1944 World War II Navy No. 9 Ensign
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GUEST:
Well, my father, on December 7, 1941, was at Pearl Harbor. He was assigned to a ship called the Solace, which was a hospital ship moored about 125 yards, right near the Arizona. And shortly after the attack, my father and a number of the seamen on that hospital ship were in small boats, helping survivors as they could off the Arizona and swimming in the water. My father told us that not in very close proximity to the back of the Arizona, this flag was floating in the water. And he reached down, picked it up, shook the water off it, and took it back and dried it out eventually, and brought it home. We've had this in our family ever since then.
APPRAISER:
What did he do later in World War II?
GUEST:
Well, he was in the Navy for 11 years, and he was in the entire Pacific arena. He was in Guam, Saipan, that very famous picket line around the Philippines. But we always felt that this was a very memorable piece of history that he brought back with him. Well, anything that relates to the attack on Pearl Harbor is a significant piece of history. Obviously, it was a catastrophe in American military history. It was the shock that brought us into World War II with a tragic loss of life, not just on the Arizona, but on the surrounding vessels, as well. There have been a number of Navy flags associated with famous actions that have come to market in recent years. Generally, the thing that drives the price is not necessarily the flag itself, but it's the history. And in order to establish that history, we're looking at provenance and artifactual evidence, and all the rest of those things that go into documenting, "Did this item come from that event?" For an appraiser to do an insurance evaluation on an artifact, authentication is key. And we're 98% of the way there with the provenance, because we know that your father was at Pearl Harbor, we know that he was a decorated Navy veteran. The document that you brought, that was an award that was given to the Solace. And as a crew member on the Solace, he was entitled to wear that ribbon on his uniform. It's been kind of a, a confusing and difficult thing for us, because we, we, like you, really want to get this to Pearl Harbor, to Battleship Row on December 7, 1941. We know that it is a number-nine ensign. Naval flags were numbered, and the numbers correspond to the size. And you see here, we've got "U.S. number nine," the "M.I." stands for Mare Island. That's when it was made. But where we ran into trouble is the final digits up here, the number 44. For those Mare Island flags, that's the date of manufacture. So this flag was made in 1944, which presents a small problem for it being at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
GUEST:
Hmm.
APPRAISER:
That being said, it is a valuable and interesting artifact of World War II history, and that's nothing to cast aspersions on, on your father, who was a decorated naval officer and a hero of World War II. One of the first causes for concern for me was the size, because a number-nine ensign, in the grand scheme of World War II Navy flags, is a fairly small one, even for the fan tail of a battleship. As the years go by, sometimes the artifact gets mated to the story, and it becomes, essentially, what we call legend. And in this case, sadly, I think that's what you have here.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
As it is, we know that this was a flag that was flown in World War II. In all likelihood, it was aboard another vessel to which he was assigned later in his military career.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And as such, this would have a retail value today of between $300 and $500.
GUEST:
Yeah, I think the monetary value was never anything that we had much of a consideration for, anyway. It was really the historical value that we were really trying to ascertain and eventually get to. But really appreciate your help.
APPRAISER:
Had we been able to document this as a Pearl Harbor flag, the value that we were looking at was a conservative auction estimate of $250,000 to $300,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So there's a giant leap between a flag and a flag that we know for a fact was there.
Appraisal Details
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