Graf Spee stern emblem

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

The Graf Spee recovery seems to continue. The stern eagle emblem has been raised. Now they are looking for the bow shields; however, I think generally ships did not wear these escutcheons at sea or in combat. http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mens ... 70,00.html

[Coyote850]

From the pics it seems like the ship is in fairly good shape. I wonder why it took so long for a group to salvage her?

[Gerard Heimann]

Ulrich, if you check the Spee pictures on John Asmussen's website, you'll see that these emblems did go into battle. The reason is that the Spee was at sea when war was declared and did not have the opportunity to remove them.

Gerard

http://www.deutschland-class.dk/admiral ... video.html

[Karl Heidenreich]

Do someone knows what are they gonna do with the emblems? I hope not another museum in remembrance against the nazis, because it´s not the case.

[Antonio Bonomi]

Ciao all,

but as usual for the KM warships there were exceptions :

Gneisenau still had the eagle on the stern till May 1940.

Blucher still had it too, and was sunk with the eagle on the stern, .... so if anybody is looking to find another one just dive into Droback sundet were Blucher is today ( unless somebody already removed it ).

Coat of arm ( wappen ), .. another story .

Gothic name plate .. same.

Coronel plate on the main tower ... were is it ??

Ship bell ??

Ciao Antonio

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

Here is a little more unusual historical material on the "Graf Spee" from "Die Wehrmacht" magazine of 1938.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b138/ ... /Spee1.jpg
I think if you substitiute Spee1 with Spee2 to 12 you should get all pages to come up.

[ontheslipway]

Well, if they want to raise the entire ship and only managed to get 1 eagle and a director tower after 2 years, it seems they are not going to make it...

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

The Spee eagle after some cleaning: http://www.lenta.ru/news/2006/02/16/eagle/

[_Derfflinger_]

Wow!

Pretty good shape after some 66 years in the mud.

Derf

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

Yes, nice eagle. But I would not be surprised if it is offered on eBay like the Pope's car. The rest of the steel parts are in dismal shape; much worse than the Bismarck, because of the shallow oxygenated water. Eletrolytic reduction in large tanks with electrolyte and current for several years, like the USS Monitor project, is out of the question for financial and practical reasons. http://www.monitorcenter.org/ So most of these pieces will end up as a pile of rusty flakes. Submersion in antifreeze, like with wooden boats, might help. There is a large number of great Spee salvage pics by Eduardo Cicala at http://www.deutschland-class.dk/admiral ... lvage.html

[George Roumbos]

Hi Ulrich,
Thank's for the link
This is the first picture I've seen with the Eagle fully uncovered, since re-covered I mean.

Best regards,

George

[Ulrich Rudofsky]

Although this topic has been dead for a while, I just read a post from a contributor to the Forum Marinearchiv who reports that the eagle should be moved indoors before someone steals it. Apparently, some people passing the 15 cm gun spit on it, others give it a "Sieg Heil" salute.

Hier are links to some unusual items recovered from Graf Spee at sea or donated by veterans.

http://www.ejercito.mil.uy/rrpp/paginas ... andiyi.htm

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=116105

[RF]

Do someone knows what are they gonna do with the emblems? I hope not another museum in remembrance against the nazis, because it´s not the case. :think:

I suspect that the people who salvage them will want to make a profit for their efforts, usually by selling them on. In my book it is called ''looting'' and should be treated as theft under international law.

Leave the wrecks alone. By all means inspect for historical research, but on a do not touch basis.