Ships at Sea / Ocean Liners.
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2020 10:19 pm
For over a century, the sophisticated traveler has crossed the Atlantic and Pacific in the majestic, graceful ocean liner. From the age of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and the White Star Line to today's floating resorts of the Caribbean, these monarchs of the sea have intrigued the world and reshaped modern travel.
I have been collecting the below pictured knives for many years now. They were mostly originally sold within the ship's gift-shops, barbershop's etc. I do not believe they were ever given away to the ships customers for they would be a very large marketing expense for the ship owners considering that thousand traveled on these ships.
However I believe that the majority of marketing of the liners was the production of the postcard of the ship. These were given to workers and visitors at the ship's launching, travel agencies, and of course, to passengers.
As part of their marketing venture many souvenir pocket knives were produced with a German silver inlay of the ship in profile. Upon close inspection the thoroughness of copying the outline of the ship is striking. Duplicating in miniature the masts, funnels, lifeboats, shear of the bow. On some of my knives you will also notice the PLIMSOLL LINE in red or black at the waters edge which is a visual reference mark on the ships hull that indicates the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immenced when loaded with cargo.
The knives I have in my collection are mostly in the pen knife pattern, many with a closed fold-over back. Most are in good to excellent condition when I acquired them at various swap meets etc. due to the fact that many were never used but kept as souvenirs of the original owner's travels.
The peak of transatlantic travel by the liners was in the 1920's and 1930's. The nations had recovered from World War I and there was a period of prosperity. Americans were again visiting Europe in great numbers.
Immigrants continued to enter the United States. Government subsidies enabled ship lines to build larger and foster ships.
At the same time, variations in the knives began to appear with handles of mother-of-pearl, figural pieces with cloisonne embossing. With the onset of World War II, the great liners (including some my listed knives below) were changed over to hospital ships, troop carriers and thigh speed passenger-cargo vessels.
Disasters at sea were not uncommon, either in peace time or war.
On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which primarily ferried people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Great Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. There were 1,962 Men Women & Children on board the Lusitania, 1,198 perished, 764 survived but many of the survivors later died from their sustained injuries.
The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I.
Below is a picture of the Wilhelm Gustloff which ironically was torpedoed exactly 75 years ago today. January 30th 1945, (Germany Time Zone)
The sinking of the Titanic may be the most infamous naval disaster in history, and the torpedoing of the Lusitania the most infamous in wartime. But with death counts of about 1,500 and 1,200 respectively, both are dwarfed by what befell the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ocean liner that was taken down by a Soviet sub on Jan. 30, 1945, killing 9,343 people—most of them war refugees, about 5,000 of them children.
The victims of the worst maritime tragedy in history were not only Germans, but also Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians and Croatians. World War II was drawing to an end, and the Soviet army was advancing. Though it would be months before the final fall of the Nazi regime, it was clear the end was coming—and they were desperate to escape before things came to a head. As a result, 10,582 people were packed onto a cruise ship that was meant to accommodate only about 1,900. Though some on the ship were Nazis themselves, others had been the victims of Nazi aggression. When three torpedoes hit the ship, there weren’t nearly enough lifeboats, and many of the those that did exist were frozen to the deck. The majority of the passengers drowned.
Many ships carrying civilians were sunk during the war by both the Allies and Axis Powers. However, based on the latest estimates of passenger numbers and those known to be saved, Wilhelm Gustloff remains by far the largest loss of life resulting from the sinking of one vessel in maritime history. Günter Grass said in an interview published by The New York Times in April 2003, "One of the many reasons I wrote Crabwalk was to take the subject away from the extreme Right... They said the tragedy of Wilhelm Gustloff was a war crime. It wasn't. It was terrible, but it was a result of war, a terrible result of war."
About 1,000 German naval officers and men were aboard during, and died in, the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff. The women on board the ship at the time of the sinking were inaccurately described by Soviet propaganda as "SS personnel from the German concentration camps". There were, however, 373 female naval auxiliaries among the passengers.
On the night of 9–10 February, just 11 days after the sinking, S-13 sank another German ship, General von Steuben, killing about 4,500 people.
Before sinking Wilhelm Gustloff, Alexander Marinesko was facing a court martial due to his problems with alcohol and for being caught in a brothel while he and his crew were off duty, so Marinesko was thus deemed "not suitable to be a hero" for his actions. Therefore, instead of gaining the title "Hero of the Soviet Union," he was awarded the lesser Order of the Red Banner. Although widely recognized as a brilliant commander, he was downgraded in rank to lieutenant and dishonorably discharged from the navy in October 1945.
Please contribute your ship pictures and stories of such.
Dan
I have been collecting the below pictured knives for many years now. They were mostly originally sold within the ship's gift-shops, barbershop's etc. I do not believe they were ever given away to the ships customers for they would be a very large marketing expense for the ship owners considering that thousand traveled on these ships.
However I believe that the majority of marketing of the liners was the production of the postcard of the ship. These were given to workers and visitors at the ship's launching, travel agencies, and of course, to passengers.
As part of their marketing venture many souvenir pocket knives were produced with a German silver inlay of the ship in profile. Upon close inspection the thoroughness of copying the outline of the ship is striking. Duplicating in miniature the masts, funnels, lifeboats, shear of the bow. On some of my knives you will also notice the PLIMSOLL LINE in red or black at the waters edge which is a visual reference mark on the ships hull that indicates the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immenced when loaded with cargo.
The knives I have in my collection are mostly in the pen knife pattern, many with a closed fold-over back. Most are in good to excellent condition when I acquired them at various swap meets etc. due to the fact that many were never used but kept as souvenirs of the original owner's travels.
The peak of transatlantic travel by the liners was in the 1920's and 1930's. The nations had recovered from World War I and there was a period of prosperity. Americans were again visiting Europe in great numbers.
Immigrants continued to enter the United States. Government subsidies enabled ship lines to build larger and foster ships.
At the same time, variations in the knives began to appear with handles of mother-of-pearl, figural pieces with cloisonne embossing. With the onset of World War II, the great liners (including some my listed knives below) were changed over to hospital ships, troop carriers and thigh speed passenger-cargo vessels.
Disasters at sea were not uncommon, either in peace time or war.
On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, which primarily ferried people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and Great Britain, was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sunk. There were 1,962 Men Women & Children on board the Lusitania, 1,198 perished, 764 survived but many of the survivors later died from their sustained injuries.
The sinking of the Lusitania enraged Americans and hastened the United States' entrance into World War I.
Below is a picture of the Wilhelm Gustloff which ironically was torpedoed exactly 75 years ago today. January 30th 1945, (Germany Time Zone)
The sinking of the Titanic may be the most infamous naval disaster in history, and the torpedoing of the Lusitania the most infamous in wartime. But with death counts of about 1,500 and 1,200 respectively, both are dwarfed by what befell the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German ocean liner that was taken down by a Soviet sub on Jan. 30, 1945, killing 9,343 people—most of them war refugees, about 5,000 of them children.
The victims of the worst maritime tragedy in history were not only Germans, but also Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Poles, Estonians and Croatians. World War II was drawing to an end, and the Soviet army was advancing. Though it would be months before the final fall of the Nazi regime, it was clear the end was coming—and they were desperate to escape before things came to a head. As a result, 10,582 people were packed onto a cruise ship that was meant to accommodate only about 1,900. Though some on the ship were Nazis themselves, others had been the victims of Nazi aggression. When three torpedoes hit the ship, there weren’t nearly enough lifeboats, and many of the those that did exist were frozen to the deck. The majority of the passengers drowned.
Many ships carrying civilians were sunk during the war by both the Allies and Axis Powers. However, based on the latest estimates of passenger numbers and those known to be saved, Wilhelm Gustloff remains by far the largest loss of life resulting from the sinking of one vessel in maritime history. Günter Grass said in an interview published by The New York Times in April 2003, "One of the many reasons I wrote Crabwalk was to take the subject away from the extreme Right... They said the tragedy of Wilhelm Gustloff was a war crime. It wasn't. It was terrible, but it was a result of war, a terrible result of war."
About 1,000 German naval officers and men were aboard during, and died in, the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff. The women on board the ship at the time of the sinking were inaccurately described by Soviet propaganda as "SS personnel from the German concentration camps". There were, however, 373 female naval auxiliaries among the passengers.
On the night of 9–10 February, just 11 days after the sinking, S-13 sank another German ship, General von Steuben, killing about 4,500 people.
Before sinking Wilhelm Gustloff, Alexander Marinesko was facing a court martial due to his problems with alcohol and for being caught in a brothel while he and his crew were off duty, so Marinesko was thus deemed "not suitable to be a hero" for his actions. Therefore, instead of gaining the title "Hero of the Soviet Union," he was awarded the lesser Order of the Red Banner. Although widely recognized as a brilliant commander, he was downgraded in rank to lieutenant and dishonorably discharged from the navy in October 1945.
Please contribute your ship pictures and stories of such.
Dan
...
So you took an ocean cruise.....That's so cute!
