Fire broadsides!

[caddyman]

I don’t seem to be able to dispense with the nautical theme today. I was mooching about on teh intarweb last night and came across some art prints of various Royal Navy ships, primarily but not exclusively, dreadnoughts of the First World War. I think that I am going to have to treat myself to one of the cheaper reproductions in the near future. You wouldn’t believe the prices some of them fetch (or more precisely the prices they try to charge), particularly the bigger ones. If the picture is a limited edition print – actually printed, numbered and signed by the artist, it’s not so bad, but for what amounts to a photograph of the artwork that just happens to be printed on reasonable quality heavy paper…

Well.

So anyway, I may take a trip down to the Imperial War Museum on Wednesday and take a look around. With luck they may have some reasonably sized and priced prints, or at least be able to provide pointers to where I can get something at a reasonable price.

I have been (especially) interested in naval history and warships since I was about 8 when someone (Mum, probably) bought me an Airfix model of HMS Victorious. It’s one of those interests that just sprung up and never went away. I’m less interested in modern warships, powerful as they may be, visually they are blando di tutti blandi; not enough twiddly bits, see?

If I can find a good print of HMS Warspite, I shall be in hog heaven. Failing that, a good picture of any of her sisters of the Queen Elizabeth class would do. Or the “Mighty Hood”.

I have seen this nice pair of HMS Barham and HMS Royal Oak at Jutland that would fit the bill.


HMS Barham and the 5th Battle Squadron, Jutland 1916


HMS Royal Oak at Jutland 1916

or this:


HMS Warspite and HMS Ramilles, off Normandy, June 1944.

Fantastic.

Comments

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

Wow they are beautiful paintings.

Definitely a nautical day here today.

When I was looking up the Kriegsmarine hat earlier, I put in the name of the Ship my Granddad served on in WWII and found a number of mementos .

One is a piece of the ship itself.

I will bid for it as a late Birthday present to mum, as I know she wants to display her Dad’s Cap ribbon…and this would be great displayed next to it…..

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Which ship was it?

[failing-angel.livejournal.com]

Have you tried down St Martins or Cecil Court?
There may be something there.

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

If you're visiting the IWM and have an excuse to visit their reference library, grab it. It's up in the dome, and somewhat old fashioned, but rather good.

It's a few years since I've used it, I remember I had to ask in advance, which also allowed them to search out the stuff I was looking for.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Looking at the Imperial War Museum website, they're doing reproduction prints for £15. Not much of a range on the website, but I guess they might well have more in stock in the building.

Warspite, Illustrious, Gerald Ford

[drjohnsilence.livejournal.com]

Gregg Easterbrook has an excellent little rant that I suspect you'll appreciate on the subject of American warship names over at Tuesday Morning Quarterback. It's about halfway down the linked page. Here's a sample:

"Next, the Cruiser Mark Foley : The Navy just announced its next supercarrier will be the Gerald Ford. The ship is the first of a new design supplanting the current Nimitz-class, and thus the new class of supercarriers will also be named Ford-class. The three most recent supercarriers, the Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, are all named for presidents. This is a big step up from the previous supercarrier, the John Stennis, which was named for a congressional committee chairman who opposed the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and whose main accomplishment in the Senate was never saying no to a Pentagon budget overrun. The British Navy has ships with glorious names such as Illustrious and Invincible. America has ships named after committee chairmen!"

NFL fans, traditional males who like cheerleaders, or anyone with an eclectic sense of humour (and I suspect that includes most people here...) should check out TMQ throughout the American Football season. Of course, that ends this Sunday, so my timing is not the best for this pointer.

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

My Grandfather was at the battle of Jutland. He told me he was shipwrecked 7 times and the more I thought about it the more I was certain that I would have asked for a transfer if he was on my ship.
He was on the Natal when she blew up in Scotland... in scottish waters. I have his Naval papers.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Blimey. Which ship was he on at Jutland, do you know?

ooh the little liar!

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

I have just checked the list of ships,with the dates of when he served and discovered that on May 31st 1916 he was joining HMS Poppy and she is NOT listed in the ships of the Grand Fleet!
He was on HMS Natal when she blew up on 31 Dec 1915 and from then until 30 May 1916 he was at HMS Pembroke which is a shore base. Perhaps Poppy went out after the fleet or something. I haven't thought to google for her.
Oh my word! my grandpop was a fibber - Oh I am so glad cos that makes him human too.

Re: ooh the little liar!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I think that's great; you can't blame the bloke either.

Someone asks "what did you do in the war, Grandad?" hge could hardly say he missed the biggest fleet action in history, can he? Not very exciting as much as anything else!