This is the emblem containing the coat of arms of the USS New York a naval vessel of the US Navy. The ship was constructed with seven tons of steel recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center in its bow. The twin towers and a chevron. representing the bow of the ship form a central feature in the coat of arms. The phoenix rising from the ashes is an allusion to carrying on and rebuilding the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. The escutcheon on the breast of the phoenix contains the colors of the first responders on 9/11: the NY police department, NY fire department and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey. The drops of blood on the escutcheon commemorate the fallen. The three stars depicted are for those earned by the former battleship USS NEW YORK (BB34) in World War II at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and North Africa. Above the shield the crest is taken from the central landscape charges on the coat of arms of the State of New York. Here the rays of the sun are depicted as seven in imitation of those radiating off the crown atop the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.

This may not be the best heraldic design I’ve ever seen but it is a fine example of how heraldry, even in our own time, can be filled with poignant meaning and, in a simple artistic design, depict and commemorate so much. This coat of arms was devised, as are all US military insignia by the US Army’s Institute of Heraldry in Virginia.

Congratulations to Andy Murray on his win of the championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (more commonly known as Wimbledon). The first British man to win since 1936. Of course the AELTC has a coat of arms and a badge, which is more frequently used as a kind of “logo” granted under Garter Colin Cole in 1992. It is England, after all! The arms and badge are pictured above and the entire Letters Patent of the grant of arms is below.

Thanks to the fine research and work of Mr. Joseph McMillan of the American Heraldry Society we know what the coats of arms of those armigerous (i.e. bearing a coat of arms) signers of the Declaration of Independence are. So much for the erroneous idea that heraldry is pointless and foreign in American culture. If you wish to see a key identifying them you can view it at the website of the American Heraldry Society.

Saturday, June 22 is the Feast day of St. Thomas More (along with his fellow martyr to conscience, St. John Fisher) who was brutally murdered by the heretic-adulterer, Henry VIII for defending the Catholic faith. He served as Henry’s Chancellor and was one of the greatest intellects of his day. He is also regarded as one of the first great Christian Humanists.

I recently came back from a vacation in France during which I also spent a little time in the Confœderatio Helvetica, more commonly known as Switzerland (derived from Schwyz, the leading of the three founding cantons at the time of the confederation in 1291). It is a country that does not have a monarchy and yet where heraldry runs rampant (pardon the pun) thus giving the lie to the notion that heraldry is an antiquated idea associated with outmoded forms of government, like elitist monarchies. Elitism and monarchy do not necessarily go hand in hand. The Swiss have survived for centuries without a monarch and yet have managed, nonetheless, to become quite elitist!