Photographs

A view of the Naval Dockyard under construction with HMS Tamar just appearing to the right of picture. To the left edge is the cricket pitch.

Dr Stephen Davies writes, "The c.1904 photo of the progress on the Naval Dockyard is splendid. Since all the RN ships (and the naval dockyard flagstaff) are dressed overall, that should narrow the date down to something like Coronation Day. Something like HMS Phoenix is on No.1 buoys in the Man of War Anchorage (she was traded and sold for scrap after the 1906 typhoon), the wind is in the SW (so it’s summer) and I think it’s one of the large Messageries Maritimes ships in the left background close to the MM buoy, though there’s something not quite kosher about the mast/funnel order that I’d need to probe further. At the resolution on the website she looks like a very unusual four masted, two funnel ship (jolly scarce, so if so easy to identify)."