USS Balao SS-285 Submarine US Navy Ship Plaque

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Looking for other ship plaque? Looking in my Ebay Store. /ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyEbaySellingActiveListings&ssPageName=STRK:ME:LNLK USS Balao SS-285 Submarine US Navy Ship Plaque. Measures 8" in wide. Original ship issued. Nice heavy aluminum casting. See photo for condition. Note: If you are looking for souvenirs from U.S. Naval War Ships that maybe you, your father, or, someone that you know served aboard, t really arenÂ't very many named things that you can collect from US Naval Ships. On certain ships they had ship stores w you could buy cigarettes, razor, gum, candy, stamps and things like that. Some shipÂ's stores sold a few items such as shoulder rocker patches with the ships name on them, ship patches yearly cruise books, and lighters with the shipÂ's name and logo. Some shipÂ's stores carried stationary with the ships logo or the name of the ship with a small picture of the ship. Not all naval ships had a ship stores, and some didnÂ't have anything to sell. Back in the 50s and 60s you could get a book of matches with the shipÂ's name on it. They have always been a great collectors item. But, that all stopped about 40 years ago. A lot of ship souvenirs were bought in foreign seaports, outside of a naval base or maybe along side a pier. Items, such as ashtrays, lighters, coffee cups and mugs, belt buckles, and pennants were easy to get, but most sailors never thought much of buying that sort of stuff. A lot of these items had the ships logo on them. Some of these items were ordered and bought by the ships company and sold on board the ship as souvenirs too. Ship Plaques and Ashtrays: Ships plaques were actually being made as early as 1951. Most of these plaques were made aboard a ships tender, in t foundrys. The ship plaque logoÂ's usually matched their shipÂ's jacket patches, some made as early as during WW2. A lot of those Ship patch logoÂ's were designed by Walt Disney, Hanna-BarberaÂ's, Warner Brothers and others, including, crew members from their ship. Early ones were mostly cartoon characters, more so for Submarines. Ship Plaques were never an official U.S. Navy items. They were not made from taxpayerÂ's dollars until 1978 when they became an official shipÂ's Coat of Arms type and were made with SymbolismÂ's. From that point on, they were all basically made in the same way, an oval crest with a rope border around them. A lot of these plaques were made out of plastic and sold aboard ship to t crew members. The brass or bronze type, were usually given out as awards. These plaque types are usually made under contract from an out side source and is budgeted in the shipÂ's operating funds. T is a huge difference from the old unofficial ship plaques, which were usually made out of scrap metal from aboard their ships. Aluminum usually came from bulkheads and pieces from the superstructure. The Brass plaques came from old valves, shell casings and from a mixture of other types of scrap metals. On a shipÂ's tender, a pattern maker would make a mold usually out of wood so that the sand casting would be made in the shipÂ's foundry w they would melt down the scrap metal to pour these plaques. Some plaques and ashtrays were also made in Shipyards or other places such as privet companies in foreign countries. These plaques were usually given out to OfficerÂ's who server aboard the ship. Some were given to Captains, Admirals and Dignitaries who visited their ship. Some times they were given to places that the ship visited such a Naval Bases, Naval Shipyards, EM Club, Officers Clubs, and off base naval and privet Facilities. Not all ships made or had plaques made. Some ships made hundreds of them while other ships made very few. Not all plaques were made out of the same materials either. Some were made out of materials such as plastic, plaster, resin, aluminum, brass, bronze and even white metal. A lot of them were painted to match t shipÂ' logoÂ's. T is no way of knowing how many plaques each ship made, or whom t... read more

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