Here's a one-of-a-kind Titanic picture you've not seen before.

[Rusty_S]

View attachment 2407 (Photo Property of Paul Lee. Link: http://www.paullee.com/titanic/NMM_Pics/

For the ship that is blocked by the sail of the boat this one has some key identifying features that will help in identifying her. If you look at the fore mast and main mast she appears to only have a birdbath style platform on the forward mast. She does not appear to have any form of platform on the rear mast. The forward mast just like the HMS Powerful is situated just aft of the superstructure. You have a verified 3 stack arrangement as well. I decided to look up just a three stack ship of the time and found a convincing hit for a Gem class cruiser. Mainly the HMS Topaze

Gem Class Cruisers

You can see in the link above the lower left HMS Topaze photo shows she has a platform on forward mast that looks similar to what we see in the photo above. I will be digging a little deeper to see if I cant find a more proper fitting ship but so far this is the only suspect I have as of now.

 

[Rusty_S]

I found a interesting four stack candidate for the ship off in the distance.

a Bristol/Weymouth class light cruiser. These look like the ship in the photo but the unique thing about this class of light cruiser is her two middle stacks are considerably larger in diameter than the fore and aft one. Sadly in the photo just cant really tell if the two forward most stacks in the photo are considerably thicker than the aft most one or not. If they are then it is a Bristol/Weymouth class light cruiser which the Bristol class were launched between 1909 and 1911.

Bristol Class Light Cruiser 1910

Weymouth Class Light Cruisers

Thing is I just cant find any definite answers for where each ship was at in 1912.

 

[Rusty_S]

If anyone else has any luck here is my line of thinking on identifying the Royal Sovereign class battleships. I am trying to find information on identifying marks for 1912. If you take a look at the stacks the rear most Royal Sovereign class has one white band on her stacks while the lead Royal Sovereign class has three white bands on her stacks.

I am trying to find out the meaning behind these bands as they are no doubt used to identify the ship by specific name since so many were made for said class that looked the same.

 

[Harland Duzen]

Either way 2 out of 4 isn't bad and the possibility of the 3rd ship being HMS Royal Oak (1892) shows you really deserve an award for your knowledge into this. Below I roughly over-layed the two photos to give a sense of scale / panorama.

 

[Rusty_S]

With the overlay what it looks like is it looks like in the foreground is a sailing formation. I wonder how many other ships that we don't even see in the photograph was part of this formation.

On second though I think those ships in the foreground are stationary. If they were moving the photographing boat wouldn't still be situated in the same position between the two photos unless all the ships were stationary.

 

[Harland Duzen]

 

[B-rad]

The sailing yacht seen... Did not Lightoller wife supposidly sail close to the ship. Cannot find reference to where I have read this rumor. If so could this be their ship?

 

[Harland Duzen]

The sailing yacht seen... Did not Lightoller wife supposidly sail close to the ship. Cannot find reference to where I have read this rumor. If so could this be their ship?

Never heard that one before. Lightoller would have likely mentioned this in his memoirs otherwise.

 

[Harland Duzen]

With the overlay what it looks like is it looks like in the foreground is a sailing formation. I wonder how many other ships that we don't even see in the photograph was part of this formation.

On second though I think those ships in the foreground are stationary. If they were moving the photographing boat wouldn't still be situated in the same position between the two photos unless all the ships were stationary.

While not connected to the discussion above, Rusty_S, do you like chance know any information on the USS Chester before she was called to the SS Carpathia assistance?

 

[Harland Duzen]

Back To Topic, from reading the posts on the World of Warships forum, you and your friends suggest the ship that was originally labelled:

HMS Revenge (1892) is actually a ship of the Canopus Class (making it either HMS Albion, HMS Canopus, HMS Glory, HMS Goliath, HMS Ocean or HMS Vengeance).

The ship hidden behind the Sailing Boat was HMS Empress Of India (1893) being repaired.

Is this comfirmed?

 

[Mark Baber]

Moderator's note

A message concerning postings on another website has been removed. Issues about other sites should be addressed there or privately, not here. Thanks.

 

[Harland Duzen]

Moderator's note

A message concerning postings on another website has been removed. Issues about other sites should be addressed there or privately, not here. Thanks.

I guessed some reaction like this might occur. I take note of this.

 

[Mark Baber]

Thanks, Martin.

 

[Harland Duzen]

Does anyone actually know why it was / possibly still is common to anchor Warships within the Solent? Was it the only place outside of Portsmouth / Southampton docks to anchor them or was there another reason for it?

 

[Rob Lawes]

I was based in Portsmouth on the Type 23 Frigate HMS Lancaster between 1996 and 1999. Most of the time you see ships at Anchor in the Solent they are either on trials, exercises etc and are just at anchor overnight in sheltered water so that you don't need to keep a full crew on watch or, the ship is waiting to enter the harbour through the narrows.

RN ships entering Portsmouth are generally accompanied by a tug to assist and a pilot. Both cost money therefore it is cheaper to enter harbour during the working day.

Picture the scene on a ship that has been away for 9 months, gets back to port at 6 in the evening and then has to anchor a few hundred yards from the bright lights of Southsea. The ship will have to wait until 8am the following morning to go alongside.