Name/Title
Engineer's Mate [Collar Insignia] (set #2)Description
Collar insignia shaped as a canilever, the “side-lever” of the first type of marine steam engine which came into use after the War of 1812 and was the most common marine engine of the 1830s. Die-struck and made of copper.Context
The Engineer's Mate is the primary assistant responsible for the vessel's propulsion by the operation and maintenance of its engines and boilers. This rank officially did not exist in the First Texas Navy in 1835-1837. The Texas Navy did not obtain an ocean-going steamer until the formation of the Second Texas Navy; a “new and stronger fleet” that the Texas Republic’s Congress wanted to be “composed principally of steam vessels." The sidewheel steamship Charleston, built in 1836 and purchased by Texas in late 1838, was commissioned as the Texas Navy steamer Zavala on March 23, 1839.
This insignia is believed to have been manufactured of scrap copper pieces used to sheath the Texas Navy ships in the Algiers Shipyard, New Orleans, Louisiana.