A commemoration of the UK’s first nuclear submarine and all who sailed in her
The HMS Dreadnought Association celebrates the lives and service of those crew and shipmates that sailed in the famous submarine through the course of its 20 years of active service. HMS Dreadnought was the UK’s first nuclear powered submarine. Commissioned in1963, the submarine remained in service until 1980.
The beginnings of an idea
The idea of producing a commemorative lapel pin from items salvaged from the submarine was first raised with Selcraft in 2019. A member of the HMS Dreadnought Association enquired as to the possibility of such a special commission to which our answer was an excited yes, of course we can do it!
Unfortunately, as we all know, lives and plans were soon to be put on hold due to the pandemic. Fast forward to 2022.
The source material
Selcraft was contacted again by the Association in 2022. In May of 2022 a storage bin had been removed from its place forward of the submarine’s starboard turbine generator in the engine room upper level. The item removed by Rosyth MOD staff and placed into the care of an ex-crew member.
When the aluminium storage bin was delivered to Selcraft, it was immediately apparent that this was not an item in pristine condition. It had suffered damage and had multiple indentations due to an undoubtedly hard life under the waves.
Trial and error
For the type of commemorative lapel pin required, our preferred method of manufacture is stamping using a steel die. This method provides a uniform and crisp rendition of the design.
So, our first step was to ensure that the material provided by the aluminium storage bin was of a metal suitable for this type of manufacture.
After exploring various technical options we were satisfied that we could produce a high quality lapel pin from the source material.
A badge that’s travelled to the North Pole
The submarine, and the extracted storage bin, travelled to the North Pole in 1971 and it was the anniversary of this expedition in 1981 that ultimately led to the formation of the HMS Dreadnought Association. We were committed to ensure the client was delivered a final commemorative product of the highest quality, reflecting the years of service of both the submarine and its intrepid crews.
Personalisation
Selcraft always works closely with special commission clients to advise on how to make any product a very special and unique item. Given the auspicious heritage and unique nature of the source material, it was decided to undertake a very limited edition production of just 200 lapel pins.
We produced a design and artwork based on information supplied by the client.
Each finished badge was sequentially numbered on the reverse and supported by a unique certificate capturing some of the history and confirming the authenticity of the lapel pin.
The finishing touch being a personalised presentation case with the crest of the vessel silver foil blocked onto the lid.
We go the extra (nautical) mile
At our client’s request we provided numerous images and videos of the badges during production for total authenticity and these can be viewed on their website using the link below:
https://www.hmsdreadnought.website/lapel-pin
Finally
A very nice thank you from our client and in their own words “Many thanks to Selcraft for having turned what was a battered “sow’s ear” into a fine “silk purse”.
