sailingship

Beautiful shot, thank you ! I have a loverly photo of the sailing ship the PASSAT in Smiths docks that l would be happy for you to share when l get back to the UK at the end of the month...Best wishes Alan Ford

That would be fantastic thanks Alan

Stunning image. The sailing ship looks extra special against the dark and gloomy background.

That should be a book cover.

Hmmm, wonder if that's "Eppleton Hall" moving out of shot on the right... She is in San Francisco now, at SF Maritime National Historical Park.

WOW!

There's a very interesting news report and a different picture of this event here: www.flickr.com/photos/johncowper/6603125835/

arctodus nice one, thanks for that arctodus! Great poem at the end there by Henry Lawson :)

This is most likely the Indra, a German cargo ship, which arrived seeking shelter in the neutral port New York on November 8, 1914, after a stranger-than-fiction voyage of 13,000 miles in 160 days. She left Taltal, Chile with a cargo of nitrate of soda bound for Dunkirk. En route, her captain discovered war had broken out and escaped some trickery off the coast of Ireland intended to coerce her to proceed toward Dunkirk and be seized by the British. Instead, she raced to New York, where she tied up at Stapleton, Staten Island. query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40713FC3C5C13... Indra remained at Stapleton until July 6, 1916 when she was towed to Erie Basin, at the foot of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, and her cargo, which had multiplied in value due to the war, was unloaded and sold. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40710FA3C5F1373... The placement of this photo near several others of interned German ships is one clue. If it is the Indra, the photo's date indicates that it would be at the Stapleton docks, though the sign for J&F Kelly is for a dock construction contractor near the Gowanus Canal. Photos of the Indra at other times in her career (she was seized in 1917 and renamed by the First Lady as the Tonawonda, one of many Indian names she gave to seized ships) also suggest this is the same ship. repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/handle/2346/47406 repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/47406/t... www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=19888#v www.clydeships.co.uk/files/201308230919430.Indria%20ex%20... www.clydeships.co.uk/files/201303191927110.Tonawanda%20ex... The bark Matador was the only other interned German sailing ship in New York (docked at Hoboken, N.J), according to this April, 1916 account. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B17FA3D5F1373... There is illegible writing on the side of the ship in this photo, but it doesn't seem to say Indra. Tonawonda ended her days after a voyage from Seattle to Australia in 1927, another colorful trip: www.angelfire.com/or/petermarsh/Tonawanda.htm

The sun., February 02, 1917, Page 3, upper left chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1917-02-02/ed-... has a list which describes Indra as a "steel ship" and Matador as an "oak bark." The largest sail on the aft mast should be square for a ship and fore-and-aft for a bark. I think I see a boom on the aft mast, which might argue that this is the Matador, if the choice is between the two.

Art Siegel Artolog, Thanks for flagging this image as one of your top favorites in the LOC photostream. You wrote, "This one has the enigmatic caption "Sailing Ship, New York." It hasn't been positively identified as the Indra, which sailed from South American to the coast of Ireland to New York, caught in the winds of war and intrigue with its valuable cargo. [But] trying to track down the identification brought to light Indra's exciting story, worthy of a Patrick O'Brian novel, as well as the story of the many German ships and their crews who were interned for years in New York area harbors for years before America entered the war and seized them." We appreciate your many, many regular contributions to identifying the photographs in the Bain News Service collection and enriching their stories. Your selection now appears in the new set, [http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157640980107725/] Happy Valentine's Day! -- Helena, on behalf of LOC