Description:

US SOLDIER'S SOUVENIR SOUTH PACIFIC DUGOUT CANOE
Wooden dugout canoe, approx. 97" x 14", hand-carved from a single log, with upturned ends and adze markings visible throughout. The canoe was acquired as a souvenir during World War II by George P. Frech of the 377th Transportation, Harbor Draft, and Maintenance Battalion. To facilitate sending it home, Frech had cut the canoe into two pieces, and secured the open ends of each half with wooden planks. Both halves of the canoe are addressed from Frech to his wife, once on each side in white paint: "To: Mrs. Geo. P. Frech, 302 Eddy Rd., Cleveland, 8, Ohio", and: "From: T/5 Geo P. Frech, 377th Harbor Craft Co., APO, 565% PM, San Francisco, Calif." Another hand, likely that of a postal worker, has added a second address in black graphite: "Forward to: Route 6, Box [?], Cambridge, Ohio". Large patches of grey paint have been added to the sides of the canoe, to allow the addresses to be applied with greater ease. A paper label has been affixed to each half, although both are so faded as to be indistinguishable. The canoe retains its outrigger, although this has also been cut in half for shipping, as well as the framework used to mount it, consisting of sharpened stakes lashed together with plant fibers, although these are in a state of disassembly as well. The canoe itself has had an approx 25" section broken off of the top of one gunwale, with several other large cracks following the grain of the wood, else very good. Although records on this unit are scant, we do know that the 377th spent the last year or so of World War II in the Philippines, so it is possible that the canoe was acquired there, although considering Frech mailed it from San Francisco, it is also possible that he acquired it in trade with another soldier stationed elsewhere in the Pacific. The native peoples of the South Pacific served a number of vital roles in the Allied war effort, especially as "coast watchers", providing intelligence on Japanese shipping and naval activity. In 1943, two Solomon Islanders, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana, discovered the shipwrecked crew of the PT-109, including its commander, John F. Kennedy, on Olsana Island. Traveling by dugout canoe, they carried a message from Kennedy through Japanese-patrolled waters to American forces, allowing them to launch a successful rescue. As such, offered here is an unusual and evocative relic of an unsung aspect of the war in the Pacific. NOTE: THE OARS ARE NOT INCLUDED.

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May 14, 2018 1:00 PM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
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$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
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