SHIP “LUCKY BAG”

“Lucky Bag” is a naval term denoting a number of things.

U.S. Navy officer Matthew Fontaine Maury described his collection of facts and opinions about the Navy (gathered over a twenty-year period) as items that he had preserved in a “lucky bag.” These formed the basis for a number of articles with which Maury successfully advocated for reforms in the U.S. Navy (and which were published as Scraps From The Lucky Bag, in 1840 and 1841).

The annual yearbook published by the U.S. Naval Academy is called the Lucky Bag.

The 1940 edition of the Blue Jackets' Manual (the handbook given to U.S. Navy enlisted personnel) described the “lucky bag” as a place where chief petty officers stow (for safe-keeping) effects that are found adrift about the ship.

The “Lucky Bag” page on this website provides access to a variety of information and items that do not qualify as official documentation or otherwise “fit” on other pages on this website. Click on any link and a PDF of the item will open in a new window.


Ancient Order of the Deep/Crossing the Line Initiation Card (wallet-sized card issued to Joseph J. Osenkowski, Baker 2c)

Ancient Order of the Deep/Crossing the Line Initiation Certificate (21" x 15" certificate issued to Miro J. Kabat, Private, USMC, member of ERIE’s Sea Detachment)

Best Chow in the Navy (info on food served in enlisted men’s mess)

Fireman 1st Class Training Course Certificate issued to Louis Francis Hyde

Fireman 1st Class Training Course Certificate issued to Robert Edwin Stanney

Fireman 2nd Class Training Course Certificate issued to Robert Edwin Stanney

Letter from Galapagos Islands Dated December 13, 1938 (from unidentified ERIE enlisted man to unidentified friend, regarding the mail barrel at Post Office Bay on Floreana Island)

My Life in the Service (service info recorded by Nicholas Joseph Rodi, Soundman 3c, and scanned from a book with that title)

Ned James Wentz: History of His Sword (the amazing story of the return of his U.S. Naval Academy sword to his daughter, Frances Wentz Taber, some 70 years after Lt. Wentz lost his life, when the ERIE was torpedoed on November 12, 1942)

U.S.S. ERIE/Special Service Squadron Christmas Card (1938)

U.S.S. ERIE Christmas 1938 Menu

U.S.S. ERIE Chewing Gum Card (issued in 1941)

U.S.S. ERIE 2005 Commemoration Ceremony Brochure

U.S.S. ERIE Matchbook Cover

U.S.S. ERIE "Patrol Log" (Volume 1, Issue 1)

U.S.S. ERIE "Patrol Log" (Volume 1, Issue 2)

U.S.S. ERIE "Patrol Log" (Volume 1, Issue 3)

U.S.S. ERIE Plankowners’ Letter to Lt. Commander H. P. Knickerbocker, the ERIE’s first Executive Officer

U.S.S. ERIE Shakedown Cruise Postal Cancellation Booklet

U.S.S. ERIE Order Establishing Shore Patrol (Valparaiso Chile, May 23, 1938)