BADGES FOR NAVY

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1940, Page 4

BADGES FOR NAVY

SHIP-MADE’ PUNS BARRED. Every ship in Britain’s Empire Navy now has its individual badge—an emblem primarily intended to focus and develop the esprit-de-corps of the ship’s company. But it was not always so (writes Jesse Collings, in the “Sydney Morning Herald”). In tlie Army, froiA earliest times, every regiment had its own regimental colour, inscribed with its battle honours. To the regiment, the regimental flag was a sacred emblem. It cemented all ranks into a great brotherhood. On many a bloodstained battlefield soldiers have gladly died for it.

For many years there was no such rallying point of devotion for the crews of the Royal Navy—nothing beyond sentiment and duty to stimulate the loyalty of a ship’s company to its own particular ship. It was not until after the war of 1914-1918 that the Admiralty gave serious attention to the idea of providing every ship with an official badge to be revered and honoured by sailor-; men.

That the sailor desired tb have such an emblem is indicated by the fact that some ships of the Nayy adopted badges during the last war. But those in .existence were unofficial and unrecognised by the authorities, and as they often altered with every change of command, they did' little to inspire the passionate devotion felt by the soldier for “the colours.” When the Admiralty came to go into the matter, it was found that very few of the existing badges could be retained. Apart from the fact that they were unofficial and impermanent, some of them were considered to be inappropriate and, to say the .least of it, not quite in keeping with the dignity of the Senior Service.

As all the world knows, Jack loves his joke, and' in numerous 'cases humour of the broadest type had entered into the design of the unofficial badge.

SHOCKED ADMIRALTY. For example, the badge of the old Tormentor was a-’flea on a man’s bare back, ringed round with a length of rope! The badge of H.M.S. Hebe was the figure of a buxom barmaid which never really commended itself to the authorities in Whitehall as a suitable emblem for a ship which proudly carried the name of the Cup Bearer to the Gods.

So an Admiralty commit tee decided that “from the artistic and heraldic point of view such badges were deplorable,” and that it was impossible for the ship’s company to attach any reverence .to a badge which changed as often as the commander, had no historical significance, and “some - times embraced no higher idea than an unworthy pu;i.” It was decided that ships’ badges should 1 be as representative and unchanging as those of regiments, and that the new badges should be chosen officially. '

The existing badges of the Fleet have been well chosen and are of excellent design and workmanship Humour that might be open to the charge of vulgarity has been rigidly suppressed, and an effective appropriateness aimed at. ■ The badges are. first carved in wood, then cast in bronze and heraldically coloured. The badge for a battleship

I will measure a foot and a-half across, i and be of proportionatae length. | The procedure normally followed in regard to ships of the Royal Australian Navy is to give them the badge of the city, whose name they bear. Appropriateness has been the determining factor in the choosing- of badges for smaller craft, and the home defence vessel Kookaburra has for its emblem Australia’s famous bird perched' on a bough and surrounded by a circle of twb-strand rope. There are some fine badges in the British Fleet. Two famous episodes of the Great War ar§ perpetuated in the badges given by the new Vindictive and J the Verdun. “1 HAVE MADE GOOD.” I The Vindictive’s emblem shows a hand grasping' a golden scimitar issuing from a cloud —the unofficial badge of the old Vindictive with the cloud added to represent the smoke screen thrown out during the heroic attack on the Mole at Zeebrugge. The motto, which must stir the pulse of every Empire citizen who remembers the Great War, is: “I have made good!” The Verdun carries as her a I golden castle—the arms of the city* of I Verdun, scene of some of the most desperate fighting of the war, and of one of the most gallant defences in world history. The badge of the destroyer Umpire shows a paii’ of scales in gold on a blue ground, with the appropriate motto, “Without favour.” The cruiser Inconstant was. given as it’s emblem a golden butterfly on a field of azure. Three bells in gold on a blue ground form the badge of the destroyer Tumult: and an eye, with golden eyes issuing from it, and accompanied by . the motto, “Catch a-weasel asleep!’ serves- for the Wakeful.

Among the men of the lower deck the walrus head, which became the badge of the Walrus, quickly won the title of “Old Bill”—in honour of Bairnsfather’s walrus moustached warrior, who helped to keep us smiling during the last war. Imagination and' artistic achievement went hand in hand in the badging of Flotilla Leaders. The Shark’s emblem is a silver shark on an azure ground, with the motto, “Swift and tenacious”; the Swallow, with the apropriate motto, “I come quickly” has a swallow on azure; the Sparrowhawk, a golden sparrowhawk on green, it’s leg encircled with cord and red bells, and the motto, “I follow to the death”; the Turbulent was given a golden hand clasping a club surrounded with stars, accompanied by the stern injunction “Keep quiet.” Pandora’s badge represents Pandora’s Box with a key of gold, commemorating the legend of how Jupiter gave Pandora —the first mortal woman made from clay by Vulcan —a casket which, when opened, released all evils and troubles, and was only closed in time td retain Hope. The” motto is, “Hope on, hope ever!”