It's like having a Rolls Royce and not having the winged thingy girl on the hood..
It's like having a BMW and not having the spinning propeller on the grille...
It's like having a Mercedes Benz and not havig the three-pointed star on the hood...
None of the fleet subs on display, as far as I know, have their builder's plaque. They went home with officer's in most cases, I believe...
None of them have ever shown up on eBay, AFAIK...
It's the 6 x 9 in. bronze tablet that tells the world: "THIS IS THE U.S.S. COD!!!! BUILT BY THE ELECTRIC BOAT COMPANY... IN 1943"
or "THIS IS THE U.S.S. BATFISH, built by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1944..."
They were mounted on war-built subs in the companionway outside the wardroom. Not to be confused with the commissioning plaque, which was nickel plated steel and is simply engraved with the names of the commissioning officers, the superintendent of shipbuilding, and the sponsor...
I am working with a national bronze plaque company to replicate the submarine builder's plaques. It will not be a fast and easy process... they're using computerized design tools and we need something that only the pissist thread-counter could possibly determin was not the original...
When they get it right, and only then, I'd like to invite the submarine memorials to have them make replicas for their boats. Cost will be about $300... not cheap, but I'd like to invite the local USSVI Bases to sponsor them for their local boats... Think they'll take on the challenge? $300 is well within their budgets.. my only fear is they might fund the 9 x 7 inch plates and then drill an even bigger plate proclaiming they funded it next to it...
Whay do you think?
Here are some photos of sub builder's plates... frustratingly they are all EB subs... I need to see plates from PNSY (MARE ISLAND and MANITOWOC subs are follow-on yards to PNSY and EB respectively, so they may be identical, but maybe not...)
Last photo is a commissioning plaque...
PF
