Berthed by the side of the resplendent rigging of HMS Victory (Nelson's flagship) in the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard this little ship in
dry dock is often overlooked
despite being painted in the
dazzle anti-submarine camouflage she wore for most of 1918. The HMS Monitor M33 is one of only two World War 1 warships to survive both war and time. The Monitors were a shallow draft coastal bombardment vessels who steamed into 'enemy' waters to discharge their 6 inch guns. The HMS Monitor had a
long life under different names and guises but during that time many of the original features were removed, now located in Number 1
Dry Dock, Portsmouth these features are being replaced or reconstructed to restore the ship as near as possible to her 1915-1919 configuration.
The ship in the background is HMS Illustrious built in 1976 at Swan Hunter but due to be decommissioned in the next few years. She is an Invincible class light aircraft carrier, the first in class being built in 1973 in the shipyard of the town where I live, at some point the Invincible would also have been in a
dry dock (used for construction, maintenance and repair of ships).
I wonder if it was this large one in
Devonshire Dock , maybe not for this photo is on a postcard from the 1920s. The photographer has climbed the Vickers Crane which was very high and
dominated the town, as did its replacement, both now gone, are as all the chimneys in the background which I think must be the old steelworks.
Dash over to
ABC Wednesday where there are lots more words starting with
D
17 comments:
Very interesting history lesson.Those ships are so small in comparrision to the ones of today.
What an amazing photo!
Have a delightful day.
I would enjoy seeing the HMS Monitor when the boat is completed. It sure does look small compared to the HMS Victory!
Terrific capture and a fascinating history lesson! What a great post for the D Day, Joy! Hope your week is going well!
Sylvia
Wow! Amazing shot of the dry dock. My late FIL was a superintendent at the BC Dry Docks here. Hope you have a dandy week,
Leslie
abcw team
Ships in dry dock seem strange..on board the noises are unusual and quite spooky.
fantastic post I loved it especially as my son is in the navy
Beautiful one!
ABC Wednesday
I hadn't heard od dazzle camouflage before and had to look it up. I guess the Monitor will eventually look more like a zebra!
Very interesting and a terrific picture !
Gattina
ABC team
I like seeing ships in dry dock where their structure truly can be appreciated. Lovely photos!
Great shot, great contribution to "D" day! Thanks for sharing the info too! I appreciate your visit to my site.
Love the history taught so beautifully and painlessly (easy to learn with your pictures and text!
Really liked this post. Having never seen a dry dock, it never occurred to me to think about how it is designed. Much to my surprise, it's actually DRY. No duh! Discovering this cool fact, and the pleasure it gives me proves I'm an example of "simple pleasures for simple minds."
That is nice looking ship with an history.
impressive ship!
ROG, ABC Wednesday team
VERY cool post! I never really gave this much thought but it is so cool how they get set up the docks and get the boats in and fixed.
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