More Life Aboard Ship

 

A month or so ago, I bought a picture of a couple of ship's officers that had been cut out of a larger photograph.  Anyway, I was at the same antique store where I found two more pictures of maritime officers.  The first photo I found had them in dress white uniforms, so I was thinking an ocean liner.  Of course, they could have been from a cargo ship, or for that matter, a coastal steamer.  It looks like the same hat badge from that earlier photo, but different people.  I'm still thinking ocean liner, so click on that in labels or just scroll back.    

Life Aboard Ship

 

Not the United States Navy.  At least I don't think so.  The formal, white uniform makes me think passenger ship. 

The Hospital Ship

 

I can't be certain, but my best guess is that this is a military hospital ship.  But is the man on the right a doctor or a patient?  

S.S. Drottningholm

 

The S.S. Drottningholm was built in 1904 by Alexander Stephen and Sons in Scotland.   Her first owner was the Allan Line and was named the Virginian.  During World War 1, she was chartered by the British as a troop transport.  Sold to the Canadian Pacific Line in 1917 and then sold to the Swedish American Line in 1920, renamed the Drottningholm, and operated by the line until 1951, then sold to the Home Lines, an Italian company that renamed the ship Brazil.  The ship's final owner was the Hamburg American Line, which renamed the ship the Homeland.  She was scrapped in Italy in 1955.

It's partially obscured, but I'm fairly certain that this postcard is postmarked, "NEW YORK N.Y. SEP 10 5 P.M. 1947."  The message, "The time is getting closer but just to say "Hello" Feeling fine and all looks interesting-Don't forget to write.  Love Ingrid."  The card was mailed to "Mrs. Imogene Abzug, 1342 Sunland Ave. Jamestown, N.Y." 

And the captions, BREKVORT CARTE POSTALE, S.S. DROTTNINGHOLM, SVENSKA AMERIKA LINIEN, SWEDISH AMERICAN LINE, GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN.   Printed in Sweden, 45.1 55,000 11.6.47, 645." 

Sailing to Catalina

  

Well, more than likely steaming to Catalina. Is that how it would have been said back when this picture was taken? Written on the back, "June 28 on way to Cataline Ile." I haven't been to Catalina in years, and the last time I went, there weren't any well-dressed people on the boat. 

The Canal

Same negative size, same contact print, same single weight matte paper, so even though it's not the same people and subject matter, it has to be by the same photographer.  With the boat in the background and the dirt berm it has to be a canal.  That doesn't help with a location.  There are canals like this all over the world.  The workers pictured may work on the canal or may work on the boat. 

Click on Triangular Plan in labels.  Hopefully I'll get back out to the store where I found the photos from this and the previous two posts and find some more.   If not, so it goes.

Queen Elizabeth

That's her in the funny hat.  Actually, this one is captioned, "R.M.S. QUEEN ELIZABETH. Nassau. Cruise of 1965."  We are not amused.

Victoria, B.C.

I purchased this card on EBay.  The seller had two versions of this image, this one, and a real photo postcard.  I bid on both in hope that I could post them and show how card publishers used black & white photos to make color postcards.  Unfortunately, I only won this one.  Published by "Barber Bros., Victoria, B.C." 

S. S. Alcoa Pennant

It's not often that I get to post something with an exact date, but I can with this one.  The Alcoa Pennant was launched on June 6, 1941.  She was built by Consolidated Steel at their shipyards in Wilmington, California.   The ship was built for The Alcoa Steamship Company and was supposed to transport bauxite, but World War 2 changed all that.  After completion, including the addition of deck guns, on January 26, 1942, the Alcoa Pennant was put on indefinite charter by the U.S. Navy, and despite her slow speed, and time spent in war zones, manged to survive the conflict.  She was scrapped in Mobile, Alabama in May, 1965.

Fishing In Florida 3

Those are really big fish.  I'm fascinated by the musicians in the fourth photo.  Were they hired to provide entertainment for a fishing trip, or did they hang around the docks hoping for a tip for a song or two?

Mildred Takes A Trip 3

It doesn't look like Mildred keeps her album in a nice, easy to follow format.  In our first two posts, she bounced around from California, to Arizona, and back to California again.   Her rambling ways continue with this post.  The top photo makes some sense if she was, in fact, going between Arizona and the Pacific fleet at San Diego.  To me, it looks a lot like the Imperial sand dunes, in California, right up against the Mexican border.  The Algodones Dunes, to use the proper name, is a large sandy area that's pretty much on a straight line between Phoenix and San Diego.  When these pictures were taken, I-80 wasn't even a dream in some road planers eye.  There were a couple of recently paved roads (They replaced old fashioned plank roads.) and a Southern Pacific rail line that carried both freight and passengers.  So why am I linking the Pacific coast and Phoenix?  Well, there's no coast in Arizona, and the Pacific is the closest ocean, and that bottom photo, well that location I recognize.  It's Roosevelt Dam (Theodore, not Franklin.) in the mountains north and east of Phoenix on the Salt River.  It was started in 1902 and finished in 1915.  On completion, it was the world's largest masonry dam, and Lake Roosevelt was the largest reservoir.

Click on Mildred's Album for more views.

Mildred Takes A Trip 2

Back on the battleship, and I think I might know which battleship.  Could it be the U.S.S. California?  Click on the ships name in labels, and you can pull up a postcard of the Cali in all her glory.  And if it's not the California, it's clearly a ship of the same design.  As far as the other two photos, one's obviously somewhere along the California coastline.  The San Diego area might be a good bet.  After all, that's where the fleet was, but then again, it sure looks like the mouth of Ballona Creek near modern day Marina del Rey.  I don't ride my bike out to the coast too often, but there's a bike path along the shore, and the shape of the  ridge line in the background looks like it could be it.  Of course, with the way the California coast has been carpeted with building after building, it might be impossible to match an old photo to a modern landscape.  The bottom photo is Arizona, south of Ajo, in what is now Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  It's the only place in the world they grow.

Click on Mildred's Album in labels to see the whole thing.

Mildred Takes A Trip 1

I've had very mixed feelings about posting Mildred's photo album.  This one's a bit different for me.  I didn't buy it for the photos, I bought it for the album itself.  It's very small, let's say  little bigger than a postcard, and the pictures are a very odd sort, some interesting, and some not so much.  Too, while most photo album are easy to disassemble, making it easier to scan the images, that isn't the case with this one.  I was afraid to untie the leather ribbon, and I was also afraid to open the album and lay it out flat on the scanner.  In the end, I took the risk, bent it open and scanned.  Finally, there's only one photo per page, so there won't be any full page scans to show position.

I suspect that Mildred was the photographer and isn't seen in any of the photos, but I like to think that that is wrong, and that Mildred is the young lady in the center of the first snapshot.  Another guess, Mildred and her family have taken a trip to see a son and brother who was in the United States Navy.  That tower in the background is clearly from a battleship.  It's the second photo that I really like.  Two people are well hidden behind the flowers while maybe Mildred is off to the side, clearly visible.

More to come, click on Mildred's album in labels to see the rest.  At least, once I get them posted.

Cruising In Luxury

 

Alright, the bottom picture is kind of crappy, but I don't like to edit stuff from collections, even small ones.  As a matter of fact, the top two photos aren't that great, and the color restoration setting clearly has some limitations, but....

One of our local radio stations (Local is Los Angeles.) has an ask the mayor show.  I was on my way out the door, I was getting ready to turn off the radio, and the last thing I heard was that one of the questions for that day was about ferry service between Ventura and L.A.   To a lot of people that will seem like a daft idea, but I say why not?  As a matter of fact, I think an L.A.-Ventura connection isn't ambitious enough.

 As the population of our state increases, as the need to get around grows, it only makes sense to add boat traffic to the mix.  If I need to get to San Diego from Los Angeles, I'd rather take the light rail to the Santa Monica pier and a coastal ferry to San Diego than sit on the I-15.  Yes, I know, there's already trains, planes, and buses, but why not add sea travel into the mix.  Hey, L.A. to San Francisco, Oakland to Eureka or Crescent City, it all makes sense to me.

I know what some people will say.  "Won't it be expensive?"  We subsidize mass transit, Amtrak, and if it ever gets built, we'll subsidize high speed rail, so I don't see  the difference.

All pictures dated "WEEK OF OCT. 25-58 RN"

Women At Sea

I purchased this one here, in southern California, so there's a good chance that this photo was taken on the run to Catalina Island.  There was a time when there was  passenger service between Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Mexico.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'd love to get a coastal steamer to the Bay Area.  Driving, the train, or flying all work fine, but sitting on the deck of a ship would be a great way to get around.

She's a Bear

I don't know when this postcard was made, but I, at least, have a date range on when the photo was taken.  Construction began on the U.S.S. California in 1916, after the beginning of World War 1, but a year or so before  U.S. entry into the conflict.  She wasn't launched until 1919, so the California  didn't see any action in the war to end all wars.  After being commissioned, the California became the flagship of America's Pacific Fleet.  I wasn't able to find out when she lost that status, but I do know the California was one of the battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor.  She was raised and repaired enough that she was able to steam to  Bremerton, Washington, under her own power, for a complete refit.  There, her two funnels were combined in a single stack, and her superstructure was completely redesigned.  Since this photo shows a ship with twin funnels, clearly it was taken between 1919 and 1941. The California returned to active duty in 1944, missing most of the war in the Pacific.  She did see service during the American invasion of the Philippines, but was severely damaged by a kamikaze hit, which meant another return to the west coast for more repairs.  The California was back on duty for the invasion of Okinawa.  After the war ended, unable to fit through the Panama Canal, The California made a trip around the southern tip of Africa to the east coast of the United States, where she was transferred to the reserve list in 1946.  She was decommissioned in 1947 and sold for scrap in 1959.  One of the things learned in World War 2 was that the age of battleships was over.  Naval warfare would now be dominated by submarines, aircraft carriers and smaller ships.  Despite all the money and time spent to build, repair, and refit the California, she never played a truly significant part in any war.  

The Photographer's Foot

I'm not even going to try on the translation.  Hell I can't even make out the handwriting.

I've written about this before in other posts but hey why not repeat myself.  I'd love to take an ocean voyage and that's a problem.  The age of trans Atlantic passenger service is pretty much over.  At least the type I'm interested in.  Had I been born about 50 years earlier, I could have booked passage on a nice ship meant to get from point A to point B.  Cabins, shuffle board, and the Captain's table.  Now, it's cruise lines that are this weird hybrid of Las Vegas and floating shopping mall.   The actual Vegas bores me, and my idea of shopping is making a list, buying what I need, and getting out of there as soon as possible.  On a cruise ship, I'm kinda stuck.

I'm thinking the twenties or thirties.

Indiana Harbor Postcard

It's not surprising that photos with a Mexican connection end up in Los Angeles, but Indiana?  It doesn't read on the scan, but there is an embossed studio mark on this postcard.  "ATLAS STUDIO 3517 MAIN ST. INDIANA HARBOR, IND."  Indiana Harbor is a man made harbor and ship's canal on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, near East Chicago Indiana.  My bet is that these three men were members of a ship's crew, traveling through the St. Lawrence Seaway, all the way to Lake Michigan and the Chicago area.  When this photo was taken, Chicago and Gary Indiana were both major industrial centers, receiving raw materials from all over the world, and shipping out finished goods.  What better way to show the folks back home the great adventure of world travel.

Just so you know, mere coincidence yesterdays post from Michigan City and today's from Indiana Harbor, just a few dozen  miles apart.   I've owned this card for a couple of years buying it from a local antique mall.  The Michigan City card came from a lot purchased on eBay, just a few months ago.  Actually, that purchase reminded me that this card had been sitting in my files.

Relax

Written on the back, "Now who says I didn't take it easy coming over?  Every second and never had such a quiet relaxed time.  Hope on next trip will be with You & Chaty to Manilla?  Why not?"  It might be difficult to relax with Chaty along.  Of course, Chaty might be short for something other than Chatty. and since Manila is misspelled.....well, who knows.

World War 1, On The Move

More from the camera of O.D. Caldwell.

Both of the Caldwell posts seem to be about movement.  Most of the battle damage photos look like they were taken from a moving train, and they were all of different locations.  Today's post show men in trains and men on ships.  But, are they on the way to war, or are they on the way home?  I prefer to think that the war was over for these men, and they were headed back to the U.S.  That's why I put the Statue of Liberty picture last.