U.S. MARITIME SERVICE LINE OFFICER SLEEVE DEVICE

A fouled anchor inside a laurel wreath was and is used by the United States Maritime Service in a variety of ways. It serves as the Corps device, the collar insignia for officers, the insignia on jacket and shirt buttons, and as the sleeve device for line officers who have been commissioned through the Maritime Service. The insignia for other officers, as well as warrant officers, also have the distinctive laurel wreath, but the device inside the wreath varies depending upon their position. An Engineering officer, for example, would have a propeller inside the wreath, while a Jewish Chaplain would have the tables of the law.

Established through provisions of the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, the U.S. Maritime Service was created to train Sailors to serve on a Naval auxiliary force built upon the foundations of merchant shipping. Before World War II drew to a close, the Maritime Service had trained a quarter-of-a-million recruits to serve on ships in the U.S. Merchant Marine and the U.S. Army Transport Service, and the contributions they made to the war effort are almost incalculable.

Today, the U.S. Maritime Service exists only at our nation’s maritime academies, the most famous being the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York.