Ship's Crest
Detroit's emblem was constructed by a member of the ship's pre-commissioning crew. This was the rationale:
1. A profile of the first Detroit
2. A flaming mine to symbolize ordnance
3. A wheat-filled cornucopia to symbolize provisions
4. A fuel valve to symbolize petroleum products
5. Electron paths to symbolize the nuclear era
6. Five stars to represent the five ships named Detroit named in honor of the City of Detroit, Michigan
7. The ship's motto, Superare Optimum; "To Surpass the Finest."
The first Detroit was a 19-gun sloop captured from the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. The black hull and white sails of the first Detroit are set against a background of light blue sky and deep blue sea. The symbols for ordnance, provisions, and petroleum products are set along the electron paths which symbolize the modern nuclear age. These symbols reflect the mission of the fast combat support ship: to support naval forces at sea in the theater of operations.
Read more about this topic: USS Detroit (AOE-4)
Famous quotes containing the words ship and/or crest:
“Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
and life departs, launch out, the fragile soul
in the fragile ship of courage, the ark of faith
with its store of food and little cooking pans
and change of clothes,”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“The history of any nation follows an undulatory course. In the trough of the wave we find more or less complete anarchy; but the crest is not more or less complete Utopia, but only, at best, a tolerably humane, partially free and fairly just society that invariably carries within itself the seeds of its own decadence.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)