eBay Tuesday: Mariners Savings Bank

New London pays tribute to its history as a whaling port with everything from the New London High School team name to the Whale Tail fountain at Parade Plaza. But the bank featured in today's eBay item went one step further.

Offered by user Mary Martin Postcards, this postcard shows the facade of the Mariners Savings Bank. Beneath the picture is a simple message: "Drop me a line when you have time. I love to hear from you all."

The Mariners Savings Bank was incorporated in 1867 with assistance from the National Bank of Commerce. It had a close connection with New London's prominent industry from the start, with the idea that the incorporators - including a number of prominent whaling captains - would be such that "both the marine and mercantile interests of the city were well represented, as well as the interests of adjoining communities." Two sailors made the first deposits in the bank.

The bank would do business in the same location as the National Bank of Commerce, in the National Union Bank Building, until it moved into the Crocker House in 1874. They occupied the building featured in the postcard in 1907, moving just up State Street to be neighbors to the post office when it was located at the corner of State Street and Union Street. 

Perhaps the most memorable feature of the bank was its collection of hundreds of artifacts related to the city's whaling past. Ranging from harpoons to a director's room modeled after a ship's cabin, the collection had been acquired over the years by treasurer P. LeRoy Harwood.

The bank ceased to be on a rather morose note in July of 1939. Harwood was accused of embezzling some $200,000 from the bank to cover stock market losses, while assistant treasurer Henry H. Smith was charged with stealing $1,600. Soon after, the Mariners Savings Bank consolidated with the Savings Bank of New London. 

Harwood committed suicide, leaving a note apologizing for his actions and asking that the whaling artifacts be preserved; they found a new home at Mystic Seaport. The acting treasurer, Frank S. Joseph, also killed himself. Smith was sentenced to a year in prison.

The bank itself would later be remodeled into "the present modern and efficient business block." Many of the more prominent features of the building were removed in this work, but the upper window visible in the postcard is preserved in what is now part of Blissworks Yoga.

The asking price for the postcard is $10.99, plus $2 for shipping. The auction ends at about noon on Wednesday.

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