Wad-02

The Thingvalla Line, founded in 1879, maintained a direct line between Scandinavian ports and America. The line was successful because it gave Scandinavian emigrants the opportunity to start their journey to the US without having to go to Germany or England. In 1898 the DFDS (Det Forenede Dampskibs Selskap / “The United Steamship Company”) took over the Thingvalla Line and the passenger line was continued under the name Scandinavian American Line. Their route started off in Copenhagen, Denmark, where –according to the box of the deck- the company was situated, and then called on Kristiania (Oslo) and Kristiansand (both in Norway) before crossing the ocean to New York. The passenger service was discontinued in 1935.

At this point the dating of the deck had been narrowed down to somewhere between 1923 and 1935. In an attempt to further pinpoint the date we took a closer look at the only clue left: the ship that was depicted on the back of the cards.

The original 4 ships of the Thingvalla Line were small and older vessels, made between 1873 and 1884. The fleet was expanded with another ship in 1897, just before the take-over by the DFDS. After the take-over it was still found necessary to further modernize the fleet and new ships were ordered. In 1901, 1902 and 1903 the sister ships SS Oscar II, SS Heilig Olav and SS United States were added and in 1913 the SS Frederik VIII completed the fleet.

Finding the ship that is depicted on the backs of the cards was relatively easy. Checking the photos of all the ships of the Scandinavian American Line, there was only one with two pipes on top: the SS Frederik VIII.

The SS Frederik VIII had a tonnage of 11,850 gross and was build by AG Vulcan from Hamburg, Germany.

It was launched on May 27, 1913 and had its maiden voyage for the Scandinavian American Line on February 5^th, 1914.

For her last voyage she departed from New York on December 7^th 1935 to Copenhagen.

In November 1936 she was sold to The Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking Co. for scrapping at Blyth.
*Picture taken from norwayheritage.com

So that information didn’t really change anything in dating the deck. Although we first thought that the total design on the back could suggest a maiden voyage, this was contradicted by the fact that the Frederik VIII’s maiden voyage started on Feb. 5, 1914, about 9 years before Waddington produced it’s first playing cards. So we checked if any special occasions had taken place, important enough to be supported or commemorated by this deck. Alas, the ship’s logs don’t give any conclusive information. So we got stuck and can only give a choice between a number of dates that might have been the reason for publication of this deck:
1/ the 25^th anniversary of the Scandinavian American Line in 1923.
2/ the 10^th anniversary of the ship in 1924.
3/ the first alternation to cabins and 3^rd class only in 1925.
4/ the addition of a tourist class to these in 1929.
5/ hard to imagine, but still possible, is that this deck was presented as a goodbye gift for her last voyage to the USA on Nov. 22, 1935.

		In December 2015 Paul Symons sent us a scan of his deck (similar courts), with a slightly different back design.

In the meantime we had learned from the WOPC site that the Ace of Spades with 4 indices was used by Waddington since 1925. All the decks seem to have this AS. In July 2020 Kris VanDenBossche of Ashaway Antiques send us pictures of a similar deck, in which each card was signed by a passenger and one of them had written a date on that card too: "9/24-1928". However, above are three different versions of the back design. So the deck has been printed and published 3 times. The first two are most likely the older ones. It's well possible that of these two the deck with the name in blue is the oldest. The lettering has a rather thick black outline. The lettering in yellow has a slimmer outline., which gives it a more modern look. Paul Symons' deck with the black lettering is probably the latest version. The lettering is completely different, even more modern, and less colors have been used in the complete design.

The deck consists of 52 cards, one joker and a blank card. It has solid gold edges and came in a gray box with a card glued -face down- on the bottom and the name of the company embossed in the lid.