ussalabama

From Wikipedia: Lattice masts, or cage masts, are a type of observation mast common on major warships in the early 20th century. They were used most prominently on American dreadnought battleships and armored cruisers of the World War I era. Their purpose was to make the observation posts mounted on the masts and used to direct the fire of the warships' guns less vulnerable to shells from enemy ships. These masts remind me of Chinese finger traps.

More lattice masts in this image: Must have been some fun painting these things!

A passenger train is running from left to right in the background. The steam locomotive is no. 1528, possibly of the New York Central RR. It looks like a switcher (0-6-0). The gondola cars on the right are marked NYC & HR (New York Central and Hudson River?)

On closer inspection: The locomotive has two wheels on its leading truck, making it a 2-6-0 or Mogul type engine. There are passengers on board, so the engine isn't just shunting cars. There is another locomotive just behind, on the adjacent track, heading from right to left. Only the top of the cab is visible, above the tender of the train in the foreground. It is pulling five gondola cars that might be filled with material for the construction site behind the sailors.

NY Central RR engine 1528 was apparently built in June 1890 by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey. According to Wikipedia: Rogers "built more than six thousand steam locomotives for railroads around the world...Rogers was the second-most popular American locomotive manufacturer of the 19th century behind the Baldwin Locomotive Works amongst almost a hundred manufacturers." No Rogers 2-6-0 engines have survived.

Here is an article from Wikipedia about the USS Alabama (BB-8) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_(BB-8)

This may not be the Alabama. It may be the Wisconsin BB-9.

We work with glass negatives occasionally at my work. It never fails to utterly amaze me that something so old can make such a fine image to this day. And that in turn always leads me to wonder about the permanence of the images we are making today. This is amazing.

See the Naval Historical Center page on Alabama. In particular, this image (#NH 57753) shows the same ship viewed from the port side at, apparently, the same event--note the number 9 on the banner and the canopy and large US flag at the rear. The caption on that photo says: "Off New York City, during the October 1912 Naval Review." That sounds like the date for this series of photos, perhaps. Why the number 9? Perhaps it is misidentified, but if so, it would seem the photo at the Naval Historical Center is as well. Note that this photo (linked from this page) shows Michigan (BB-27) at the October 1912 review in New York, and Michigan has a banner with the number 17. (So the banner does not appear to correspond to the ship's designation.) Perhaps the banner was some particular number for the event, keyed to a program or something like that? Note added: The Wikipedia article on Naval Review gives details of the event: "14 October 1912, North River, ships including USS Delaware (BB-28) and USS E-1 (SS-24) passed before the President (Taft) and the Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer." The date is also given as 14 October 1912 in this article from the New York Times, February 19, 1914.

This list: www.geocities.com/scs028a/1912List.html suggests that both vessels were present at the review.