Ships gallery

[az_gila]

....
Az, I was pleased to read of your sons service on the Lady Washington,was he in the Mercantile Marine? Do you have any more mariners in the family? just interested,that's all,
BrianD

Brian,

Not in the merchant marine... he had a spell of about 7-8 years where he volunteered as crew on tall ships.

It started off with this one in Erie, PA

http://flagshipniagara.org/flagship_niagara/index.htm and after a few seasons was it's cook.

The highlight was the brig being in the lead group at the Presidential July 4th 2000 review in NY harbour. This article describes it a bit and give the history of the brig from the war of 1812 -

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all

Spread to a few others, one taking kids in San Fransisco and two seasons on the Hiawain Chieftain/Lady Washington that cruise together on the US West coast.

Sailing with kids he discovered that haviing them quickly identify the downwind railing was very important...

I went on a "battle cruise" out of Marina del Rey on the Lady Washington and it was a kick - shooting cannons at each other in the Pacific while dodging the idiots in power boats who sail as badly as they drive on the LA freeways....

I was very impressed with the crew running up and down the rigging working on the sails - it's a long way up there!

He since settled down and now owns/runs a game shop in Santa Monica.

The other sailors in the family were my grandfather who was a captain for the Palm Lines before WWII, and my uncle, who I just found out was a wireless operator on HMS Inman in WWII, a Captain Class frigate (Destroyer Escort) built in Boston under Lend Lease. After the war is was immeadiately scrapped. It performed North Atlantic convoy escort duties.

[brian daley]

Hi Az, thanks for that very interesting bit of reading. Your son seem like a very well put together young man,and your granddad would'nt no slouch,rising to the office of master. I saw a movie just this weekend about a Lease Lend four stacker,"HMS Gift Horse" it was called ,and it was a bloody good yarn
Staying on the Atlantic,tonights posting is one of the best known ship portraits of all time. This is RMS Queen Mary,painted by the Marine Artist Sibley. The picture was executed in 1936,at the time of her first voyage to New York,during which she won the Blue Riband and broke six Atlantic Speed records. A print of this painting hung in the hall of our proimary school in Tiber Street over 60 years ago ,I came across it in an old magazine tonight,called Shipping Wonders of the World,it was printed in 1937.
BrianD

[az_gila]

Brian... thanks for the comments.

In checking the history of the lend Lease Captain class frigates, it seems that you are close to the UK memorial site...

On April 17, 2005 a memorial to the Captains, those that served, and those killed in action in them was dedicated at the National Memorial Arboretum near Alrewas, Staffordshire.

Introduction to the Order of Service from the memorial dedication April 17, 2005 Today we come in thanksgiving for all who served on Captain Class Frigates in the Royal Navy in the Second World War.
In particular we give thanks to those who made the supreme sacrifice on behalf of us all.
We remember all those who were shore-based, especially the Wrens who gave valuable support to those who served at sea, and who are represented here today.

I'm always amazed at how much was produced in such a short time during WWII....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_class_frigate

78 of these frigates in just two years, along with all of the other ship building going on.

When I asked my uncle about where they sailed, he said he didn't really know, wartime secrecy extended to the crew, but he did say they went pretty far North in their crossing of the Atantic with the convoys.

[brian daley]

Hi Az,
The Gift Horse(USS Whittier) was one of the ships mentioned below,old ,decommissioned four stackers that the US gave to Britain in exchange for bases in the Bahamas. I've cut and pasted the item below ,which was on an American website. A lot of people have forgotten this deal,or are too young to know about it,but those old scows helped Britain ,and Canada,to give some protection to mechant ships in convoys, against the U-Boat attacks. When the Lease Lend Act got properly underway Britain was enabled to arm itelf adequately until America entered the war.
I often visit the National War Memorial in Alrewas, it is a poignant place and has a quite peaceful atmosphere,it does not celebrate wars,it remembers and honours those who died in them.

" As soon as WWII started in Europe President Roosevelt wanted to help Britain and France win the war, but most Americans and Congress were against getting the USin a war in Europe. Roosevelt did what he could to convince Americans of the dangerof letting Nazi Germany win, such as giving numerous speeches against Hitler. Eventually Congress agreed to sell arms to Britain only if Britain paid in cash and picked up the goods in British ships. But the unprotected ships were being sunk by German submarines. So Roosevelt got Congress to agree to give Britain 50 old destroyers in exchangefor leasesof naval bases in the Atlantic. Then Britain ran out of cash, so Roosevelt came up with the Lend-Lease Act - Britain would borrow arms and materials and return them at the end of the war, and America would provide escort up to the middle of the Atlantic. When American warships ran into German submarines, Roosevelt ordered them to shoot on sight. Despite the various provocations Hitler ordered German submarines not to engage US warships since he did not want to give Roosevelt an excuse to declare war on Germany. Nonetheless accidents did happen and a couple US warships were attacked and sunk.For all practical purposes the US and German navies were in a shooting war in the Atlantic, but that wasn't enough to get an official war going between Germany and the US. Then on December 6, 1941 Japan attacked the US and America declared war on Japan. Japan was an ally of Germany, but Germany was under no obligation to go to war with Japan. Yet Hitler declared war on the US on December 10. People are still not sure why Hitler did what he did."

[brian daley]

Hi Az,
I knew I had a print of the ship that gift horse was based on. Itwas the HMS Cambpelltown,an American WW1 "four piper" that was transferred in the aformentioned deal. She was altered greatly for the St Nazaire Raid,shorn of two funnels and her superstructure altered to give her the appearance of a German destroyer. She was cleaned out below decks and had 5 tons of high explosive concreted into her hull.She is shown here making a dash for the all important lock gates,which she rammed ,the explosives were on a time charge and she blew up after all the crew had left her.There were very many allied casualties,both British and Canadian and the ramming had no real effect on the course of the war. In 1962 I worked with one of the commando's who had been on the raid and he stated that their German captors treated the wounded survivors brutally.
The painting was the work of that great war artist Norman Wilkinson;I had to lose a third of it because the print was too big for my scanner,
BrianD

[brian daley]

This is another lively study by Mark Myers, this one marks the occasion that the British Admiral Sir Sidney Dacres paid a courtesy visit to Cherbourg.His squadron consisted of the ironclads Achilles,Black Prince,Hector,Roal Sovereign and Dewfewnce,and the wooden screw ships Edgar ,Liverpool,Octavia and Constance. They were met by by the French flagship Magenta,seen here firing a salute as the British ships enter the harbour. This visit was used by both navies to showcase their latest vessels as there was a very definite arms race on at the time,
BrianD

[brian daley]

This is a painting by another great British marine artist,Frank H.Mason. This work is of the the battle on the Rufiji River ,when the Monitor vessels Severn and Mersey engaged the German battle cruiser Konigsberg.(see picture by Kenneth Shoesmith of same incident)
Like Shoesmith and Dixon,Mason had an abiding love of ships and the sea ,also like Shoesmith,he served as an engineer officer, and served in WW1 as a Lieutenant in the RNVR. He had a very succesful career and painted ships of all sizes and calling,he died aged 78 in 1965,
BrianD







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[brian daley]

Here is another ship portrait from Glyn L.Evans book on Kenneth D.Shoesmith,here he has painted an unamed ship which is dressed in dazzle,a method of camouflage developed for the Admiralty during WW1.
Another artist,Norman Wilkinson came up with the idea of "dazzling" ships because it made them almost unidentifiable when at sea. Here, the ship is shown at anchor in the harbour at New Orleans,although most sailors would say it was a quayside port ,being on a river and havcing no enclosed moorings. Why Dazzle was not used in WW2 I cannot say,could it have been the expense?
BrianD

[wsteve55]

Took these pic's the other week,of the Fort George,in Canada dock. I presume she was just docked there,but there have been a few navy ships dismantled,nearby,recently! Hope she doesn't end up as scrap! I'm probably wrong,but didn't she serve in the Falklands war?

[brian daley]

Another ship portrait from Glyn L. Evans book of Kenneth D.Shoesmith, the ship depicted here has been torpdoed and ,mercifully ,did not sink. She is shown being towed to safety by two steam tugs.
The ship looks like the Royal Mail steamhip Demerara,Shoesmith was sailing with RMSP at the time and may have witnessed this rescue in May 1915. The Demara sailed on until 1933 when she was sold to a Japanese scrapyard. The U-Boat that attacked her was rammed ,and sunk, by a Royal Navy patrol boat in 1918,
BrianD

[Oudeis]

Dazzle?
There must have been a great deal of head-scratching back in those days. What with an invisible ship and a thick column of dark smoke rising as if from nowhere.

[brian daley]

I think they were all dropping acid,
BrianD

[wsteve55]

That's a great pic' there,Brian!

[ItsaZappathing]

I think they were all dropping acid,
BrianD

Haha.

[brian daley]

In Tonight's posting we have two photographs,both having the HMS Vamguard almost centre frame. In the first photograph we have the Royal Yacht cruising down past the naval dockyards, the Vanguard is moored alongside , and in the dockyard we can see Britains most famous warship,HMS Victory. It is noticeable that all three ships are dressed up for some kind of celebration. The second picture shows Vanguard grounded at the Point,in Old Portsmouth. Her sleek lines show that she was of a newer generation of battleship, she was the equal of anything afloat but did not see service until WW2 was ended. Her greatest moment came when she carried the Royal Family to South Africa in 1947.
The grounding incident happened as she made her way to the breakers,a sad end for a great,untested, ship,
BrianD