WWII Strongroom Door

Brian Morland MLA Hon

James Carter, who works for the South Pacific WWII Museum located on the Island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu Province has a vault door in their collection; they are looking for positive identification and perhaps some of the backstories of both the artefact and the site.

What’s known so far: During WWII when Vanuatu was called New Hebrides, Santo was the site of the largest military base in the South Pacific—in fact it was where the book ‘South Pacific’ was written! As there were hundreds of thousands of US service personnel either based there or transiting through, US Navy Seabees built a bank vault around 1942/43 to hold all the cash necessary to pay the personnel.

The door was removed around the end of November (2021) as the vault itself was being demolished—which is a huge shame– but the door itself was saved for the Museum.

Suspicion is that it’s a Mosler and confirmation is sought; and if so can any body confirm where the serial number would be located.

wylk

A fascinating story.

I’m not too good at identifying doors, especially rectangular ones, and especially from the “janitor’s side” (outside). Mosler would be a good guess. Here are others with a similar pressure system:

The above is in Cincinnati. A close match though the crane is different and the hand wheel is larger.

The above are in Lead, South Dakota. Another near match, the crane seems to match as well as the finials. The pressure system is basically the same but differs in details.

The above is in Colorado Springs. This one is a Diebold door but used the same general design. The hand wheel is centered (left-right) and the finials are definitely different.

Mosler usually put a serial number on the boltwork operating handle, which seems to be missing on the Vanuatu door.

It would be great to see the other side of the door even though it’s probably in heartbreakingly bad condition.