Company Treasures

Inscribed on three lines:

THIS INKSTAND WAS HANDED TO CAPTAIN F.W. MAKIN BY

2ND.LIEUTENANT PAULMANN,

BOARDING OFFICER OF GERMAN RAIDER “MOEWE” WHICH SANK P.S.N.CO. “ESMERALDAS” 10.3.1917 – LAT. 39 48′ N, LONG. 43 33′ W.

PRESENTED BY CAPT. MAKIN, TO MR. H. LESLIE BOWES, C.B.E. JULY 1957

 and under the base:

                                            L

                                        6602

                            ELKINGTON & CO

                                    <5>  <31>

Together with Sheffield date stamp for 1878, and additional Elkington makers marks.

 On 10th.  March 1917 the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s steamship “Esmeraldas”, Captain F.W. Makin,  was stopped in the North Atlantic by the German raider “Moewe”. Before sinking the ship, the boarding officer, Oberleutnant Pohlmann, expressed regret that, war being war, he had no option but to do so, but added that if he wished Captain Makin was welcome to take a souvenir of his ship. Captain Makin chose the inkstand, which was formally handed to him by Oberleutnat Pohlmann, and taken by Captain Makin into internment in Germany. In 1957, Captain Makin, then 93 years of age, gave the inkstand to Mr. (later Sir) Leslie Bowes (then chairman of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company), who twenty years later placed it in the safe keeping of the Company.

Presented by Sir Leslie Bowes, KCMG, CBE, in commemoration of his year as Prime Warden 1974-1975, and as a “souvenir of the past when there still remained some chivalry in warfare”.

Silver plate made by Elkington & Co.,Sheffield, 1878.  12in x 8in, on four feet.

(121/1975), (122,1975), (123/1975), (124/1975)

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