http://ghc.ctc.edu/images/GHC_Seal2.gif
?? Argent, on water barry wavy in base a frigate to sinister in full sale Proper between a pair of flaunches Azure, each charged with a fir tree Vert.
Quote:
The College Seal is a shield of silver bearing a frigate in full sail with a flasque of royal blue on either side bearing tall fir trees in green. The shield rests upon a wide silver band which is bordered by a circle of rope and which bears the name of the college at the top and the date of the college’s founding, 1930, with a leaping salmon on either side. On each side between the shield and the band is a spray of cranberries.
The ship stands for Captain Robert Gray’s "Columbia". The rope, tress, cranberry sprays and fish are symbols of the industry and life of the harbor.
The seal was designed in 1947 by Esko K. Rentola, a Grays Harbor College graduate.
I’d say "Argent in a seascape a full-rigged ship under sail to sinister proper between two flaunches Azure each charged with a fir tree proper."
Calling the base barry wavy suggests a true heraldic sea rather than the naturalistic one actually depicted, and blazoning the trees proper instead of vert technically avoids the tincture violation.
Joseph McMillan wrote:
I’d say "Argent in a seascape a full-rigged ship under sail to sinister proper between two flaunches Azure each charged with a fir tree proper."
Calling the base barry wavy suggests a true heraldic sea rather than the naturalistic one actually depicted, and blazoning the trees proper instead of vert technically avoids the tincture violation.
Thank you for help on this and the other recently posted arms.
No problem; what else are we here for?
You know, given the number of American corporate arms that incorporate landscapes and seascapes in the 18th/19th century style, it would probably be a good thing to delve into how the heralds who granted such arms back then blazoned them. It could well be that the Gray’s Harbor arms would have been blazoned something like "Argent in a seascape the full-rigged ship Columbia entering Gray’s Harbor on the starboard tack with XXX and YYY (names of the two headlands) in the middle distance proper…" Not very heraldic, but I think I’ve seen English blazons from the era of the Napoleonic wars that have that kind of flavor.
Based on what (if anything) we can find re: older landscape/seascape blazons, and how common they are, perhaps they deserve mention & a brief discussion in the Best Practices. Hopefully we would note that they have been used but are not considered a "best practice" for new arms, whether personal/familial or civic, because…
