Boats and Ships

A photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park with a discussion of the flip side (what’s on the reverse of a photo) . Handwritten description on the back of this photo: "Morro Castle, H.B. L. H. Miller, H.B. Two Has Been's. Asbury Park, 1934." I purchased this photo after noticing how the young man, identified on the back as "L. H. Miller," was posing in front of what seems to be an almost ghostly ship. I didn't really understand what "Morro Castle" referred to, but I liked how the location-- Asbury Park , New Jersey--and year--1934--were written on the back. When I checked Wikipedia later, however, I discovered that Morro Castle was the ship's name, and I found out how it ended up at Asbury Park in 1934. As the Wikipedia article explains, " SS Morro Castle was an ocean liner of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for voyages between New York City and Havana, Cuba. The ship was named for the Morro Castle fortress that guards the entrance to Havana Bay. On the morning of September 8, 1934, en route from Havana to New York, the ship caught fire and burned, killing 137 passengers and crew members. The ship eventually beached herself near Asbury Park, New Jersey, and remained there for several months until she was towed off and scrapped [on March 14, 1935]." The burning ship drifted until it was just yards away from the Convention Hall pier at Asbury Park, where it became a macabre tourist attraction. An article on the History Bandits site, Dark Tourism and the SS Morro Castle as a Visceral Seaside Attraction , provides further details about the disastrous fire and includes aerial photos that reveal how close the doomed ship came to colliding with the Convention Hall. Given such a terrible tragedy, though, it's hard to imagine why L. H. Miller thought that he was such a " has-been " that he could compare himself to the Morro Castle . Or could it be that someone else wrote on the back of the photo, intending it as a tasteless joke to suggest that Miller was past his prime? Whatever the case might be, the photo reminds us of the fate of those who died or were injured aboard the Morro Castle more than eighty years ago and leaves us wondering what happened to L. H. Miller.

A real photo postcard. "Here's to Phoebe, A jolly good fellow! Have one on me."

A photo for the theme of photographic tricks and amusements during the free-for-all week of Wild Card Month in the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten date at top right: "Aug. 5, 1923."

Printed on the back of this real photo postcard: "J. A. Walk Studios, Philadelphia, Pa., Atlantic City, N.J. Opp. Million Dollar Pier entrance." For a similar souvenir photo, see The Jolly Crew of Atlantic City Life Boat No. 5 .

A laughter photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park . This jolly bunch seemed to be having a good laugh as they posed for a souvenir photo in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Mouse over the image to see a close-up of the men and women .

See also the full version of this real photo postcard:

An anything goes - free choice photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. I'm not sure of the origin of this souvenir "Ocean View" photo, but I have to chuckle over the carefree smile on this woman's face as she pretends to zoom her speedboat over the fake waves. I used a caption--"I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way!"--that I've seen on other postcards and souvenir photos (like the one below ) since it seems that both this woman and Ipernity may be headed into uncharted territory. If you haven't seen Team Ipernity's latest posting about the future of the site, take a look at An association proposes to save ipernity . I'm not sure I completely understand all the pros and cons of the proposal, but I filled out the survey there and indicated my willingness to make a donation to help save Ipernity. My fingers are crossed !

When I purchased this photo at an antique mall in Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, a few years ago, I assumed that it was a souvenir photo like the ones from Atlantic City, New Jersey, and other sea- and oceanside locales (see below for some examples). After searching for similar studio photos of women wearing kimonos and posing in fake boats, however, I discovered a few other copies of this same photo, including a hand-colored version posted by Okinawa Soba on Flickr under the title of Studio Boat! - Three Maritime Geisha in Old Japan . The discussions there on Flickr about the origin of this photo established that it came from the studio of Japanese photographer Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934) and probably dates to the 1890s (see especially Noel43's Kusakabe Kimbei Compilation , which compares several other Kusakabe Kimbei photos with this one to show that the same backdrop appears in all the photos). So instead of a unique seaside souvenir photo, this turned out to be an artistic creation by Kusakabe Kimbei that evidently was reproduced and sold primarily to tourists and other visitors to Japan like the photographer's other works. How it ended up in the antique shop in western Pennsylvania where I found it is anyone's guess.

A photo of crowds, throngs, or hordes (a big bunch of people) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten note on the back of this real photo postcard: "July 1957. Our boat ride around canal in Gothenburg, Sweden. Beautiful day." More than fifty passengers are crowded into this "paddan" canal boat. Paddan means "turtle" in Swedish, and the boats are named for their turtle-like profile (imagine an upside-down turtle shell), which allows them to pass safely underneath the low bridges along the Gothenburg canals.

"My Glass Bottom Boat Ride at Silver Springs. Walter Ray." A cleverly constructed souvenir folder and photo, positioned together so that it seems like we're peering into the front of the boat to see the passengers inside. Silver Springs is a long-standing Florida tourist attraction (and more recently a state park ) known for its artesian springs and glass-bottom boat rides. Walter Ray, for whom the boat is named, was one of the co-owners of Silver Springs. For a similar image, see PopCulture's glass-bottom boat photo .

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of grandma and/or grandpa with the grandchildren / sitting on grandpa or grandma's lap . A real photo postcard showing a baby and two men--looks like the kid's father and grandfather--posing on a studio mockup of the City of Toledo , which was a steamship that plied the waters of Lake Erie between Toledo and Put-in-Bay, Ohio, beginning in the 1890s.

A Vintage Photos Theme Park posting for the topic of hands/feet (a photo in which hands or feet are prominent)--if you have both, please feel free to post 2 photos . This jolly bunch documented their trip on board the steamer Dubuque by writing "STR DUBUQUE" on the bottom of their shoes and then propping their feet up for the photo (mouse over the image for a better view of the shoes). If you look closely enough, you may be able to see a faint erased "S" on the "T" shoe. Notice also the steamboat's smokestack, which is located behind the boy on the right. Part of the boat's decorative trim is visible to the right of the smokestack, too. This Dubuque was the fourth and last steamboat with that name, according to the Encyclopedia Dubuque . The description for a postcard in the collection of the Davenport Public Library (see Steamer Dubuque on Mississippi River ) provides some additional details about this Dubuque , which was "a stern wheel packet steamboat originally named Pittsburgh and built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1879. It was rebuilt at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1896 for the Diamond Jo Line and renamed Dubuque . The boat sank in 1901 but was raised and Streckfus Steamers [another steamboat company] took over. In 1919-1920 it was converted to an excursion boat and renamed Capitol ." Given that chronology, it seems likely that this photo was taken sometime in the 1900s or 1910s. Whatever the date, I'd wager that this photo was a shoe-in for the funniest one taken of this bunch during their excursion on the steamer Dubuque .

For more information, see the uncropped version of this photo:

A real photo postcard showing "Daddy" (handwritten in the upper left-hand corner) posing on the deck of an "F-6" submarine. Although the postcard is heavily soiled and some details of the painted scene in the background are difficult to make out, it appears that there are two or three ships floating (or sinking?) in the heavy waves behind the sub, while smoke billows from the smokestacks of a ship that's visible on the horizon at left. Meanwhile, two or three biplanes and an airship are visible in the sky above. The "F-6" hull number on the submarine is puzzling, but perhaps it's intended to refer to the U.S. Navy's submarine no. 6, the USS Pike , which saw service between 1903 and 1922. For more information, see the Navy Historical Center's page regarding USS Pike (Submarine # 6, later SS-6), 1903-1922 and Wikipedia's article on USS Pike (SS-6) .

A flappers photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. The John Cadwalader (note the partially visible name at the upper right-hand corner in the image above) was a steamship built by Pusey and Jones in 1926 and operated by the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamship Company. This photo shows flappers --three of whom are wearing cloche hats --posing with a cigarette-smoking fellow on the deck of the steamship sometime in the late 1920s or possibly the early 1930s.

A bridge photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. Handwritten note on the back of this photo: "7-26-1925. New & old Clark's Ferry Bridge." As Wikipedia explains, the current Clark's Ferry Bridge , which was built in 1986, "carries U.S. Routes 22 and 322 across the Susquehanna River near Duncannon, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania." This photo, however, shows the two bridges that preceded the current one. The concrete bridge in front was brand new when this photo was taken in 1925, and the older soon-to-be-demolished wooden covered bridge behind it was constructed in 1859. Drivers who crossed the privately owned bridge were charged a fee (see tickets below), but that changed in the 1940s after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased it and discontinued tolls. In the foreground is a curious-looking boat with a paddlewheel. After a bit of searching, I learned that this was a "paddlewheel coal digger," one of many such boats that dredged the tons and tons of anthracite coal that washed down the river from mining operations farther north in Pennsylvania. For more information, see Van Wagner's article, The Hard Coal Navy of the Susquehanna River , and his 35-minute YouTube documentary, The Billy Marks: Paddlewheel Coal Diggers on the Susquehanna River .