Question regarding Shipyard Unit Markings
 

I have a 1906 Navy, altered safety, with the unit marking of "W.W. 1638", which I have learned is associated with the Werft Wilhelmshaven shipyard. Can anyone tell me if this weapon was issued to the shipyard for use by shipyard personnel, or was it subsequently assigned to warships being constructed?

In addition, the original numbered magazine to the Navy also has the number 1638 stamped in the rear of the metal magazine about 1/2 inch above the wooden base. Is this typical of 1906 Navies with unit markings?


Thanks in advance for any insights that the group might provide to a fledgling collector.

Pictures of the magazine and close-ups of the numbers might help.
Sounds nice, and we always enjoy photos of Navy Lugers too.
dju

The Werft Wilhelmshafen (W.W.), Werft Kiel (W.K.) and Werft Danzig (W.D.) pistols belonged to the armories of the three dockyards. They were issued to vessels when they were commissioned and returned to the armories when a vessel was decommissioned or in the dockyard for overhaul. P.04s were not marked to individual ships.
Midway through WWI the Navy started to collect many of the small arms on the vessels for issue to the Marinekorps Flandern fighting in Belgium.

The Wilhelmshafen dockyard did mark their magazines with the unit mark weapon number. Having a double-matched magazine like that is a very nice plus for your pistol.

Here is the stock disk and a pair of matching magazines from one of my P.04s

Hi Bob,
Since the unit or property numbers on the magazine's spine do not have their prefixes they can only be identified by position and orientation. Mike's exceptionally rare doubly matched magazines are Werft Wilhelmshaven (near the base and horizontal). If they were marked to the 1st Torpedo Division they would be marked near the base and vertical, to the 2nd Torpedo Division, near the top and vertical.
Regards, Norm

Mike, IMHO the 2208 numbering on your mags were not done with a contemporary German die set and like some others above, all the proper numbering on the spine of mag, should be vertical not horizontal. TH

Actually, the W.W. mags were pantographed with horizontal unit marks. The unit marks on W.W. grips are also pantographed, although Wilhelmshafen stamped the stock disks.