unitedstatesshippingboard

The "unidentified woman" in the photo is Amelia Earhart aboard the SS President Roosevelt during her return to the United States after her first flight - as a passenger - across the Atlantic in 1928. Sitting next to her is Captain of the President Roosevelt, Harry Manning. Earhart and Manning would quickly form a friendship aboard the ship, and she would eventually ask him to be her navigator for her initial attempt at circumnavigating the globe in 1937. This attempt was aborted in Hawaii, after Earhart ground looped her Lockheed 10E Electra (NR16020) at Luke Field on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor on March 20, 1937. Manning suffered only a bruised elbow during the accident. This incident caused significant damage to the aircraft, which would require repair, delaying Earhart's trip an additional three months. Due to the delay (and some claim other factors), Manning was unable to join Earhart on this second (ill-fated) attempt. See: tighar.org/wiki/Captain_Harry_Manning tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/Luke_Field...

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...

see also

"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.

Given the date inscribed on the negative, "10/28/25", and "President Harding" caption, this is the ship SS President Harding, arriving in New York Harbor after it rescued 28 members of the crew of the Italian freighter, SS Ignazio Florio in the North Atlantic, on October 21, 1925. The Italian freighter was floundering and suffering a list of 30-degrees in rough seas when the President Harding came upon her, and was able to rescue 28 souls before the Italian ship sunk below the ocean's surface. See: "How an Invisible Lifeline Rescues Men from the Sea - A Story of Heroism Made Possible by Wireless", Page 11, Popular Science Monthly, January 1926 See also (unfortunately behind a pay wall): "CHEERS GREET LINER AND 28 SHE RESCUED; President Harding Arrives Four Days Late, Bringing Crew of Freighter Saved in Storm. DEATH NEAR DURING GALE Italian Ship Nearly on Beam Ends When Help Arrived -- Officer Describes the Rescue. CHEERS GREET LINER AND 28 SHE RESCUED", October 28, 1925, The New York Times, Page 1. www.nytimes.com/1925/10/28/archives/cheers-greet-liner-an... "SAVES 38 AT SEA FROM SINKING SHIP; President Harding's Captain Rescues Freighter's Crew in Third Attempt", October 22, 1925, The New York Times, Page 27. www.nytimes.com/1925/10/22/archives/saves-38-at-sea-from-...

Thanks for explaining why this photo was taken TVL1970. We'll update the catalog record.