shipyards

Those cannon look like captured Russian ones from the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War (1855). Pairs were sent to every major city in the British Empire - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sevastopol_(1854%E2%80%931855) . Recently did some digging on two in Sydney, Australia - www.flickr.com/photos/powerhouse_museum/2362659579/

beachcomber australia They look exactly the same, especially the wheels and the curvy stand thing at the back! These upended cannons are near where I live in Dublin. Have heard all manner of stories about where they came from - Napoleonic Wars, or from a 19th century British frigate... Found this on 1861 Belfast / Ulster Street Directory: "Two Russian guns, taken during the Crimean war at Sebastopol - both 46 pounders, and bearing inscriptions in Russian characters - presented to the town as trophies, are now mounted in a commanding position, upon the front esplanade of this fine suite of public buildings - for ornament alone, of course", though these two were placed near the Custom House.

Is that a Steamship getting built in the Background?

Dave Colthorpe Anyone better acquainted with steamship shapes field this?

The Pilot Office stood on the north side of the Lagan at the entrance to Spencer Dock. Spencer Dock, Dufferin Dock and York Dock were all enlarged, so where the Pilot Office stood is probably under water now - coordinates are about 54.612026,-5.913563. The Pilot Office had been described as "a collapsed telescope in the Tudor manner". The cannon are from the Crimean War. There are two ships being built in the background at the shipyards of Workman, Clark & Co. This company began in 1879 and pioneered the development of the refrigerated steamer. At their peak Workman, Clark employed over 12,000 employees and was described in Belfast as the "Wee Yard". It occupied 80 acres on the north side of the River Lagan and closed in 1935.

This picture ran in the January, 1918 number of The Water Tower, with the description: "THE LAYING OF THE FIRST KEEL On Thursday December 20th [1917] at the Newark Bay Shipyard the first rivet was driven in the first standardized structural steel ship ever built. [...] The picture shows Mr John Hunter, representative of the United States Shipping Board, driving the first rivet after the center vertical keelson had been put in place. The gentleman standing immediately behind Mr Hunter in this picture is Mr Henry R Sutphen, vice president of the Submarine Boat Corporation and the man to whom credit for the production of the standardized structural steel ship is due." books.google.com/books?id=FAY0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA48&lp...

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"During World War I the Submarine Boat Corporation's yard was the second largest shipyard in the United States. There were as many as twenty-five thousand men working there." More on the company and its Newark Bay Shipyard here: www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/newark-bay.htm

A January, 1943 biographical sketch of Henry R. Sutphen (standing at center, above), naming him as the force behind the PT boats of WWII. books.google.com/books?id=y0i4p6MqmPgC&pg=PA164&l...

Art Siegel: thanks for finding the matching published image and for identifying Mr John Hunter and Henry R Sutphen at the Newark Bay Shipyard ceremony. We will add more information to both these images when we update.

Submarine Boat Corporation, Newark Bay Shipyard, December 20, 1917.
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