Combining my Love of Ships and Coins into one: Rhode Island Ship Medal and my Model Ship.

I had the opportunity recently to bid and win this Rhode Island Ship Medal. While it is not a prime example, and the details on the ship are almost gone, it is a very interesting and historic Medal (or Token).

Here is a full description of this medal:

The origin and significance of the Rhode Island Ship Token has long been obscure. It is now thought the idea for this medal was conceived during the second half of 1779, sometime after Spain joined France in declaring war on Britain. The medal was minted in England for distribution throughout the Netherlands, most probably, during the second half of 1780. It commemorated a victory of the British Admiral Richard Howe. During the summer of 1778 Major General John Sullivan, commanding some ten thousand American troops, with the aid of about four thousand French troops under Admiral Comte d'Estaing, tried to take Newport Rhode Island from British control. On August 20, 1778, Admiral Howe defeated d'Estaing's fleet and then headed for Conanicut Island, situated just off the coast of Newport, where the Continental troops were stationed. Hearing of the British advance, the Continental troops were forced to flee from the island and abandon their attack plans.

The obverse of the token depicts Howe's flagship while the reverse shows the American troops fleeing Conanicut Island. These items were sent to the Netherlands as propaganda. The Dutch were sympathetic to the American cause, and the British did not want them to sign an armed neutrality treaty against Britain. In 1779 Russia was protesting the British practice of searching neutral ships on the high seas for items the British considered to be contraband, that is, supplies destine for the rebellious American colonies or any of the allies. At the time the British had blockades against France and Spain, as well as the American colonies, and were boarding all neutral vessels on the high seas that were suspected of trading with any of those countries. In the summer of 1780 Russia persuaded Denmark and Sweden to join in a League of Armed Neutrality against the British inspections; they also made several overtures to Holland to join. In fact, the Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the Caribbean was a center of clandestine (that is, unrestricted) trade with America. Michael Hodder suspects the Rhode Island Ship token was distributed in Holland during the period from the Summer through mid December of 1780 to discourage the Dutch from joining the League. It was hoped this token, showing the hopelessness of the American cause, would influence the Dutch decision. Apparently the propaganda was ineffective, for the Dutch joined the League on December 20, 1780.

Although made in England, the legends on the token are in Dutch. Originally the engraver mistakenly included the word "vlugtende" (fleeing) on the obverse of the coin under the flagship. Clearly this was meant to be on the reverse of the token which depicts the fleeing Continental troops. This error was soon discovered and had to be remedied, as one could easily interpret the obverse to mean the Admiral's flagship was fleeing! The obverse die was recut so that a wreath design replaced the offending word under the flagship. Also, the word "vlugtende" was scrapped off the remaining undistributed stock of the token that already been made.

These tokens were made of brass with a few examples know in pewter. Pewter examples survive for the variety with with vlugente erased but no wreath and for the variety with the wreath. Often Rhode Island Ship tokens are found in circulated condition, suggesting they were used as coins rather than kept as commemorative medals. There is no evidence that these tokens ever circulated in America.

(excerpts from www.coins.nd.edu)


As described, my example is in about fine condition with several areas of weakness. But to me it conveys fully those historic events which occurred in 1778.

Now to the other part of this thread, and I hope the mods will excuse the slight diversion from a purely coin-related thread. In fact, my love of history does not stop with coins. It extends to the ships of all eras, and in particular the ship designs which existed in the latter part of the 18th century at the time of the American Independence, and during the Napoleonic wars 30 years later, culminating with the battle of Trafalgar.

I started building this model ship - completely from scratch and without any plans other
than by looking at and studying pictures of HMS Victory (Nelsons ships at Trafalgar), of USS Constitution and others. I specifically did not want to buy a kit and build from there - I wanted this to be my own project and ship. The only prefab parts so far were the cannon, and the rigging when done. When completed (one day!) it will be have two guns decks, and 32 cannon. I don't think it has turned out all that bad so far, and is not totally out of proportion (although model ship building purists would certainly find plenty of design and proportion faults with it, I am sure). So here it is - my own man-o-war, my attempt at recreating the ships which served the U.S, British and French navies during the fateful years of american independence.

To bring this thread back to coins (or medals/tokens) - many US tokens carry ship motifs. I find this one of the more interesting ones, which refers directly to events that occurred in the aftermath of the war of independence.

 

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Thats cool, especially since your building it yourself. As for purists, who cares, lol. Its great when you can combine the love of one hobby with another.

I have so many hobbies & dont really intertwine with one another :/

 

It's funny you mention the USS Constitution. My grandfather was a ship builder for Hopeman Brothers out of Virginia it Maryland and was able to procure some original doors from the USS Constitution. He then used the doors to fashion all of the wood for his scaled model. He even fashioned the cannons, cannon balls, and any other metal piece from the hinges and nails that came with the door.

There was an old PBS special about it and is noted that his model is worthy of a museum except for the fact that it is only about 90% complete. I don't know why he never finished but he was so meticulous that it had to be for a very important reason, or I believe the piece would have been finished.

His name was Ed Berry.

If you notice my avatar is a USS Constitution medal, I will have to take a new picture of it to show it in this thread. I also have some very old sketches in my living room.

I will update as soon as I can. Great story Eduard.

Funny enough your name is Eduard, my grandfather was Edwin, and my full name is Edmund. Rather funny thought.

 

Here are some pictures.












And some stamps I stumbled across when I was at the post office one day.

 

Very educational thread Eduard and Trey! I enjoyed reading both of your posts.

 

Beautiful work on the Victory, Eduard! I've scratch-built some structures for model railroads, and I can only imagine how tricky it must be to work with all those curves. Well-done!

 

Im sorry guys, I made a mistake earlier. My grandfather made a model of the USS Constellation, not the Constitution. I was confused by the prints that i acquired after he passed that are in my house. Which is probably why i purchased the Constitution stamps (ive happily found Constellation stamps on ebay to bring me up to speed )

I just spoke with my mother, and she corrected me. Apparently he had an interest in both ships and was able to acquire the door from the Constellation and not the Constitution. Its still quite the story and fascinating that he was able to build a model from the original ship that was commissioned as the first ship for the United States Navy.

I apologize for my mistake, but alas it has set me off hunting for Constellation memorabilia now.

 

The model and token are both cool as all get out. The amount of time and patience you put into the work is amazing, too.

 

Many thanks for your comments.

The interesting thing about the Rhode Island piece is that although described as a medal, some appear to have circulated, as mine does. They never circulated in the US as far as is known, but in the Netherlands, and probably England. I had been looking for an example for some time to add to my collection of colonial and pre-federal coins. This example fits the bill perfectly.

Trey, amazing that your father was able to get a door from the USS Constellation to build his model. That adds so much appeal to a model one builds oneself.
The wood that I use for my model has much more humble origins, and my wife is tired of running after me with a vacuum cleaner to clean up the saw dust I leave behind. Working on this model is a challenge, and yes, bending those planks into shape as John Anthony mentions is very difficult. But it is worth it.

 

I absolutely love the story and history associated with the RI Ship medal. I've always wanted to own one, but they can be mighty expensive! I appreciate what you've acquired and your work on your model ship, Eduard!

On a related note, here is a lovely piece of old copper that commemorates Admiral Jervis' achievements with "ships of the line" (lining up alongs side other ships in order to fire their cannons against each other).

 

Beautiful medal, Catbert!
The end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th saw many important naval actions such as described by your beautiful medal.

A much earlier naval-related medal which I have always liked was one struck in England to commemorate the defeat of the spanish Armada in 1588.
This great Armada, consisting of around 130 ships, 8,000 sailors and 18,000 soldiers, 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns, was termed the "Great and Most Fortunate Navy". It was a disaster for Philip king of Spain. The stubborn resistance of the English, aided by a fortuitous storm blowing across the English Channel contributed to scattering and defeating this great armada. This medal commemorates that defeat.

It bears the inscription 'Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt'.
'He blew his wind, and they were scattered'