Rare original, uncut length USS Kearsarge hat tally and 1908 color postcard.
Both items in very good condition.
USS Kearsarge (BB-5), was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the United States
Navy and lead ship of her class of battleships. She was named after the
sloop-of-war Kearsarge, famous for sinking the CSS Alabama, and was the only
United States Navy battleship not named after a state. Her keel was laid down
by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co. of Virginia, on 30 June 1896 and
commissioned on 20 February 1900. Between 1903 and 1905, USS Kearsarge served as
flagship of North Atlantic and European squadrons. 1907 to 1909 she was
attached to the Fourth Division of the Second Squadron of the Great White
Fleet. In 1909, she was decommissioned for modernization, which was finished in
1911, then served in the Atlantic. From 1915 through WWI, BB-5 served as a
training ship. She was converted into a crane ship in 1920, renamed Crane Ship
No. 1 in 1941, and sold for scrap in 1955.