ordnance

"William Crozier (Carrollton, Ohio, February 19, 1855 – November 11, 1942) was an American artillerist and inventor." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Crozier_%28artillerist%29 From 1901 to 1918 he was Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordnance_Corps_%28United_States_Arm...)

Thanks for your research, B-59. We'll add some of the information to the record the next time we update.

The ship appears to be the armored cruiser USS Brooklyn (CA-3), judging by the three tall, thin funnels, and the barely visible name on the stern. The Brooklyn also had a main armament of 8x8" guns, so the 8" shells were probably being added to or removed from her magazines.

In the uncompressed archival TIFF version of this photo, "B_OOKL_N" (missing the R and Y) is readable on the stern.

League Island is aka Philadelphia Naval Shipyard en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_Island

no question about what ship it is, it's the one of a kind Uss Brooklyn (1896-1922). no other Us ship had such a shapely design, with the tumble down sides and conter protruding sponsoons. and those give away 100 foot of the deck stacks, no other ship even came close close i t he us navy to her artistic beuty, all the other where utilitarian at best, if not down right ugly. she was built along french designs, and was the epitome of effiency,speed, beauty and power on the open seas in her day. " they don't make em like that anymore".

the very first bombs dropped by plane in WWI, along with leaflets advising the civilian poulace to flee Paris The first bomb to be dropped on Paris in the war fell at exactly 12.45 p.m. The second fell minutes later in the courtyard of 107 quai Valmy, a home for the aged and the third landed on the pavement outside 66 rue des Marais, not far from the Boulevard Magenta. The final explosive crashed through the skylight of 5 and 7 rue des Récollets and failed to explode. All the bombs landed within a few hundred metres of each other in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the target probably being, despite the observer's stated concern for public safety, the two railway stations which were situated in this district of the capital, and which served, significantly, the north and east of France. www.psywarsoc.org/FallingLeaf/firstwwi.php

Per the falling leaf article, the bombing was on August 30, 1914.

The date on the left side of the photo, enhanced in GIMP, looks like 10/13/14 or 10/18/14

Thanks.

New York Times article from Sept. 1, 1914, about early WWI German bombings in Paris: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9802E3DC1E3BE6...