Some cool wire cutting solutions pictures:
P & A Campbell White Funnel pleasure steamer, Bristol
Image by brizzle born and bred
ON THE evening of February 15, 1919, the paddle steamer Albion locked in at Cumberland Basin. It was a Saturday evening and as the word spread, a couple of dozen onlookers gathered to see the battered ship, still armed, nonetheless painted the regulation grey of the Royal Navy.
Maybe the modest crowd raised a ragged cheer. Albion, her sister ships and their Bristolian crews were war heroes, and now the very first of them was back. It was yet another small sign that peace had actually returned.
Some of the onlookers would certainly have chatted about the very good times they had had on the ships, and would have looked forward to the summer time outings to come.
The initial of the P & A Campbell White Funnel pleasure steamers – "the swans of the Avon", one local writer called them – had returned home.
In all of the annals of Bristol in the Excellent War, the complete story of the Campbell paddle steamers remains relatively obscure.
It really is the exact same with Bristol’s merchant seamen generally merchant seamen didn’t tend to create their memoirs.
However in the case of the White Funnel fleet, the ships and their crews, who were nearly all Bristol men, did vital war service.
A single was a transport at Gallipoli and some of the others had encounters with enemy submarines, but for the most component they had been utilized as minesweepers.
This was not just thankless work, it was hazardous. In statistical terms, you stood a better opportunity of survival in the Very first Planet War as a soldier in the trenches than you did operating on minesweepers.
It was to the immense credit of the Bristol steamers that only two out of 13 had been lost.
The casualty figures had been impressive, as well. Although some men have been lost, there do not seem to have been any casualties from the Bristolians among them.
These reasonably little losses says a lot for their professionalism and knowledge, and the high quality of their mostly Clyde-constructed ships.
Before the war Campbell’s steamers had been a well-known feature of Bristol’s summer season.
Folks would dress in their Sunday ideal for an outing down the Avon and into the Channel on weekends and Bank Holidays, heading off for a day out in Lynmouth, Clovelly, Minehead or Ilfracombe.
Simply because of all these happy memories, it came as a shock when the ships had been requisitioned by the Admiralty to turn into minesweepers. By the middle of the war the Navy had taken all 13 of them.
The Navy brass knew what they had been doing. Paddle steamers operating as pleasure boats had been highly manoeuvrable but, more importantly, simply because they operated in coastal waters they had shallow draughts.
Enemy mines were generally laid to hit reduced hulls a pleasure boat stood a fighting possibility of being in a position to sail proper more than one particular unscathed.
The very same applied with submarine torpedoes. "They constantly went nicely beneath our bottom, thank you," mentioned an officer of the Devonia following the war.
The very first to leave have been Devonia and Brighton Queen, headed for Devonport in September 1914.
Most of the other folks have been taken, a single by 1, to G.K. Stothert’s dockyard at Hotwells, and fitted out for war painted grey and armed for duty with machine guns and 12-pounders.
A single by 1, they were taken down the Avon by guys from Bristol, Pill, Shirehampton and Avonmouth now acting under Admiralty orders, to take station about Britain’s coast.
Devonia, Brighton Queen, Cambria, Westward Ho!, Glen Avon and Lady Ismay remained together as a flotilla through the war, based at Grimsby, and later on the Tyne.
An account of 1 of their adventures written by one particular of the males on one more boat in the group, the yacht Saggita, offers a vivid description of their hazardous function. In April 1915 Westward Ho! and the Sagitta had been mine-hunting in the North Sea:
Soon soon after sweeping began there was a loud explosion in the sweep in between our companion the Westward Ho!, and us, and a mound of water was hurled into the air. Two mines had burst in our sweep. A handful of seconds later an additional bobbed up, cut from its moorings by our sweep wire. The sound of the explosion was followed by full silence. All the ships had immediately stopped, and lay rolling slightly to the disturbance brought on by the bursting mines.
Any harm carried out? No, all the ships have been there. "We will pick up that mine" stated the Commander. Our end of the wire was "slipped," or let go, a boat was lowered, and he and the C/O, with two hands went off. Of course, strictly speaking, the C/O ought to not have gone. His place was on board, particularly as mines had been about, but the immediate danger in the boat attracted him — he was that sort of man — and he would not hear of any individual else going. Off went the boat, while the rest of us looked on, and wondered what would happen. The boat circled round the black, sinister hunting mine, bobbing about so innocently in the sea, and then the C/O jumped into the water, swam up to the mine, and reduce the two outdoors wires major to the detonator.
This the Commander thought need to make it secure, even though he was not confident. The mine was then towed alongside, a derrick swung out, the mine hooked on, hoisted out, and lowered on deck right after the detonator had been pulled out. We breathed freely as soon as more. It was certainly safe now that the detonator was out.
The next job was to pick it to pieces, and this was successfully completed. It was found to be surprisingly properly produced, and all the inside parts were hugely completed. In truth they could hardly have been bettered if intended for an exhibition. Contemplating that it was destined in the ordinary way to be blown to bits it appears strange that so considerably care need to have been bestowed on polishing and machining the performs. 1 of the parts bore a quite current date, proving that the mines had not been laid extended. In reality in one way and an additional really a lot of data was gleaned from this mine, which was sent to the Admiralty when we returned to harbour.
The two ships to be lost in the war have been in the Grimsby Flotilla.
On October six, 1915, Brighton Queen hit a mine off the Belgian coast and sank speedily, with the loss of seven men (Bristol’s neighborhood press, in the way of regional press then and now, noted that none of them have been from Bristol).
Two months later the Lady Ismay struck a mine in the Thames Estuary and went down in two minutes with the loss of 19 men.
The very same number, nevertheless, were saved by boats from the ships accompanying her.
This episode was very renowned at the time for the action of Chief Petty Officer Walter Carter of Dartmoor Street, Bedminster. He was commended by the Admiralty for trying to save another man by dragging him onto a life raft and giving artificial respiration.
The 4 remaining Campbell ships at Grimsby had been later moved to the Tyne exactly where they saw out the rest of the war undertaking similar perform.
Six of the other steamers had been sent to the Clyde and spent the war around the coast of Scotland. One, the Glen Usk, was present when the German fleet surrendered at Scapa Flow on November 21 1918.
Albion and Ravenswood went to Dover and with the Grimsby flotilla they took part in clearing mines prior to the Zeebrugge Raid.
Their crewmen had been delighted to discover out soon after the war that they had been described in an official German report as "light cruisers".
They were beneath heavy fire, and Albion also survived a German air attack. She was not so lucky two years later when a little bomb hit her stern and two officers had been killed.
The Waverley went to Portland and the Glen Rosa to Cardiff, where she swept the Bristol Channel for mines. Each had been sent to the Thames later in the war.
The Barry had the most exciting war of all of them. Known as up in 1915 she first took 400 prisoners-of-war to Dublin to be moved to a camp in Ireland. She was then sent to the Mediterranean where she spent six weeks ferrying troops, ammunition and supplies to the Gallipoli beaches, nearly usually below artillery fire.
When the campaign was abandoned it was the Barry that was the very last to leave, evacuating the guys of the rearguard from Suvla Bay.
Barry saw out the rest of the war in the Mediterranean ferrying troops and supplies around.
"They went forth," said a newspaper reporter in 1919 of the 11 which 1 by a single had returned to the city docks and have been now getting painted white when much more, "on the wonderful adventure and braved, oft-instances, the fury of heavy gales on operate for which they were definitely by no means intended. And in spite of all the dangers, they came back. When they first went away, the steamers have been manned totally by neighborhood males, and though two of the White Funnels had been lost, other vessels of the exact same fleet were capable to rescue all the Bristol men aboard."
The Reverse Of The Carpathia Medal For The Rescue Of The Survivors Of The Titanic Disaster April 1912.
Image by Jimmy Huge Potatoes
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship constructed by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia produced her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of RMS Titanic after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912. Carpathia herself was sunk in the Atlantic on 17 July 1918 during the 1st Globe War, following becoming torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat.
1 History
1.1 Constructing and early service
1.2 Titanic disaster
1.three Service in Globe War I
1.four Sinking
1.five Locating and salvage work.
History Building and early service.
RMS Carpathia was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at their Newcastle upon Tyne, England shipyard. She was launched on six August 1902 and underwent her sea trials between 22 and 25 April 1903. Carpathia displaced eight,600 long tons (eight,700 t) and was 541 ft (165 m) extended and 64 ft 6 in (19.66 m) breadth.
Carpathia made her maiden voyage on 5 Could 1903 from Liverpool, England, to Boston, USA, and ran services amongst New York City, Gibraltar, Genova, Naples, Trieste and Fiume.
Titanic disaster.
A.H. Rostron, R.D., R.N.R., as master of RMS CarpathiaCarpathia was sailing from New York City to Fiume, Austria-Hungary (now Rijeka, Croatia) on the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912. Amongst her passengers were the American painters Colin Campbell Cooper and his wife Emma, journalist Lewis P. Skidmore, photographer Dr. Francis H. Blackmarr, and Charles H. Marshall, whose 3 nieces had been travelling aboard Titanic.
Carpathia’s wireless operator, Harold Cottam, had missed earlier messages from Titanic, as he was on the bridge at the time. He then received messages from Cape Race, Newfoundland, stating they had private site visitors for Titanic. He believed he would be helpful and at 12:11 am on 15 April sent a message to Titanic stating that Cape Race had visitors for them. In reply he received Titanic’s distress signal. Cottam awakened Captain Arthur Henry Rostron who right away set a course at maximum speed (17 kn (20 mph 31 km/h)) to Titanic’s last identified position, around 58 mi (93 km) away. Rostron ordered the ship’s heating and hot water cut off in order to make as a lot steam as achievable obtainable for the engines. At full speed it took the Carpathia four hours to attain Titanic, even though Titanic only stayed afloat for two hours and sank prior to Carpathia arrived. At 4:00 am, Carpathia arrived at the scene, after working her way by means of hazardous ice fields, and took on 705 survivors of the disaster from Titanic’s lifeboats
For their rescue function, the crew of Carpathia were awarded medals by the survivors. Crew members had been awarded bronze medals, officers silver, and Captain Rostron a silver cup and a gold medal, presented by Margaret Brown. Rostron was knighted by King George V, was later a guest of President Taft at the White House, exactly where he was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honour the United States Congress could confer upon him.
Service in World War I
Throughout the Very first World War, Carpathia was utilised to transfer Canadian and American troops to Europe. She was used as a troopship by the Canadian Expeditionary Force. At least some of her voyages were in convoy, sailing from New York via Halifax to Liverpool and Glasgow. Amongst her passengers throughout the war years was Frank Buckles, who went on to grow to be the last surviving American veteran of the war.
Sinking.
On 15 July 1918, Carpathia departed Liverpool in a convoy bound for Boston. On the summer morning of 17 July she was torpedoed, at 9:15, in the Celtic Sea by the Imperial German Navy submarine U-55. Of 3 torpedoes fired at the ship, one particular impacted the port side whilst the other penetrated the engine space, killing two firemen and three trimmers. As Carpathia started to settle by the head and list to port, Captain William Prothero gave the order to abandon ship. All 57 passengers (36 saloon class and 21 steerage) and 218 surviving crew members boarded the lifeboats as the vessel sank. U-55 surfaced and fired a third torpedo into the ship and was approaching the lifeboats when the Azalea-class sloop HMS Snowdrop arrived on the scene and drove away the submarine with gunfire prior to choosing up the survivors from Carpathia.
Carpathia sank at 11:00 AM at a position recorded by Snowdrop as 49.25 N 10.25 W, about 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet.
Locating and salvage operates.
On 9 September 1999, the Reuters and AP wire solutions reported that Argosy International Ltd., headed by Graham Jessop, son of the undersea explorer Keith Jessop, and sponsored by the National Underwater and Marine Agency, had discovered Carpathia’s wreck in 600 ft (180 m) of water, 185 mi (298 km) west of Land’s End. Bad weather forced his ship to abandon the position just before Jessop could verify the discovery making use of underwater cameras. However, when he later returned to the place the wreck proved to be not that of Carpathia but that of the Hamburg-America Line’s Isis, sunk on eight November 1936.
In 2000, the American author and diver Clive Cussler announced that his organization, NUMA, had discovered the accurate wreck of Carpathia in the spring of that year, at a depth of 500 ft (150 m). Following the submarine attack Carpathia landed upright on the seabed. NUMA gave the approximate place of the wreck as 120 mi (190 km) west of Fastnet, Ireland.
The vessel is presently owned by Premier Exhibitions Inc., formerly RMS Titanic Inc., which plans to recover objects from the wreck. The exact same company owns the salvor-in-possession rights of Titanic, from which numerous artefacts have been recovered and are on show in worldwide exhibitions.
Image from web page 882 of “Well-liked electricity magazine in plain English” (1912)
Image by World wide web Archive Book Images
Identifier: popularelectric619131chic
Title: Common electricity magazine in plain English
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Electrical energy
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Popular Electricity Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries
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Text Appearing Before Image:
COPYRIGHT BY TH£ INTERNATIONAL NEWS SERVICE, N. V. The very first water from Gatun Lake was permitted to flow into Culebra Cut by means of 4 26-inch pipes in the GamboaDyke. The four valves are here shown totally open allowing totally free entry of the water, which acted as a security cushionagainst the force of the explosion which blew up the dyke. four -:m PHOTO BY GEO. GRANTHAM BAIN, N. Y. Scores of charges of dynamite are inserted in the pipes shown and wired so as to be discharged at the exact same in-stant by electrical energy — destruction of Gamboa Dyke. THE WORLDS Picture GALLERY 869
Text Appearing Right after Image:
This photograph shows the blowing up of the Gamboa Dyke, the last obstruction in the Panama Canal, on October10. President Wilson, in Washington, touched the button which set off eight tons of dynamite, throwing dirt andhuge rocks higher into the air. Following the explosion the waters of Gatun Lake, which had been flowing slowlyinto Culebra Cut for some days, rushed into the fantastic cut and the Panama Canal was completed except for thefinishing touches end the dredging and widening of the channel. Thousands of sightseers witnessed the spectacle.
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