Amazone dagger

[Flyingdutchman]

Gentlemen,

here are two pics of my Amazone dagger.

In 1842 the prussian king, Frederick William IV, decided to build a ship for training purposes. On June 24, 1843 the first state-owned school ship, the corvette AMAZONE, was launched.

On May 17, 1844 Amazone undertook her first tour. In 1845 she sailed to Genova and she visited New York on May23, 1848. In 1852 she participated in a cruise to South America.

This is a cadet dagger with a blunted tip. This tip was given to the fact of the latent danger of young boys carrying pointed, sharpened weapons.

This is the dagger that started it all.

It?s an extremely rare dagger.

Any thoughts/facts/infos greatly appreciated !

Thanks for looking !

Best regards;

Flyingdutchman

Edited January 7, 2006 by Flyingdutchman

[Flyingdutchman]

detail

[Bob Hunter]

Interesting dagger. The pommel appears to be identical to the that used on navy daggers during the Weimar period.

[Flyingdutchman]

You hit the nail on top.

This was exactly the intention in 1919. Back to the beginning...

[Bob Rodgers]

Hello

This is a real cadets dagger.

I own one myself. There are only 4 known in the US and you just posted the 5th known

Wittmans Naval book has a great writeup about them.

[Chris Boonzaier]

Must be for cadets... they rounded the point off so they cannot hurt themselves....

Yup... these navy folks have to be looked after....

[mustang]

Hi all,just joined the forum and look forward to future on here.

Thought i`d start with a few pics of my amazone,authenticated by Mr.Wittmann,its different in a couple of ways to the other handful of known examples........the blade tip is pointed,maybe officers model,and the suspension method is not two scabbord rings for cords,it is a lug in centre of scabbord for a `frog` type device,similar to navy hirschfangers of the time. no signs of alterations been done at all,very original fitting.

[mustang]

er...pics not working !!

[mustang]

try again

[Tom Y]

Must be for cadets... they rounded the point off so they cannot hurt themselves....

Yup... these navy folks have to be looked after....

It was the custom on American ships to break the tip of sailors' knives to keep them from hurting each other

[mustang]

It was the custom on American ships to break the tip of sailors' knives to keep them from hurting each other

thats one point id never thought of (sorry about play on words),ive never looked at mine and compared blade to scabbord length and looked at other pics to compare theirs. guess all blades would have been made pointed then shortened and ground round for cadets,maybe more points (?) to officers and cadets amazone`s.

will check my references,thanks for bringing this up.

as the amazone sunk with all hands lost i guess these dirks were from previous crew or left at shore for dress purposes,if they were kept on board i guess the largest proportion of what were ever made are at the bottom of the north sea

[mustang]

i have a rare bit of paper dated 1844 that shows captain and second lietenant uniforms as officers of kriegskorvette amazone.both wear hirschfangers in frog type suspension and adorn officers portapees, so can any naval experts out there please tell me ranks between second lieutenant and cadets in prussian navy circa 1844.

any ideas gents ?

[Stephane]

Congratulations Flyingducthman and Mustang, two super rare daggers!

[Bob Rodgers]

Mustang

Your dagger is the NCO version

[mustang]

thanks for this Bob , is this based on hirschfanger models or do you know of another amazone with this suspension fitting ?,

regards,mustang

[Bob Rodgers]

This is just another option for the person wearing it.

I have seen another just like this one. But most are normal ring hangers