Titanic Photo

[Nigel Bryant]

Was this photo taken of the Titanic in Cherbourg?

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/dominator/nomadic/rub-avril1912/bigimages/03-titanic-2.htm

Regards Nigel

 

[Dave Gittins]

According to Eaton and Haas it was. It's probably lifted from their Titanic: A Journey Through Time. According to them there was enough light still around for this photo to be taken.

The other alleged photos of Titanic at Cherbourg are really drawings, as can be seen from the errors in them.

 

[Brandon Ralph Whited]

I suppose that destroys our previous image of the ship lit from bow to stern arriving at Cherbourg, doesn't it? I had heard about this photo but had never saw it.


-Brandon

 

[Daniel Klistorner]

I wouldn't really say that the other two photos of Titanic at night are actually drawings. Surely one is not fooled they're entirely authentic, but I think the photographer was so overwhelmed by the site of Titanic all lit up that s/he took some photos. As is with (amateur) night photos today and even more so in 1912 they didn't turn out too well, so they were given some work, and now they're unrecognisable and only look like drawings.

Daniel.

 

[Sam Brannigan]

The Titanic arrived at Cherbourg around 6.30p.m.

I have just checked sunset times for London on April 10th (very similar to Cherbourg) and this is what I found, along with the following statement:

****Sunrise and Sunset Times: London, April
(Due to only small annual variations in sunrise and sunset times, these figures will work for most applications between 2000 and 2009)****

Presumably these variations are small enough to be roughly applicable to 1912.

Sunset: 6:49 pm (add a minute or two for Cherbourg)

They may just have got away with the picture if the Titanic was photographed immediately on arrival off Cherbourg. I wonder where the photo was taken from as the Nomadic and Traffic would have approached from her starboard side.

It seems that when the Titanic actually left Cherbourg, night would have fallen and she would have been a blaze of light.

Regards

Sam

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The source of the photo, if not from one of the tenders, may well have been a boat belonging to a private citizen. Ships have to avoid these blokes all the time and at all hours. You'ed be surprised.

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Not any more Michael! Not after the case of Superman v US aircraft carrier you informed us about!

Regards

Sam

 

[Michael H. Standart]

More like Stu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-porman!

Too bad the Coast Gaurd pulled this idiot out of the way. I'm sure he's had a chance to breed since then!

Cordially,
Michael H. Standart

 

[Yuri Singleton]

Can I see an open gangway door just below the bridge, down about "E" deck?

Yuri

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Hard to say Yuri, but I doubt it. It could be a flaw in the photo (there are other ones along the hull), or seagulls having a snoop around.

Regards

Sam

 

[Yuri Singleton]

Why isn't there any smoke coming from the funnels?
Yuri

 

[Dave Gittins]

I think I've done the French owner of the site an injustice. If you hunt around the site, which is not easy to navigate and tends to run slowly, you'll find another photo. It's taken from the starboard side and shows Titanic and the fort on the breakwater. It appears to have been taken in rather better light.

I don't agree with the times on the site. As Sam says, sunset was at about 6-50 pm. Beesley says it was "just as it grew dusk" when Titanic arrived and I take that to mean pretty well right on sunset.

I would suggest that the photos are from the French press.

 

[Sam Brannigan]

I'm no expert on photography, but surely in 1912 much of the detail such as smoke from the funnels and the ships lighting would have been difficult to pick up in that sort of light without touching up the picture.
It seems that the ship is not moving at any rate, with the flag on her after mast quite still, and no visible wake. It also seems that the shadow of the overhang of the poop deck has been captured quite well.
I reckon that Cameron got the lighting more or less correct in the film, and for technical reasons this photo doesn't show the true picture, but it is still a beautiful profile.

Regards

Sam

 

[Sam Brannigan]

I've just noticed what looks like a whiff of smoke coming from the first funnel and blowing out past the port side of the ship, and is it just me, or is her aft expansion joint very clear?

Regards

Sam

 

[George Behe]

Hi, all!

At least two different daylight photos of Titanic at Cherbourg are known to exist as period postcards. (I don't know who snapped the original photos, though.)

All my best,

George

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

Are these them, George? (if you can't get to them, I can e-mail 'em to you)

 

[Dan Cherry]

Hey, Bill,
I would imagine those are the ones. In all my years of research, I've never come across more than 3 pictures of Titanic at Cherbourg (the 2 above-mentioned ones and that evening-time one that is so heavily retouched it looks like a drawing).
I do believe that the night picture of Titanic really is a photo - the errors that Dave Gittins suggest are liely from the hack-job retouching that the person did. Yes, the window configuration is wrong, way wrong, but I firmly believe it's the bunged-up paint job.

As Daniel K. says: As is with (amateur) night photos today and even more so in 1912 they didn't turn out too well, so they were given some work, and now they're unrecognisable and only look like drawings.

If you look at the stern end of the ship, the smokestacks and the land in the background, this, to me, does look more like a photo. A lot of the retouching work appears to have been done to the portholes, windows, open prom deck and especially the water, and the light configuration is not consistent with the actual Titanic.

Just my .02

Dan

 

[George Behe]

Hi, Bill!

Yes, that's them.

I tend to agree with Dan about the night Cherbourg photo (although I have no evidence to back up my opinion -- it's just a gut feeling I have.)

All my best,

George

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Walter Lord also mentioned in ANTR that he believed the night picture was heavily retouched. I most striking examples I have seen of retouching are the photos of the British inquiry, particularly with Ismay on the stand.
They almost look like a court artists impressions.

Regards

Sam

 

[Bill Wormstedt]

Thanks, George!