Artifact Spotlight: U-Boat Deck Gun Cartridge Case, c. 1917

UC-44 Deck Gun Cartridge Case

The Naval War College Museum has many artifacts which at first glance do not appear to be closely tied to the college or the region's naval history. While relocating some artifacts in a museum storage area, I came across this cartridge case. A brass plaque tells us this tube was recovered from UC-44 by divers of the USS Melville in 1917.

During the First World War, the German Imperial Navy employed the now famous u-boats to assault allied merchant shipping. UC-boats were a class specifically designed as coastal minelayers to disrupt traffic in Allied harbors. In 1917, British intelligence agents transmitted a false report that the area off Waterford, Ireland had been swept for mines. As expected, the Germans intercepted the message and ordered another minelayer to the harbor to deploy new mines.  The plan worked though not as intended. SM UC-44, the u-boat ordered to Waterford, was sunk on 5 August 1917 when one of its own recently dropped mines exploded.  The explosion killed all on board except the ships commander Kapitanleutnant Kurt Tebbenjohanns.


The following month, the Royal Navy raised the wreck to gather intelligence. In addition to recovering documents and equipment, divers recovered the bodies of nineteen crew members.

Besides mines and torpedoes, UC-44 carried an 88mm deck gun. After the initial salvage, divers from an American destroyer tender, USS Melville (AD-2) also recovered items from the remaining wreckage including several mines and this cartridge case used to carry ammunition for the deck gun. The case is made of copper and possibly lead, two non-ferrous metals which are resistant to sparks that could ignite black powder.

USS Melville (AD-2) in 1915

USS Melville  had many ties to the Narragansett Bay region. She was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island in 1916 before departing for Ireland when the U.S. declared war on Germany. During the war, the destroyer tender was commanded by Captain Joel R.P. Pringle. Pringle would graduate from the Naval War College in 1920, serve as chief of staff from 1923-1925, and finally as president from 1927-1930. Melville also served as the flagship of Admiral William S. Sims. Sims was President of the Naval War College in 1917 when he was dispatched to England in advance of America's entry into the war. He was appointed Commander-in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces in Europe during the war and resumed his presidency at the college after the hostilities ceased. Though we do not know exactly how the cartridge case came to Newport, it was part of a large donation of items related to the naval service of Lieutenant Commander Dallas Wait, a student at the war college during Pringle's administration.


Gift of Mrs. Dallas Wait                                                                                                               85.17.09

Image of USS Melville courtesy of the Naval History & Heritage Command

Artifact Spotlight: Portrait of Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, 1945

In 1886 Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan arrived at the Naval War College in Newport to teach naval history and tactics. As he was a founder and president, his portrait is one of the treasures of the museum collection.

The following is reprinted from Faces of the Naval War College by John B. Hattendorf

Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840 – 1917) served as the College’s second president in 1886 – 1889 and as its fourth president in 1892 – 1893. In 1885, Admiral [Stephen B.]Luce chose Mahan to be the Naval War College’s first instructor in naval history and tactics. The lectures he delivered at the Naval War College in 1886 and 1887 were eventually published as The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660 – 1783 (1890). In 1892, he returned with a new set of lectures to deliver: The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire 1793 – 1805 (1892). These books were the first that drew international attention to the College. Later, he returned to lecture between 1895 and 1912.
In 1935, the Navy Department agreed to name the College’s previously unnamed library building in honor of Mahan. With the addition of a large reading room in 1938, the only thing that was lacking was a portrait of Mahan to be the focal point of the Rotunda. In 1939, the president of the College Rear Admiral Charles Snyder started a subscription campaign to fund the portrait. Following the observance of the centenary of Mahan’s birth in September 1940, Snyder’s successor, Rear Admiral Edward Kalbfus, made a direct appeal to the nearly 1,400 living graduates of the College, asking each to contribute one dollar.
The appeal to graduates was successful and the College commissioned the artist Alexander James (1890 – 1946), the son of Harvard philosophy professor William James and nephew of the novelist Henry James, to do the portrait. James used photographs of Mahan and a specially made rear admiral’s uniform from the 1906 period to paint the work.

76.30.01

Artifact Spotlight: Red Admiral Flag, 1940



While preparing several flags in the museum collection for storage, I came across this red two-star flag. While some might assume this is the flag of a United States Marine Corps major general, it is actually a U.S. Navy rear admiral (upper half) flag. During the early 1900s, the blue flag officer's flag was reserved for the most senior officer present at a particular duty station. All other flag officers used the red flag. The tiered flag system was discontinued in about 1940.

This flag was used by Rear Admiral Sherwood A. Taffinder during his time as Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet. The hoist details that the flag was presented to him by the signal force of U.S. Fleet's flagship USS Pennsylvania (BB 38)  and hoisted 10 July 1940.

Gift of Terry Taffinder Grosvenor and Lisa Stubbs                                                                             2008.18.13

Artifact Spotlight: USS NEWPORT Commissioning Program, 1969

USS Newport (LST-1179) was a landing ship tank commissioned on 7 June 1969 at the Philadelphia Naval Base. The third ship named after the "city by the sea," USS Newport served in the Atlantic Fleet throughout the 1970s and 1980s. She was decommissioned in 1992.

The ship's crest is appropriately featured on the cover is fully integrated with symbols of the city and the state of Rhode Island. The crest is in the shape of a shield, an element from the state's seal. The white field bears an image of the old stone mill. This tower, also on the city's crest, is located in Touro Park and is one of the oldest structures in United States. Waves, invoking the sea, divide this image from one of a pineapple (a figure from the seal of Newport County) and an anchor which is the supreme maritime emblem as well as the dominant symbol on the Rhode Island State flag. Three stars on the crest reflect that the LST is the third ship bearing the name.

The back cover features a short article titled, "Newport and the Navy" which addresses the close relationship between the city and the service, an overarching theme of the Naval War College Museum.

Gift of William Rouzer                                                                                                              2012.16

Artifact Spotlight: Sweetheart Handkerchief Holder, c. 1908

---Jen Nason, Curatorial Assistant

Most who have served in the armed services over the last two hundred years have left behind a loved one at home. Gifts and mementos for wives and girlfriends were especially popular in the early twentieth century as it was an important way for soldiers and sailors to keep a strong connection with family and loved ones back home. Letters were exchanged as often as possible, but there was a need to send physical tokens of affection such as jewelry and handkerchief holders. These "sweetheart" gifts varied in size and decoration and often included motifs associated with either the Army or Navy.   Gifts such as this "sweetheart" handkerchief holder, were also a way for those on the home front to show their patriotism. 

A handkerchief holder in the Naval War College Museum collection is an example of commercially sold items available before the First World War. The outside cover is green satin with a gold and blue braid on the edge. In the center is a clear cover that once displayed a photograph of a sailor or the ship he served in.  Two miniature gold anchors adorn the lower edge of the cover.  The inside features a colorful printed scene. An oval portrait set within an anchor on the left side depicts a waving sailor perched on a ship's ladder. Another portrait on the right side shows his sweetheart holding flowers and waving goodbye.  In between the two figures is a 46-star flag above the often duplicated poem: “Remember Me. Sweet be to thee life’s passing hours, and all thy paths be decked with flowers.” Below this scene is a pocket printed with a 46-star American flag to hold the handkerchiefs. While it is unknown who gave or received this sweetheart gift, it represents the sentiments of all servicemen and women who long to see their loved ones at home.

Gift of  Mrs. Oliver Cushman                                                                                                                82.20.01

Artifact Spotlight: Bust of John Paul Jones

---Jen Nason, Curatorial Assistant

This plaster bust of naval hero John Paul Jones (1747-1792) is a copy of an original marble bust by renowned sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. The marble bust was commissioned in 1780 for the Masonic Lodge of the Nine Sisters in Paris, where Jones was a member. Many praised the sculpture for its faithfulness to the subject. James Madison wrote, “His bust by Houdon is an exact likeness; portraying well the characteristic features stamped on the countenance of the original.” Jones himself was so impressed with his portrait that he ordered plaster copies for friends such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin; men who had also been sculpted by Houdon. The bust would be important a century later when trying to locate the subject's unmarked grave.

Jones, who was just 33 years old at the time the sculpture was completed, died twelve years later in Paris. As he died in the midst of the French Revolution, his funeral did not attract much attention. He was buried in an unmarked, and eventually, forgotten grave in small Protestant cemetery. Fortunately, his body was prepared for burial in a way that made the discovery 113 years later possible. Jones was placed in a sealed lead coffin which was completely filled with alcohol to preserve the body. As some may have predicted, the United States did want Jones’ body back over a century later.  Under the orders of President Theodore Roosevelt, a team was assembled to find the body and return it to the United States for reinterment.  The team eventually found the cemetery that contained Jones’ remains.  They were then able close in on the correct grave through the discovery of five lead coffins. Three of the coffins had their owner’s names.  A fourth coffin was for made for a man over six feet tall, (John Paul Jones was 5’7" tall). The fifth coffin was sealed shut.

When the remains inside the sealed coffin were inspected, facial measurements from an early 1780 copy of the Houdon bust were compared to the remains in question. There was an astounding similarity between the bust and the remains; the maximum difference in measurement being two millimeters. An intensive autopsy and use of the bust of Houdon allowed for researchers and doctors to positively identify the remains of John Paul Jones. With the positive identification, the team of researchers was able to bring Jones back to the United States. In 1906, he was reinterred with full military honors at the United States Naval Academy chapel in Annapolis, Maryland. The original marble bust from the Masonic Lodge of the Nine Sisters is now at the academy as well.

Though a twentieth century copy, the bust on display at the Naval War College Museum was made from a 1780 copy at the Louvre for sculptor Felix de Weldon. de Weldon presented the copy to the Naval War College in 1964. The bust has remained a fixture at the museum to recognize Jones as captain of the Continental sloop Providence during the American Revolution.

Gift of Felix de Weldon                                                                                                        76.49.01

Artifact Spotlight: Midshipmen Cruise Ceramic Plate, 1947

---Jen Nason, Curatorial Assistant

This decorative ceramic plate commemorates Admiral Richard L. Conolly's visit to Oslo, Norway in July of 1947.  Soon to be President of the Naval War College, Conolly was then Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. He commanded a task force that carried over 2,000 midshipmen on a training cruise across the Atlantic that summer. Joining the flagship USS New Jersey (BB-62), was the USS Wisconsin (BB-64) and several destroyers. This fleet left the U.S. Naval Academy with its eager complement on June 7 and set to return in late August.  There impressive itinerary for the cruise included Edinburgh, Oslo, Copenhagen, London and Guantanamo Bay. Though port calls offered a welcome distraction, the cruise offered valuable training in gunnery, seamanship, and shipboard operations. Midshipmen learned the tasks of daily life at sea and the skills needed to successfully run a ship during peacetime and in war.
The unknown artisan hand painted the words "Admiral Richard L. Conolly, U.S.N., COMNAVEASTLANT, Oslo-Norway-July-1947" around a scene of the Atlantic Ocean that includes the coasts of North and South America, as well as Europe and Africa. Conolly's flagship, the battleship New Jersey, is depicted along with a Viking ship to tie this visit to Leif Ericson's voyage from Norway to North America in the year 1000. It is conceivable that Norway's King Haakon VII presented this to Conolly during his inspection of the battleship on July 2.

When the division departed for Portsmouth, England, they were reviewed by Crown Prince Olav of Norway.  In their June 1948 National Geographic article documenting the cruise, Midshipmen William J. Aston and Alexander G.B. Grosvenor recalled, “Leaving Norway, we witnessed a magnificent demonstration of seamanship. Crown Prince Olav reviewed our battleship division as we steamed for Portsmouth, England. Rather than use a destroyer or large yacht, he stood in the cockpit of a 50-foot cruiser tossing and yawing in the choppy mouth of Oslofjord. Throughout the passing of our ships, the Prince adhered to the adage of the sea 'One hand for the ship and one for yourself.' Never before had we seen a boat do four-dimensional gymnastics. Yet at all times the Prince had his right hand raised smartly in salute as Wisconsin fired the 21 guns reserved for chiefs of state and royalty.”

74.05.01