the captain and convoy commander rear admiral fitzgerald as a footnote the previous ship of this name was sunk in the English channel in 1917 by uc17

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    Mickey  -  this is a rare item.  The ship shown is the one sunk in 1917  -  the silver 'dish' , with the same earlier picture is

    actually Hallmarked silver for London 1904.   This is probably the launch date ?   Try a bottle in the dish  -  if it fits then this is a table

    bottle holder.  Hard to tell size from the picture.    There are many collectors of ship memorabilia and with the history of this

    one you might be surprised.    Try the bottle and let's see a picture if it fits.   Mervyn

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    many thanks guys hi mervyn thanks for the info I think the silver ship on the lid may have been added at a later date as both rotorua named ships were launched in 1910 and 1911 the later ship was originally called the Shropshire and was purchased in the 1930s by the nz shipping company from a british shipping company I have added a picture of the rotorua sunk in 1917 note only 2 masts compared to the 5 on the ship sunk in 1940 the dish is quite small, the ship on the lid has 5 masts thanks for the information looking into the history of these new Zealand ships has been very interesting

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    A new ship in the long list....

     

    S/S Ancona was built in 1908 in the Belfast wharf , workman , Clark & Co Ltd. She was owned by a Italian company and travelled between New York and Naples .

     

    A quite beautiful ship at 8210 grt . 8th of November 1918 she was sailing from Messina  to New York when the submarine SM U-38 under the command of 

    Kapitänleutnant Max Valentiner torpedo her and she sank with the lost of almost 200 lives. Most of the people ombord was Greek and Italian emigrants going to the US.

    Some sources say there was 507 ombord other states 446 (including 163 crew)

    1 US passanger survived the sinking Dr Cecil Grid.

     

     

    This led to a diplomatic crise since 9 or 11 ( numbers unclear)  US citizens died in the sinking and furthermore Germany was not at war with italy in this time and the sub was sailing under Austria-Hungary flag in spite it was aGerman Submarine.

     

    Max Valentiner who was the highest ranking U-boat Ace during WW1 , was branded as awar criminal by the allies , for fifteen different incidents during the war. 

    He managed to stay out of prison and joined the Kriegsmarine in WW2 , in 1949 he died by a lung disease maybe due to the toxic wapours he inhaled from the Uboat engines during first world war.  He citims got their revenge in a strange way ....

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    Stuka  -  is it plastic or metal.   Strange item  -  the first time I have seen a model of a container ship.  Mervyn

     

     

    Christerd  -  thankyou for that background to the Anconia.  I remember reading about her  -  however, over time we forget

    the details.  Did Valentiner receive any imprisonment after WW1  ?   Mervyn

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    Stuka  -  is it plastic or metal.   Strange item  -  the first time I have seen a model of a container ship.  Mervyn

     

     

    Christerd  -  thankyou for that background to the Anconia.  I remember reading about her  -  however, over time we forget

    the details.  Did Valentiner receive any imprisonment after WW1  ?   Mervyn

     

     Hi Mervyn , 

     

    No Valentiner managed to keep out of prison and after 1933 he was safe in Germany. He survived WW2 but I suppose no one cared about hes eventually first world war crimes then , they had  new ones to think about .

     

    And here he is with a lot of awards !

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    Not sure if the ship in this small ashtray realy existed.....

    At the back it says "keep sake from Belgium"; yes, it says "sake" not safe.

    Feel free to comment, because it is a small mystery to me ....

     

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    • 2 weeks later...

    Stuka  -  isn't the Achille Lauro the ship that sank off the South African coast a few years ago  -  or, am I getting it mixed-up ?

    If it is the one I am thinking of , the entire crew - captain leading them - took to the boats and left all the passengers to fight

    for their lives.

    Keep safe  or  keep sake.   In English a keep sake is something you buy or, are given , to remind you of a place , person or event.       Mervyn

     

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    I had to google it Mervyn, it sunk indeed on his way to SA, but at the coast of Somalia....All I remembered about the A.Lauro was the hijacking.

     

    Thanks for the "keep sake" explanation, it helps! ;-)

     

    cheers

    |<ris

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