Rare photo

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
just a quick post to say "hi" and to share a photo from my collection of Mauretania images. I have about 50 covering all of her career - except her dash to Halifax - still looking. My photo of Mauretania in Dazzle at Queenstown was in the "Dazzle and Drab" catalogue. I have posted scarce images of Lusitania and Olympic as well at the appropriate boards. This is an original rare panoramic format print taken from a North Shields ferry as she approached Mauretania at the Swan yards, taken early to mid 1907. I look forward to reading the threads - I see a few names I know

Best,
Eric2

(c)Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi all,
here is another scarce one from my collection as a bookend - Mauretania just after passing under the Firth of Forth Railway Bridge, July 3rd, 1935.

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi all,
one more. Here is the First Class Lounge photographed at Southampton in September of 1926.

Best,
Eric2

(C)Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Thanks Eric- she's my favorite-and she looked pretty sharp dressed in pale colors too! That down the deck angle of the first photo was worth getting out of bed for today!

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi Shelly,
thanks very much! I like that photograph too. It is actually a construction photo - when I get a chance I will scan it again and enlarge the Mauretania - her Bridge is only roughed out in steel. The print is large (about 8 1/2" long) and razor sharp as it was likely a glass negative. I am guessing March to May 1907. I have a Tyne General Ferry advertising card that describes seeing the Mauretania from a ferry just like this - I attach scans and the message below.

Best,
Eric2

"..have just returned from North Shields and saw this steamer. Liverpool River is not on it with the "Tyne" I never saw so many steamers in my life. New Castle is a great shipbuilding place.."
4 PM April 24th, 1907 Newcastle-On-Tyne

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is something you don't see every day - an original Launch Ticket for Mauretania. I think the purple stamp indicates attendance. Signed and dated on the back "Neptune Works, September 20th 1906".

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a photo of Mauretania dressed taken at Western Dock in 1934.

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a scan of a glass slide showing Mauretania still on the blocks under construction at the Swan yards. Mid 1906.

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a scarce real photo postcard by Graham of Whitley Bay showing Mauretania on September 17th, 1907 - leaving the Tyne and entering the North Sea for her Sea Trials.

Best,
Billy

On the reverse is a descriptive message in ink:
"Dear Bill, this is her leaving the Tyne on her first trials. On the right hand side is the old & new light houses. We live about 8 miles along the coast on the same side. The boat is just entering the North sea in the Photo. All those tugs are the ones that helped her out & you can compare her size by them."

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a scarce photograph - Mauretania laid up after her final voyages, Southampton, September/October 1934.

Best,
Billy

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is another postcard from my collection, one of my very favorites. A rather common printed launch card published by Reid & Co. of Newcastle-on-Tyne. This example however was sent by a Swan worker from Wallsend to his parents - briefly describing his job and the construction progress!

Best,
Billy

Sent from Wallsend SO at 1PM February 8th, 1907, it bears a great message: "Dear M & F, just a line hoping you are well. I make a start Monday morn 6 o'c on the ship all being well at S & H's. Will take some good time to finish her now. Tis a 4 funnel boat, these are fixed now, since this view. Your L.S. P"

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is another unique onboard photo from my collection - Mauretania "top of the house" looking aft - Southampton Dock, November of 1928 .

Best,
Billy

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is another early low production real photo postcard - this by Frank and Sons, showing the Mauretania from the aft, leaving the Tyne on September 17th, 1907.
Best,
Eric2 (sometimes I get confused and sign "Billy" - my Yahoo "name" - sorry

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Shelley Dziedzic]

Eric, have you thought of producing a Mauretania website with all of this material-there's some really good stuff here, and some fantastic angles I've never seen before. The photo of her laid up in '34 is particularly poignant after such a career on the high seas.

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is another card from my collection This is a printed color tinted card of a photograph taken by the photographer Gladstone Adams of Whitley Bay. It shows Mauretania entering the North Sea. This card was self-published by Adams, and this particular card bears a message and his signature to a photography patron! Imagine my surprise when I read the back and found this - the seller obviously did not look carefully. I was contacted by a gentleman who lived in Whitley Bay when he saw this color card online - he knew Adams when he was a boy and related a wonderful story which I paste below:

"I knew him when I was child - he photographed my brothers and sisters and other members of my family. He told me that the only reason he got his "famous photograph" of Mauretania leaving the Bay was because he was late and missed the Press boat and had to rent a much smaller craft which afforded him a view very different than everyone else. I recall He had a huge reproduction of it on the stairs up to his studio, I seem to remember that it was in colour also. In fact as I sit here I am looking at a B/W copy right now. One of my relatives,way back, worked as a Boilermaker at Swan Hunter (or whatever it was called at that time) on the vessel in question. Out of interest, bits of it are still to be seen in "bars of ill repute" in Bristol and Alnwick Northumberland,as she was broken up after a long and useful life."

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a very unique photograph of a white hulled Mauretania in Dry Dock at I believe Southampton C. 1932-3, undergoing extensive work. She is having her Funnel #2 ring removed for funnel hoisting, probably to access either the uptake or the boilers. The cloud visible was likely formed by disturbance of soot during the lifting of the ring. This information was generously provided by Bill Sauder - if I mangled it it's my fault.

Best,
Eric2

(C)Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Christina Rindt]

Hi Billy/Eric2
What an overwhelming collection there is.... I think Shelley has a good point about starting a website on the Mauretania then more people would have access to view these. Have you thought about it? They're great! Thanks
Christina

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is a very unique original photocard of the completed Mauretania taken by John Crape and sent to himself at John Crape Confectioners. It was postmarked on November 20, 1907 at Newcastle - it appears to have been taken on or about November 16th.

Best,
Eric2 (I apologize for signing "Billy" - will stick to Eric2)

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
Thanks for the nice comments! This collection took me 4 years to "complete". I still need an original photograph of her in Halifax at the outbreak of WW1.
Here is another original interior candid photograph from September 1926 - taken at Southampton. Light flooding through the windows of the Library. I like this one - very moody.

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection

 

[Eric Longo]

Hi All,
here is another floating Dry-Dock shot - an AZO real photocard. An extreme bow-on view dating from the early 1920's I believe, and taken at Southampton. In the photograph on the right there is a lone man walking away from the camera in the mid-ground - I have added a small white arrow to show his location. It REALLY conveys the scale of this ship.

Best,
Eric2

(C) Eric Longo Image Collection