Navy Submarine Tender Service Award

I was down in "Wilmy World" with my wife last week. While she was doing some consulting I went to do a little picking between errands. Picked this up for a risky price, but thought it was to cool to leave in a back room doing nothing.... I need some help with;
a) how to price it
b) how unusual it is
and
c) what it was given for

Granted, I don't know who it was given to either which would have been nice and if you got something else that would be useful information, that would be great as well!

Looks to be solid cast (no magnet attraction) brass weighing in at 4 lb 15.2 oz.

The ship itself measures 10" long, 1 1/4" wide and about 2 1/8" at its highest point.

 

Looks like a crude casting probably made in the ships machine shop by someone stationed on the ship for 2 years.

 

Yes, I thought it was relatively "crude" as well. I didn't know navy ships had machine shops. Very cool! Suppose they could have used a spent brass casing?

 

It’s a cool thing,but also a very niche thing.Of more value to someone I would think that has some sort of ‘personal’ connection or family history thing...

 

One of my brother-in-laws was stationed on a sub tender for a number of years as a MM.They called the ship the USS Never Sail as it was attached permanently to a pier in Long Beach. They had a full machine shop and could do casting.

 

And the USS Canopus as a ship used to repair and refit submarines would have had a top of the line machine and engineering department.

 

lol USS Never Sail......lol