RN Officer's sword

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by M ELEY

Very nice sword, Wayne! At first, I was hoping I could get an 'RN' sword for my occupation (registered nurse)...sorry, bad pun!

It is great that you can have a piece in your collection that represents your own past occupation. In regards to fighting blades, I had wondered about this myself in the past until i heard early accounts of coastguard patrols in the 19th c. running into smugglers, pirates and, of course, occasionally being used for paramilitary ops. I particularly like the fouled anchor under crown emblem. Nice find!

thanks, the USCG was an amalgamation of the revenue cutter service, the lighthouse service and the lifeboat service, adding the steamboat inspection service a bit later. in the USA, unlike the UK version, it has always been and still is one of the USA's armed forces. it is also considered a law enforcement agency, unlike the other armed forces. it is the hard core around which the navy forms in time of war.

note the folding guard. the left side of the guard folds down to keep it from rubbing on your uniform and to allow it to hang better. a lot of 19c UK swords had these. when down, it has a hole that engages a stud on the scabbard to keep it from being withdrawn accidentally as the officer boarded enemy vessels or climbed rigging, etc. it had a latch (you can just make it out in the photo) that kept it from flopping about when you had drawn the sword. the spring loaded latch mechanism was a bit fiddly & is sometimes missing. they also sometimes had the hinges braised up along with braising the whole folding bit to the main portion. i shall find out if it all still works when it arrives.