HMS Conqueror photograph

You peeps did so well on the Konigsallee lion that I thought you deserved a treat and help answer this how they did it question . Here is a photo by Groom & Company, 83 Union Street, Plymouth and 45 High Street Exeter (sorry about faint watermarks, we will want to sell this image in due course). It shows a vessel named Conqueror heeling over in rough seas. This would seem to be HMS Conqueror which was lost at Rum Cay in December 1861.

Rootsweb forum states "Groom & Co were at 83 Union Street Plymouth in 1862 (by 1870 Groom, David &Co. same studio at different address?). No record of a Groom photographer at Plymouth in 1881 census."

This appears to be a real photo of the period but I don't think they had the technology at the time to take a real life picture like this so I think it is a photo of an oil painting. Looking very closely I think I can see brushstrokes and the weave of the underlying canvas. Can we find the original painting?

 

WOW! That is a GREAT image!
Not so much for the crew.
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I LOVE it! I don't believe I've ever seen such a drastic sea and heel shown in such a thing before.
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Any photographer would've been doing all he could to stay aboard, not be thrown into something and to not turn inside out even if there were a camera to shoot this.
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I've been in some bad sea states though on a much larger ship and not as tall...and it ain't fun.

 

I cannot be a picture of the actual ship. Apart from anything else early early pictures had exposure times nearer minutes than seconds.

 

Indeed.
Had there been even the camera would have been calling for Ralph.

 

So given this is a photo, it must be a photo of a painting. Can't find it though

 

May be her> While sailing through the Caribbean, Conqueror was wrecked on Rum Cay on 13 December 1861 due to a navigation error. All 1,400 aboard were saved.
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Could be by> William Frederick Mitchell

 

Orig is in Peabody Museum, Salem, MA

http://www.shipwreckexpo.com/tsbahamasrumcayshipwrecks.htm

 

YAAAAAY! Spring!
That was it Rum Cay!
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I don't mind the site offered on that page either; bikiniExpo.com so.....

 

The Peabody Museum of Salem was merged with the Essex Institute in 1992 to form the Peabody Essex Museum. I looked briefly on their website. They have a section called Maritime Art and History that shows a small portion of that part of their collection. I did a search on the word "Conqueror" and did not find that piece of art. However, you might consider contacting their research library for more information. Contact information is listed on this page. http://www.pem.org/library/information

Looks like the library is currently operating out of a temporary location, so perhaps there is some construction going on.

And, kudos to Spring for finding that!

 

U.S.S. Essex was also a famous, storied, ship indeed.

 

That was quick, even by your standards! Great work!

 

If I ever go there, remind me to avoid that painting. Makes me seasick...ooooh...

 

Ha!!!
A sailor you may not be.
I was so sick a few times I experienced that 'I'd rather die.' phenomenon.
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The best one was when I had to go rescue a fire pump, which could just not be lost...I could be though, as the pump was more important to the ship and crew. Just how it is.
Heavy water coming over the my destroyer's bow, pounding me, ship bobbing all over but..when concentrating on the potential I would be lost, and seeing to it I got the pump, I forgot all about being sick. Odd no?

 

Not odd....when faced with a task at hand one can focus ....and block out fear , pain, ineptitude , or even an upset tummy !!!

Ya got the pump ...right ?

Cudo's....

 

Thank you. I did.
I was the fire team 'On scene leader' on the ship so I 'just did it'.
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Then I questioned, a lot, what in the Helsinki,...who in the Helsinki's bright idea, was it to mount it there?

 

Back in my childhood days, my family used to vacation at the Jersey shore. This required a short ferry trip. Unfortunately the driver of the boat always managed to bump into the stanchions...which made the boat shimmy...and so did my tummy.

(I'm not sure 'stanchion' is the correct word; those posts that rise up out of the water...?)

 

Pilings.

 

Slightly off topic, but triggered by King's post, I've got a great autograph book from the 30s, each page with a storyboard cartoon of a woman suffering from some unknown condition "with a fine collection that need looking after". She gets treated by gasfitters and plumbers, then by a doctor who makes her put her feet up and keep her collection warm. She dreams of marrying him and having little doctor kids, until her piles finally disappear and the doctor loses interest!

 

Oh mein Got!!!
I'm off to take a long walk off a short pier now...