rudder

This is H.M.S. Curacoa, a ship of the Royal Navy. This one was a third class cruiser, formerly a screw corvette. Here is a circa 1890 photograph at the Australian War Memorial: cas.awm.gov.au/photograph/302169 and an 1890 photograph from the State Library of South Australia here: images.slsa.sa.gov.au/mpcimg/10750/B10531.htm The curator's notes at the Powerhouse Museum's persistent URL say this may possibly be Mort's dock. It may also be Fitzroy Dock at Cockatoo Island. See the identical rock formations at the left hand side of this photograph: naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/PhotoSearchItemDetail.asp?M=0&am...

I've just noticed that there is a second ship in the dry dock, one that appears to have two masts and two funnels.

Here's a good comparison pic of Fitzroy Dock. Compare the rock formation on the left side of the dock here: www.flickr.com/photos/donshearman/1472304960/in/set-72157...

HMS Curacoa was sold out of RN service in 1904 while the Victorian paint job pre-dates 1902/1903. Please add to: Naval History

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Nautical pictures of interest., and we'd love to have this added to the group! Nice and interesting shot.

What a fabulous old picture. Thank you for sharing and making this picture available to all who are interested in things nautical.

It's a pleasure. I'm glad you're enjoying the photographs

Thanks for sharing these - they are great to see. I note a big difference in the geometry of the inboard and outboard props - is that because the shafts ran at different speeds?

Mauretania's trials of 1907 recorded shaft revolutions of between 123 per minute at 18.32 knots and 192 per minute at 26.17 knots with no indication that the speeds varied from shaft to shaft. However even at the trials stage Cunard and Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson found that they were having vibration problems with Mauretania's 3 bladed propellers. These were later replaced with 4 bladed propellers. As far as I understand it all four propellers where changed and I suspect that this photograph was taken part way through the process. You can see that the two outboard propellers have 4 blades and the two inboard ones have three. If you look at the starboard inboard propeller you can see that it appears to have been nibbled! I would suggest that replacement with a 4 bladed type is imminent. However most of our reference material is concerned with the building of the ship at Wallsend so if anybody out there can suggest a different explanation I would be delighted to see it added.

I should mention that the response above came from our Keeper of Maritime History

These are the original 3-blade propellers. Around 1909/1910 the forward two were replaced with 4-blade propellers, and eventually all aft ones were also.