[Naval Certificate] Arctic Circle

• Format: Map
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1943
• Subjects: Saunders; Allen James; United States > Navy > History > 19th Century > Maps; Arctic regions > Maps; Iceland > Maps; Arctic; Battleship; Greenland; Iceland
• Online Access: http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/ref/collection/agdm/id/24439

Relief shown pictorially. Certificate commemorating the journey across the Arctic Circle with annotations. The certificate is an illustration of a map on a scroll hanging on a metal ship with wooden floors. Includes illustrations of a naval battleship, a polar bear, a whale, a seal, a Viking vessel, a volcano and a decorative compass rose. The certificate reads as follows: This is to certify that Allen James Saunders (radio) while serving on board the U.S.S. Fairfax crossed the Arctic Circle on Friday August 20th, 1430 GMT in the year 1943 AD to enter the Northern Domain of the Polar Bear. George D. Callahan, U.S.N.R. Commanding U.S.A.F. Fairfax. Seller description: Designed as a scroll hung up on the riveted steel wall of a ship, this map serves to "certify that Allen James Saunders (Radio) while serving on board the U.S.S. Fairfax crossed the Arctic Circle on Friday August 20th.in the Year 1943 A.D. to enter the Northern Domain of the Polar Bear," signed by commanding officer George D. Callahan U.S.N.R., and inscribed by various shipmates at the top. Iceland appears at the center of the map and features a volcano spewing smoke and fire, while Greenland appears at the upper left. A menacing polar bear looms large at the upper right, staring in the direction of the destroyer cruising between Greenland and Iceland. A spouting whale, viking ship, and a seal poised on a sheet of ice are also depicted. Featured in the lower right corner, somewhat incongruously, is an emblem of Great Britain, which, as it turns out, had acquired the ship in 1940, although it continued to be operated by an American crew. The U.S.S. Fairfax (DD-93) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I, originally launched December 15th, 1917, and transferred to the Royal Navy as H.M.S. Richmond (G88) in November 1940, as a Town-class destroyer. Its final owner would be the Soviet Navy, which changed its name to Zhivuchiy ("Survivable") after acquiring the vessel in August, 1944 (Rickard). On December 3rd, 1918, in ...