December 2003 Cover |
by Steve Shay |
|
USS STURGEON |
|
|
The cover this month was cancelled aboard the USS Sturgeon, SS-187, on Christmas day, 1938. The Type 3 cancel has a slogan inserted between the killer bars that indicates that the submarine was at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on that day. The sub had been launched at Mare Island on March 15 of the same year and was commissioned June 25. The submarine would serve during World War II and would receive 10 battle stars for her service. The cachet on this cover was drawn by Martin Aden, a Mare Island employee. The cover was sponsored by the Argonaut crew of the ANCS, American Naval Cancellation Society. The cover is addressed to Alex Hesse, a member of the crew and a frequent cover sponsor. Hesse also provided printing services and he and his wife did the hand coloring on many of his cachets. Many of the Hesse cachets were thermographed; this one is not but it is hand colored. The cachet shows the designation "S6" on the bow of the submarine. Sturgeon was the 6th of the "S"almon class of submarines. Sturgeon would survive the war and was decommissioned November 15, 1945 and sold for scrap. |
