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Lots of old warship pics (digitally colorized)


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There's much of interest at the link, with many ships I've never seen before. Naval grogs may suffer permanent sanity loss, and it's great to see many ships we read about as something other than flaming ruins. There's a vessel so old I wouldn't be shocked to learn it was inspired by the CSS Stonewall.  

CSS_Stonewall_1.jpg

CSS Stonewall at Ferrol, Spain in 1865. Image Credit: Unknown

 

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Turns out the ironclad ram it wasn't inspired by the above, it used to be the CSS Stonewall!  The above is Japanese ironclad Kōtetsu, whose name means "ironclad."

She was the first ironclad ever in the Japanese Navy. Image Credit: Unknown

Regards,

John Kettler

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For those who don't know, I thought I'd share a bit of a photographic history shocker.  There is excellent quality original color photography from the Tsarist Period. How it was done is explained in the link. Unfortunately for us naval grogs, almost every single frame was shot inland.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/old-russian-empire-color-photos-180950229/

About the Prokudin-Gorskii Collection

The Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection features color photographic surveys of the vast Russian Empire made between ca. 1905 and 1915. Frequent subjects among the 2,607 distinct images include people, religious architecture, historic sites, industry and agriculture, public works construction, scenes along water and railway transportation routes, and views of villages and cities. An active photographer and scientist, Prokudin-Gorskii (1863-1944) undertook most of his ambitious color documentary project from 1909 to 1915. The Library of Congress purchased the collection from the photographer's sons in 1948.

Collection is here.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/prok/

 

 

20458r.jpg

 

  • Title: Parovoz "Kompaund" s paroperegri︠e︡vatelem Shmidta
  • Title Translation: Steam engine "Kompaund" with a Schmidt super-heater
  • Creator(s): Prokudin-Gorskiĭ, Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich, 1863-1944, photographer
  • Date Created/Published: [1910]
  • Medium: 1 negative (3 frames) : glass, b&w, three-color separation ; 24 x 9 cm.
  • Summary: The railcar in the background is thought to be Prokudin-Gorskii's traveling photographic laboratory and living quarters.

 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Wanted to note "lots" means pages and pages of photos, each with dozens of large format images. Have never seen anything quite like this. Certainly, barring a specialist work, such photos as these are not familiar at all. Jane's, Brassey's and such have nothing like this image size, that I recall. Also, though I posted a very old photo, most of the coverage is of IJN vessels of the WW II period imaged before the War. Thus, you can see the Yamato in her glory, the Japanese cruisers and destroyers which dominated the "Slot," floatplanes, etc.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

Edited by John Kettler
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SLIM,

There's something wrong with the image. All I can see is some sky at the top and water at the bottom. The USS Texas is still with us, but she apparently needs restoration. 

https://battleshiptexas.org

You can help, but unfortunately the cool commemorative shotgun is sold out, so you'll have to do with a special USS Texas themed M1911A1. Mind, it's slightly over $1000.

https://battleshiptexas.org/donate/

Very nice slideshow and videos here.

http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/battleship-texas

One bit of nautical chrome I found fascinating is that she shared a scary design feature now believed to explain the famous/infamous sinking of the USS Maine. This was that the ammunition magazine shared a common bulkhead with the boiler room. This meant that a major fire there would rapidly heat the bulkhead, against which were stored powder bags. Saw this a few years ago on some TV documentary. Later battleships had cork insulation on the magazine side specifically to prevent this acute danger.

This is a charming, moving and informative video on the history of the last Dreadnought. Though there is some wrong footage, overall it's a pretty great video and is voiced by Lyle Lovett. Interestingly, the ship is 103, which is my computer's age in cyber years!

Regards,

John Kettler

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1 hour ago, John Kettler said:

The USS Texas is still with us, but she apparently needs restoration. 

Er, no. Different ship. The USS Texas in SLIM's pic is an earlier one about the time of the Spanish-American War. After it was stricken from the active list, it was used as a target ship. Later the remains were scrapped due them being judged a hazard to navigation. You can read about it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(1892)

Michael

Edited by Michael Emrys
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To whom it concerns: Peter Padfield's "Battleship" gives a very interesting overview of the development of battleships from the 1850's (ok, he even starts a little earlier with sailing ships in the 16th century, but touches the Age of Sail only briefly) to modern times. I found the book pretty amazing, but admit: The naval warfare between Trafalgar and WW1 always was a blind spot (with only very few highlights) for me. I never thought a book about such a dry topic could be so thrilling. I found it most interesting to read how many very different ideas and concepts had been developed, before the design of modern battleships emerged with the "Dreadnought" and what a race of competing technologies that was.

The best is: You get it for 90 Cent as Kindle book at Amazon.

Edited by StieliAlpha
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Bil,

Always wanted to see her, but I thought the whole ship was white. Believe the business about the uninsulated bulkhead between the boiler room and the magazine got ported to the USS Texas story  from a sidebar examination the investigator did of the USS Olympia. I've read accounts of what a nightmare was for the crew on vessels of the period. For after the men knocked themselves out taking aboard the coal and getting it down to the bunkers, they then got to clean the ship stem to stern to remove all evidence the coaling ever occurred.

Regards,

John kettler

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On 8/4/2017 at 11:57 PM, John Kettler said:

Bil,

Always wanted to see her, but I thought the whole ship was white. Believe the business about the uninsulated bulkhead between the boiler room and the magazine got ported to the USS Texas story  from a sidebar examination the investigator did of the USS Olympia. I've read accounts of what a nightmare was for the crew on vessels of the period. For after the men knocked themselves out taking aboard the coal and getting it down to the bunkers, they then got to clean the ship stem to stern to remove all evidence the coaling ever occurred.

Regards,

John kettler

Period photos and paintings all show a darker upper structure, and the paintings show her with the same coloring as in my photo.

Yes I agree, the coal ships sound like a nightmare to work on, hundreds of pounds of coal ash would come up to the berthing deck constantly and have to be dumped overboard.. must have been very hard to keep equipment and yourself clean.  

Of course I have been on many modern US Navy ships as well, and they all seem like horrors to work and live on... I'm glad I was Army.

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I can't recall what the first ship model I made was, [edit: It just came to me, when I was 7 or 8 I started but did not finish a small model of an LST in wood] but the first carrier was the USS Wasp CV-7 when I was 10 or 11. Later on I built the USS Shangri-La CV-38 (in the modernized version with the angled deck) and the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt CV-42, also modernized with the angled deck. Among many model building projects, I built PT-Boats (both styles) destroyers, both light and heavy cruisers, battleships, and even an attack transport. Also a model of the USS Norton Sound AVM-1 experimental missile research ship.

Michael

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7.8.2017 at 5:07 PM, Holman said:

USS Olympia is indeed beautiful!

One thing you really notice is the different living standard for officers and sailors:  wood-paneled, finely outfitted staterooms vs. hammocks slung around the guns and in the passageways.

Your comment reminded me to this 19th Century cartoon:

In case the text does not come out readable: The officer asks the sailor, why he is praying, if he even would be afraid of the enemy. The sailor answers, he would be praying that the bullets will be distributed exactly like the prize money....

Bild2.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

I wrote a post, which somehow disappeared,  in response to the cartoon, which I'm guessing originally was in a much larger, therefore readable, format. In my response I fully supported the sailor's viewpoint on how prize money was divvied up, for his crack was solidly grounded in fact. Found this great study on the matter. It provides quite the education on the topic and is full of grog goodness. Pirates had written agreements on how the proceeds of a capture would be divided, and it was a model of fairness relative to the Royal Navy's, in my view cruel, approach.

Golden Harvest: The British Naval Prize System, 1793-1815
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
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4 hours ago, John Kettler said:

I wrote a post, which somehow disappeared,  in response to the cartoon, which I'm guessing originally was in a much larger, therefore readable, format. 

Yep, I found the cartoon in an old Time Life book, named "Age of Naval Warfare" or so and took a photo, which I had to reduce to this "microspot" size to be able to upload. If you want, I can send you a nicer (and readable) scan of it.

Re the prize money: Was it in the Royal Navy not "Half for the crew, half for the officers"?The Captain's share again being half of the officers share.

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5 hours ago, StieliAlpha said:

Re the prize money: Was it in the Royal Navy not "Half for the crew, half for the officers"?The Captain's share again being half of the officers share.

Maybe, but I have this lingering ghost of a memory that it was half for the captain, a quarter for the officers, and a quarter for the crew. BTW, that may not be as inequitable as it sounds. There were some ship's expenses that might come out of the captain's share and the officers (including the captain) were normally expected to buy their own rations, uniforms, etc.

Michael

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