Shako Crest

With the Oregon Treaty of 1846, the boundary between the United States and British North America (Canada) was settled at the 49th parallel. Great Britain retained Vancouver Island, which dipped below that latitude. A water boundary was prescribed to run through "the middle of the channel," dividing Vancouver Island from the mainland." Since there are three channels, so this vague wording left the fate of the San Juan Islands undecided.

San Juan Island, seven miles across the Haro Strait from the British colonial capital of Victoria, was the focus of mounting tensions that culminated in a crisis triggered in 1859. An American shot a pig owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, which in 1853 had established a farm on the island. The so-called "Pig War" nearly led to fighting between the US Army and Royal Navy. Instead of war, the nations agreed to a joint military occupation that maintained the peace for more than a decade. The British garrison, 13 miles north of the American camp, was composed of a detachment of Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI). The dispute was resolved in 1872 through binding arbitration by Kaiser Wilheml I of Germany, who placed the boundary on the ­Haro Strait, thus granting the San Juan Islands to the United States. The RMLI withdrew from the island, bringing the joint occupation to an end.

This crest was affixed to a shako the tall, cylindrical dress hat worn by Royal Marines. The crest includes features that symbolize their history and honors—including the Lion and Crown, Gibraltar, Globe and Laurel, and Fouled Anchor—as well as the corps' motto of Per mare Per Terram, which translates to “By Sea, By Land”. The crest was found during an archeological excavation in the 1970s.