swastika

My grandfather sailed on the boat to the left known as swastika due to the emblam on the sail. i have a framed photo of the boat that hung in my grandmothers home for years. Obviously the photo vanished for many years after 1939.

nilhopkins @nilhopkins - SWASTIKA appears in several of these wonderful old photos. Best yet (imho) -

nilhopkins How fantastic! I wonder if your photograph was taken by the same photographer? According to Robin Elliott's book 'Galloping Ghosts', SWASTIKA was built in 1913 by Charlie Dunn and the first skipper was C. Stewart'. The vessel raced with the SFS.

beachcomber australia I agree with your humble opinion, lovely photo :)

nilhopkins New image up:

A decent summary of the Charles Becker case is available from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Becker

Regarding rockcreek's note about the swastika symbol on the car--the use of the swastika as part of the logo of the KRIT Company is mentioned in the Wikipedia article and this article from The Detroit News, 16 January 2000. And here is a photo of a KRIT car with the symbol from another Flickr user. Looking at the photo large, I can see a similar logo above the radiator on this car--seems to identify it as a KRIT car. Perhaps some car fanatic out there can tell us the exact model. This use of the swastika symbol, of course, predates its adoption by Nazi Germany--it was a widespread symbol in many cultures, see, for instance Wikipedia and history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm. The latter has a good summary of its use at the time of this photo: Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol with positive connotations. For instance, the swastika was a common decoration that often adorned cigarette cases, postcards, coins, and buildings. During World War I, the swastika could even be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division and on the Finnish air force until after World War II.

The swastika is a symbol which predates the third reich by a millennium or two. It's an ancient buddhist symbol, and many aboriginal American tribes used it.

I don't believe this is a K-R-I-T motor car. It's an open-top bus. K-R-I-T didn't make unusual vehicles like this. They made mainly small automobiles, like Roadsters and Runabouts. Their cars had small swastikas on their bronze hub caps, with the word K-R-I-T in large bronze letters across the front of the radiator. The top of the radiator shell was peaked, not flat, like the one on the bus in this photo. See the photo of the 1910 model in the Detroit News article mentioned above. The 1912 models were almost identical. Moreover, car makers didn't paint large corporate logos on the sides of the hoods. Something else is going on here. This bus has a number 10 on the side of the front seat, suggesting it's part of a fleet. The swastika could be the logo of a local transportation company.

Here are some scans of genuine K-R-I-T trade literature from around 1910: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/15283643@N04/3964040987/] [http://www.flickr.com/photos/15283643@N04/3964041145/] I don't see any connection.

Wonderful image. Does anyone know of a website which identifies the insignia on these 18 footer sails? There are so many unidentified old photos of these great boats here and at the Powerhouse Museum. [hint @ ANMM to start one !]

beachcomber australia Hi Beachcomber, I don't know of a website but there is a wonderful book called 'Galloping Ghosts : Australasian 18 - footers 1890 - 1965' that has an index of vessels & their details including emblems. Many of the insignia were used by multiple boats so it can often be hard to distinguish individual vessels. Our curators have sifted through some of the WJ Hall images & identified where they can. Any input from the public of course is fabulous and perhaps an online index would be possible someday - it would certainly be useful!