NORTHLAND WPG 49

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

Gunboat Keel Laid 11 November 1926 - Launched 5 February 1927 USCGC NORTHLAND CGC-44 Commissioned 7 May 1927 - Decommissioned 19 September 1938 Recommissioned June 1939 USCGC NORTHLAND WPG-49 Redesignated Gunboat (WPG) 16 February 1942 Decommissioned 27 March 1946 THE JEWISH STATE Sold 3 January 1947 to Weston Trading Co, a front company for Mossad LeAliyah Bet (which operated to facilitate illegal Jewish immigration to British Palestine). INS ELIAT A-16 (Israeli Naval Service) Renamed 17 July 1948 and became the first warship of the new Israeli Navy INS MATZPEN (Israeli Naval Service) Renamed 1955 - Decommissioned February 1962 Sold for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USCGC Northland WPG-49 Covers Page 1     (1934-1940)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

---

1st Commissioning 7 May 1927 to 19 September 1938

 

USPO 4-bar Cancel Barrow AK

1938-08-03

N/A

Dog Team cachet

---

2nd Commissioning June 1939 to 27 March 1946

 

Locy Type 2z*

1944-06-21

N/A

Censored tobacco acknowledgment card to General Motors Corp.

---

USPS Pictorial Postmark

 

USPS Pictorial Postmark "USCGC Northland (WPG-49) Station" Philadelphia PA

2008-07-18

N/A

Commemorative cover remembering Northland's service with the Israel Navy.

 

Other Information

USCGC NORTHLAND received two battle stars for her World War II service.

Two cutters of the US Coast Guard have borne the name NORTHLAND - USCGC Northland WPG-49 and USCGC Northland WMEC-904.

 

Additional Naming History Sources

German Wikipedia provides additional history.

Israel Navy’s First Warship also provides additional history.

Marvin Weiss: WWII and the USS Northland provides a crew-member's recollection of the ship while it was named "The Jewish State".

About: Mossad LeAliyah Bet provides the following historical data:
"The Mossad LeAliyah Bet (lit. Institution for Immigration B) was a branch of the paramilitary organization Haganah in British Mandatory Palestine, and later the State of Israel, that operated to facilitate Jewish immigration to British Palestine. During the Mandate period, it was facilitating illegal immigration in violation of governmental British restrictions. It operated from 1938 until four years after the founding of the State of Israel in 1952. It was funded directly by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the JDC), and was not subject to the control of the Jewish Agency who operated their own Aliyah department headed by Yitzhak Rafael. The Yishuv referred to legal immigration as "Aliyah Alef" (Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, corresponding to the Latin A), whilst clandestine immigration was referred to as "Aliyah Bet" (Bet is the second letter, corresponding to the Latin B)."

 

---

 

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

---

Copyright 2024 Naval Cover Museum