Seventy five year old photographs ... and I don't know where! (help please)

[Keith]

Roll #09 … following on from roll #8 posted in this thread.


Help … I don’t have a clue where this is!

Travelling by ship and train again with the obligatory shots out of the car window as they speed to wherever it is they’re going this time. Bettina seems to like ships, she always photographs them and obviously the lifestyle aboard appeals to her and her travelling companion Maria. The opening photo of the countess is a bit stressed with the overlapping frame and the focus isn’t great but I like it none the less. She has a nice face and the expression is good.

These photos are all good IMO but there’s a few that really impress me … the shadows on the side of the ship and the shot of the people in the rows of seats … the young man sitting amongst a group with his face lit by the window is fantastic and she seems to have singled him out for some reason … his good looks maybe? I think she uses this type of light very well and when you consider what speed film she would have been using these low light hand held images are remarkable … she knows her camera and lens and seldom gets the exposure wrong in tricky conditions.


Once again please enjoy … and don’t forget to help me figure out where these have been taken! This roll was tucked inside another roll, inside one of the containers and was only twenty-four frames with each end of the film looking like it had been broken … Agfa again.

 

[mooge]

third picture from the bottom has French in it... the ad on the leftmost building is for engine oil. Doesn't look too much like Europe to me... maybe French Canada? I dunno.

Keep it coming, Keith, this is awesome stuff.

 

[TennesseJones]

is this useful, from the ship name?

"In 1927, she was sold to the Compagnie Cherbourgeoise de Transbordement and then sold again to the Société Cherbourgeoise de Remorquage et de Sauvetage in 1934. Then under the name Ingenieur Minard, she again served as a troop ship in WW2..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Nomadic_(1911)

these are great keith...

 

[johannielscom]

French Canada might be a nice guess.

The ship in the second shot is obviously French, with a name as 'Ingenieur Minard' and a Citroën Traction-Avant on the deck.

EDIT: Apperently, that ship is nowadays the 'Nomadic' and is docked in Belfast, awaiting restoration. I bet the foundation to restore it will be interested in this shot of the ship!

The painted advertisement for petroleum contains French and 'Pennsylvania'.

That battleship or a similar one I have seen before, with the hull-mounted gun turrets. But, I have no clue as to what and where. Should not be that difficult to find though? I'd say the battleship is American, in the second shot you can see the flag waving and it definitely has a rectangular darker part top left.

 

[tj01]

The first picture on the train has ETAT on the upholstery, definitely French influence.

 

[SimonSawSunlight]

french canada sounds like a good guess to me, too. but who knows, in this crazy crazy world of ours... ^^

 

[TennesseJones]

The roll of photos doesn't show any young men on the train in uniform.. So unlikely during the war itself?

 

[morback]

Judging by the clouds I'd say the first shots have been taken either in Brittany or Normandy... 😉

Maybe this is their way to or back from Amerika...The last shots are not in Europe, but the first ones could be...

 

[t.s.k.]

Those look like Canadian clouds to me 😀

Seriously I have no clue, but likely french speaking/reading.
Love the aisle shot.

 

[johannielscom]

That port in the first shots might very well be Cherbourg. The 'Ingenieur Minard' had it as its port, and it can be reached by train. Also, it's piers are quite specific and the piers in the picture sure look like them.

And of course, cloud patterns also have 'Atlantic-coast Europe' all over them 😉

 

[robklurfield]

no clue, but this continues to be an amazing project.

 

[bigeye]

I'm pretty sure the battleship is the USS Wyoming. She was a training ship at this time and, from her history:

...Wyoming continued her operations out of Norfolk, Boston, and New York, visiting Cuban waters, as well as Puerto Rico and New Orleans. In addition, she conducted a Naval Academy midshipman's practice cruise to European waters in 1938, visiting Le Havre, France; Copenhagen; and Portsmouth, England.

Their departing port may have been Le Havre (or as Buzz says, nearby Cherbourg). It would give us a date of 1938.

- Charlie

 

[xayraa33]

Tabernac, that parking lot scene looks like it is in 1930s Montreal.

 

[photogdave]

The battleship is definitely U.S. Looks like one of the class destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The cruiser in the second shot looks British.
Since most of the signage in the shot of the town appear to be in French I would say Le Havre is a great guess.

 

[nolasafari]

USS New York (BB-34) or USS Texas (BB-35)

More than likely the Texas as she spent more time in the Atlantic than the New York.

http://www.acepilots.com/ships/new_york.html

 

[tapesonthefloor]

Photo #3 (and others) shows the ship approaching Port de Montréal, which has been one of the busiest North American ports of entry for a century or more.

As xayraa33 mentions, too, the urban scene is pure Montréal, as well. I'm guessing she landed there and traveled by train westward. Would that put the Chicago shots a couple weeks after these ones, or are we looking at multiple trips?

 

[tapesonthefloor]

For comparison, here's a similar view of Montreal today (yes, most of the mountain is obscured by buildings now, but I'm arguing they're the very same geographic feature):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepretender/648648502/

 

[bigeye]

I believe that the white cruise ship is one of the Canadian Pacific RR's transatlantic steamships - one of the "Empresses" (probably "Empress of Canada") that they operated. It could fit the story here, in some way. It would 'feed' passengers to the transcon CP train (photos above?).

(The New York/Texas were very similar - same building period, but were converted in the late 20's from the unique US-only 'bird cage" masts to 'tripods'. The Wyoming kept her forward birdcage. Also, they had a different secondary 'casemate' gun configuration. I had a good friend who served on the USS New York.)

CP's primary entry port was Montreal.

 

[dexdog]

The battleship is definitely U.S. Looks like one of the class destroyed at Pearl Harbor. The cruiser in the second shot looks British.

Looks to me like the naval vessel in the 2nd, 4th and 5th images are all the same ship

 

[bigeye]

Not sure now, if it's USS Wyoming or her sister Arkansas. The features I was studying to distinguish them (double anchors on port side and casemate guns amidship) are the same... I thought Arkansas may have had her obsolete casemate guns removed, but they are only shuttered in this picture. So it could be either ship.

It matters as Wyoming was in Le Harve in 1938 and Arkansas was in Cherbourg in 1936. The harbor does look more like Cherbourg to me...

USS Arkansas