Steve's Submarine Insignia News Page
Earlier information is in my Submarine Insignia News Archive Numbers One and Two.
News up to June 2000 Click here to go to news archive number one.
July 2000 to August 2000 Click here to go to news archive number two.
March 26, 2001
Nigerian sub badges. Italian WWII restrikes. Israeli 1960 restrikes. All kinds of weird things are happening. Here's the news...
What kinds of ships are there? Submarines and targets, of course. This page shows what it is like to be a target sailor with the old crosshairs on you.
Target bearing...mark!
First insignia up are Israeli 1960 restrikes. Uri Dotan is shipping me 20 of them based on a bunch of folks who wanted them. I have a few left of the old style Israeli sub badge. Drop me a line if you are interested.
Crosby has Nigerian sub badges. Yes, they are real. No one knows why the country of Nigeria had them made but they were made along with a number of other military badges. The basis of the badge is the US Medical officer badge. The dolphins are slightly further apart on the doctor's badge. The center area has a Nigerian emblem between the dolphins. I will post up a picture after I get one. The badges are made by a reputable NYC insignia maker under orders from the government of Nigeria. No one has heard about Nigeria getting subs yet, but at least they will have their uniforms ready when they buy some.
Crosby had some WWII Italians made up from the original die. Nice pieces, plated in gold. Give him a ring if you want some.
The next item of news is a couple of little lapel pins I got. One is gold and one is silver. Both have lettering on them. I believe they are related to the USS Albacore, the experimental first cigar-shaped hulled submarine. Both have "ASC" on them, which may be related to their automated ship control system that controlled the X-shaped control surfaces but I am not sure. They are tiny little pins but kind of nice. Anyone with an idea on what they are let me know. I got them from someone up in the Portsmouth NH area.
ASC Pins.
Big fake stained glass dolphins. I've had them for years and finally took a picture of them. A retired EMCM (SS) friend of mine made them for me.
Stained Glass Dolphins.
Lee Lacey won an auction on a WWII Bulgarian badge. Very nice piece and he sent me a shot of it.
WWII Bulgarian Badge.
I forgot to post up some WWII French cloth insignia that came over to me from there. They are recently remade, but look nice on the display.
French WWII Era Cloth.
Got a couple of Soviet badges that intrigued me. There is so much coming out of there now that it isn't even possible to keep up with what they are trying to sell. New productions seems geared to collectors and not their Navy folks so I have backed off considerably. Here are a couple that caught my eye recently.
March 2001 Soviet Badge Buy.
A better shot of the flagged Kursk Memorial badge.
Kursk Mermorial.
Israeli badges I got in trade that I want to trade. In the original packages still. I want to get rid of them- what do you offer in trade? LMK.
Packaged Israelis.
March 17, 2001
Seawolf dolphins are in. These are a truly beautiful addition to your collection, reflecting the 21st century Navy Submarine Force. These insignia are made by a major American manufacturer, are die struck and clutchback. They are $15 for each pin with $2 for S/H. You can get them from Bill Crosby (crosone@aol.com):
William J Crosby
1936 Lexington Drive
Perrysburg, Ohio, 43551
Single dolphin Canadian pin. I just got one in a trade with a new associate up in Canada. It's a beauty and prize addition to my collection.
February 19, 2001
Why pay more? Great deals on some great insignia!
Uri Dotan's Zahal Israeli Insignia Sales
SSN 21 Dolphins
Here they are! A source has these under development. I can't tell you who is working on it but within a month or so the tool will be created and this little baby will be ready for production in both gold and silver. By the letter of the law they are even legal for uniform wear by active duty folks. The old SSN dolphins are illegal because the sub is bow-on. Navy specs call for a starboard angle on the bow sub which this pin qualifies for. And even if your CO or XO tells you they don't want you wearing them, they are pretty cool to own.
1956 Swedish Sub Badge Coming!
Bill Crosby reported today that the Swedish submarine veterans organization has contacted him and he has been commissioned to coordinate the restriking of the 1956 Swedish sub badge. A tool is being made through Eric Swendsboe and his contacts. Sometime later this year these badges will be available with a commemorative card denoting the second non-official issuance of this badge. The badge was never made official by the Navy and only 99 were struck. The Swedish sub vets wanted some made. Bill has one of the original "non-issue" ones and he agreed to have them made. The original had a somewhat awkward pin and the newly stamped ones will either have a better safety pin or perhaps clutch pins. Stay tuned for more information.
February 17, 2001
Here is the promised news update from my main page. This site has been up and operating for 4 years now. Depicted on the site are submarine badges from my collection and many others. If I see things on the web I grab them and put them up here. If other collectors send me photos or scans of their nice finds I also include them. The link to my collection shows what I own. There are many items on this site that are not mine.
First up, I would like to show you Markku Saarikko's collection of IDF badges. Markku is from Finland and he collects all sorts of badges from Israel, including submarines.
Markku's IDF Collection
Next is the logo from The United States Naval Academy from the Class of 1926. If you look there is a submarine in there with the traditional dolphins vertically displayed. Thanks to Bill Crosby for sending that. It appeared in the Naval Submarine Review recently.
1926 USNA Logo
French submarines in the 1930's and 1940's would issue badges, usually enamelled, of their ship's crests (official and unofficial). I don't have any of these but have seen a few here and there and included them in my news updates. Here are some more:
Caiman (Crocodile)
Toulon Sub Squadron or Base
Morse (Walrus)
Bill Crosby had the Italian WWII Atlantic Division sewn-own shields restruck from the original dies. He has a few so if you need them just ask him. If you can find an original they are $400-600 or more. These are just as good, only new.
Divisione Atlantica Shield
Fake dolphins from the Phillipines occasionally appear. These were recently sold on ebay. The Phillipines has no subs and no sub badge and yet they apear from time to time.
Fake Phillipines dolphins
Two more Kursk memorial badges.
Rectangular Badge
Flag Badge
Two Polish submarine name badges forFoxtrot class subs:
Dzik (Boar)
Wilk (Wolf)
A Mussolini Italian WWII sub badge that was on the net:
Mussolini Badge
Singapore dolphins have already appeared here. The official version is solid backed in bright gold with two clutch fasteners. A supplier that did not get the contract made them hollow backed with clutch fasteners in both a bright and matte gold finish. Pictured are the bright gold solid back and matte finished hollow back.
Singapore
The older style large Japanese dolphins are still in production. Captain Dick Corpus from CSG-7 in Yokosuka sent me a set of two.
Large style Japanese dolphins.
A 1960's vintage Israeli submarine crest lapel pin was a welcome addition from Uri Dotan. The submarine Rahab (or Rahav, depending on how you anglicize the name) is named after the mythical Biblical monster which is a dragon-look a like beast.
Rahab
A Bulgarian advertised the sale of this supposed Polish sub badge. I bought it out of curiosity. Haven't received it yet. Don't know what it is.
Unknown badge
A "not to be named to protect his sources" dealer was hawking some of the rarer Swedish badges. Some have appeared on my Top Secret badge display from another guy who had some who didn't want to disclose he had them. Here's what got sold for some really ridiculously high prices:
Swedish CO badges (regular and Quad Club
Quad Club badge with smooth sharks
Swedish silver VIP badge with old style rough sharks
December 3, 2000
I made a grouping of my Kursk badges for display after I received the the Kursk memorial badges. Take a look. Kursk badge composite
November 27, 2000
I fixed the counter on my main index page again. Hopefully this time it will work. I have a set of the Soviet Komosmolets Series of badges available on ebay. Here is a jpeg of the set of 16: Komsomolets Set
Ebay auction
November 17, 2000
New Swedish CO's badge and CO's Badge with Quad Association finish.
Swedish CO's Badges
Swedish presentation badge for VIP's. I forget if I put this up here before so here it is again.
Swedish VIP badge
November 14, 2000
You get to meet some interesting people on the internet. Well, one of our French shipmates named Eric Gragnic has created a nice web site of his collection. Please visit it. Eric Gragnic's collection
November 5, 2000
I got this in yesterday's mail after the update I made to this page in the morning. Uri Dotan sent me this cloth underway Israeli insignia. To note, it has a clear plastic covering as part of the patch. Cloth Israeli
November 4, 2000
I have a few updates for you. First off, Robert Mitchell sent me three more items for you to see. I finally got around to uplading them as html files.
First, Mitch tells us of the WWII Italian submarine Onice and her badge. Onice file
Next, Mitch reports on an old style enlisted Argentine badge he has. Old style Argentine badge
Lastly, Mitch sent WWI Prussian U Boat badge info. WWI Prussian U Boat badge
I have two new files for you to view. The first is a set of new Dutch badges sent to me by Erwin Roodenburg. The Dutch badges are apparently manufactured differently by different manufacturers. The upper gold badge is 60 mm wide and over 2 mm thick. The lower gold badge is 58 mm wide and only 1 mm thick. Both appear to be cast. The cloth insignia is for underway wear. You can contact Erwin at: hnlms@hotmail.com
Dutch composite jpeg
I got a "pointy" Egyptian badge with Arabic letters (probably unofficial as denoted in Pritchard's book) from Bill Crosby.
Egyptian badge
October 29, 2000 First, I would like to offer my prayers for the men who died and those who were injured on USS Cole. They died due to the cowardice of terrorists. Let us pray that no further wanton acts of violence occur. May God be with the souls of those lost and may he have mercy on those men that planned and executed this attack. May he console those who are widowed and left behind, and assist in the recovery of those injured. The men who toil night and day to keep the ship afloat need our prayers, too. The ship is heavily damaged and only remains afloat due to their diligence. God bless them all.
News also comes from Russia where it appears that 23 men survived the initial accident on Kursk only to be lost to the dark and cold of the ocean's deep. I pray that they did not die in vain. Russia needs to retain salvage operations and equipment or work jointly with other Navies to have equipment ready to support them at a moment's notice. False pride and bravado have no place when operating beneath the sea and supporting those who do.
Collecting has been pretty slow. I finally got hold of 10 mess dress sized senior Israeli sub badges with clutch backs and have 5 left available to trade. Drop me a line. They are 40 mm wide. Here is what they look like:
There is a WWII Bulgarian badge for auction on ebay right now. It looks real to me. Good hunting and bidding! Here is a picture of it that I grabbed from ebay:
I picked up some oddball items, too. First is a Lions Club pin from Florida. Lions Club Sub Pin
Next are a couple of lapel pins. One from France (SSBN Le Tonnant) and one from HMS Triumph. Lapel pins.
I also acquired two Russian insigia from an auction on ebay. Russian Veteran Badge and sub patch
Also picked up some Collins Class Unit Insignia (ship's patches). I really don't collect ship's patches, but what the heck- they look good! Collins Sub Patches
Lastly, I got a French SSN sub patch from the Saphir (Sapphire). Saphir Patch
October 8, 2000 Not much has happened in the last month. I will add a few lapel pins and other minor items soon. I cleaned up my main index page and moved the below listed items over on to this news page.
TOP SECRET INSIGNIA INFORMATION
(well, not really top secret, but some information on some very closely held badges! This link was added on July 22, 2000)
Click here to see them.
SUBMARINE BOAT CORPORATION SHIPYARD BADGES
Click to see some WWI era items added July 22, 2000.
September 6, 2000 Israel update. Uri Dotan, Israeli submarine veteran and member of the Israeli Dolphin Association, and I have discussed the issuance of Israeli submarine badges and the variations in design. Here is what I found out.
First, the old style badges were used for only a very short period of time. In December 1959, the first Israeli submarine Tanin arrived in Haifa. Yosale Dror, the founder of their submarine force, pinned the original version of the sub badge on the crew on their return. Yosale's diary indicated that he may have sent a copy of the design to Portsmouth for the sub crew to see but a senior crew member recalls only seeing them on their return to Israel. In any case, no one on the sub liked the design of the badge and the crew threatened not to wear it. Several other designs were developed and the present style badge was selected for use. Since the inception of their submarine force, each badge that is earned is numbered and issued for use. For example, Uri earned badge number 560 and badge number 7 was issued to the Tanin's Chief Engineering Officer Alex Shadmon. Numbers are reserved in advance and all the people involved in training may not complete the qualification process, so there are some badge numbers that have never been issued. The badges are usually plated in nickel by a jeweler so they retain their luster forever. Yosale Dror's son wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a submariner. He was unfortunatley killed in an accident on Mount Vesuvio in Italy in 1976 while on holiday. A numbered badge was awarded posthumously to the younger Dror. The numbered badges are usually not worn every day- the submariners purchase a badge from the "exchange" for every day use. Numbered badges are slightly heavier than the non-numbered badges. They look identical. The anchors of the numbered badges are voided where the non-numbered ones are made both voided and solid. The following are front and back views of numbered badge 580:
