Authenticity is Everything
OT - A nice little discovery!
Hi All,
As some of you know I have been involved with ocean liners for some 25 years and have served as a consultant and researcher for about as many books. I just purchased this launch image taken just after 4 pm on a rainy Thursday, September 20th, 1906 at Wallsend. I was looking over the image and I found a man and a boy taking what appears to be photographs - and I think I can show you one of their images! These folks would have been hired by Frank & Sons of Gateshead, or R.C. Bell, or another local firm. If that is a movie camera it would be VERY early. And, the film has never surfaced if that is the case.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Findbooks on
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Interesting.
Could just be a large plate camera on a tripod, of course - difficult to make out any features.
You might have enjoyed a chat with my old dad. He was a fireman on Queen Mary for a few months - i.e. stoking the fires, not putting them out.
I don't remember exactly how long he was aboard but long enough to earn a medal! For bravery: he disarmed and subdued a crew member who had gone berserk with an axe and wounded several of the crew, I don't remember ever seeing the medal but I still have his service card somewhere.
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Hello,
That is very interesting! I've talked to a ton of people over the years and not even my author friends have heard that story. And yes, would have loved another interview. I share a link to an article I wrote about the Mauretania which has some interviews in it - one woman who actually saw the Mauretania enter the North Sea and leave for her "North About" delivery trip. It is illustrated almost entirely with restored unpublished images from my collection.
The site is not mine - the text is a little light so just highlight it to read.
Farewell to the Tyne: Photographs and Memories of the Mauretania Le...
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Historic Autographed Letter Signed, September 21st, 1906, six pages describing in great detail the launching of the Cunard express liner R.M.S. Mauretania, sister of Lusitania (sunk 5.7.15) and the fastest and perhaps the greatest liner of her day (26.75 knots even before entering service, "no" lives lost in WW1 and not sunk). She had the largest turbine engines in the world. She was, by far and in fact, the largest and fastest man-made object on the planet until 1929. She briefly attained 32 knots an hour (with the wind at her back) in 1931, which is truly incredible. I have been looking for something like this for some time. Over 15 years, easily. I've just had postcards and
some unique photographs of this event. This letter is six full pages and has truly excellent content. The launching goes on for a few pages starting well before - thses folks waited some time. I knew there were 20,00 people there (on a rainy day) but this is a different vantage. I wrote out a bit below - very exciting:
“…We stood beside the corporation quay & got a splendid view…About 3:35 we heard the hammering and then the buzzer blow and every one was on the tip toe of excitement in fact held their breath, until the shout went up ‘She’s moving!’ & then oh!...The roar off voices, whistles, buzzers until she reached the water was deafening...”
Below is an original photograph (one I have never shown I believe) of the event taken from Ballast Hill (exactly what it sounds like - a pile of rocks) across the river, a ticket to attend the launch, and this new letter:
This is the liner that I research and write about. I have not been active in this area for a few years but my research and images will all be in a new and comprehensive book by a friend. In Wallsend now, at the Discovery Museum Segedunum Annex, which is about 1000 ft from where this launch took place in 1906, there is a full African mahogany pilaster from the First Class Lounge which I identified, authenticated and sold to the Discovery Museum in 2010. I also wrote the tag. It is now fully restored and on permanent exhibit with an image of the ship from my collection. I show it below; one of the images I created during my research of this piece, the display and as first exhibited C. 2011. I believe it has been restored now for permanent display.
Above - Archival photo showing these pilasters and their location in the Lounge in green; key below.
Key to illustration:
1) Detail of the capital showing a Ram’s ear, horn and laurel leaves.
2) Archival photograph showing two pilasters in situ in the Lounge on the starboard side, near the double doors leading forward to the Grand Entrance (Warren, plate 43, exact location shown with arrow in image 7).
3) The capital showing one of the two the Rams’ heads.
4) Archival detail of a Ram’s head Lounge capital (from a column).
5) Profile of the carved mahogany skirting and pilaster.
6) Detail of the pilaster carving with an archival detail of the acanthus fluting.
7) Deck plan showing the Lounge with pilaster locations highlighted in green (LLR).
8) The fluting with gilt floral motif.
9) The carved pilaster with skirting.
10) The crossed ribbon detailing.
11) The pilaster and skirting with the separate left side.
(Digital Photo File © 2012 Eric K. Longo)Link to full article below:
The Mauretania Pilaster - Restored and Displayed, By Eric K. Longo
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Findbooks, I took the liberty of posting some additional information, images and links for you and anyone else that is interested. I hope you emjoy! :-)
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Thanks, have enjoyed them.
I expect the maintenance costs of preserving her as a museum ship would have been too high to contemplate so long ago but a sad ending.
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Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed! Yes, too costly, and she did provide a substantial and much needed economic boost for men in Rosyth, where she was scrapped in 1935/36. Much of her still exists - the Boardroom at Pinewood Studios is her Reading and Writing Room sans dome. Her first Class Lounge, where the pilaster came from, is in Bristol, mostly intact, as a gay disco.
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To keep this autograph related, here is the signature of her first Captain, John Pritchard. There is a log from Carmania, an earlier turbine driven vessel he was given command of to gain experience with turbines shown is a snapshot lower left, a family portrait in uniform, and him on the bridge of the Mauretania on her delivery trip in Ocyober, 1907, upper right.
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