Last week, Minister for Heritage Steven Linares unveiled two plaques commemorating the sinking of the U.S Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, sunk by an enemy submarine in the Bristol Channel in 1918, and those who died on the U.S.S Chancey in 1917, while engaged on patrol duty off the Straits of Gibraltar.

The plaques were formerly displayed at Gun Wharf, but the decision was made to move them to the American War Memorial. The plaques date back to just after the first World War and had since taken a beating, with one having to be completely replicated following damage by bomb impact.

The manager for the Government project, Annemieke Witteveen, teamed up with Glenn Cano and Cano Monumental Masons to restore one plaque that required the reattachment of both broken pieces, sanding down the marble to recover its original colour, removing the old bronze lettering and replacing with new lettering and filling cracks and damage with special marble paste.

The making of the second plaque, a replica of the original, saw a great deal of reconstruction carried out, including 3D scanning of the old plaque to replicate original measurements of the eagle design. Over 1000 letters were engraved and drilled into the marble. The work took over two months to carry out.