CAMDEN, N.J. — Some of the silverware once used for special occasions aboard the historic Battleship New Jersey has been returned to the ship.
Nearly half of the 105-piece Tiffany & Co. set was returned to the ship docked in Camden last week after a 15-year effort to have the set moved from the New Jersey governor's mansion at Drumthwacket.
The Courier-Post reported (http://on.cpsj.com/1Pj2w0X ) that some of the set owned by the U.S. Navy dates to 1906 and has been on loan to the Drumthwacket Foundation since 1991, when the ship was decommissioned for the last time before it became a floating museum on Camden's waterfront.
Navy and museum officials signed an agreement earlier this month for a 10-year loan of the 45 pieces.
"It's great to have it come home. It's priceless and this is where it belongs," ship museum curator Jason Hall said.
The state had paid $10,000 to Tiffany & Co. in 1906 to have 55 pieces crafted as a gift for the first Navy Battleship New Jersey, BB-16. After its silver was transferred to a second battleship, the state commissioned more silver to be added to the collection, bringing it to at least 105 pieces.
The set including plates, goblets and a punch bowl is now on display in the captain's cabin of the ship. It was used for special dinners, teas and other formal occasions. Designs that feature many symbols of the state, the U.S. and the Navy are sculpted on the silver.
Anyone on a tour of the ship will be able to see the silver in the case.
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