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Details
Original pair of mammoth photos picturing the ship Lucile alongside Union Street Wharf in San Francisco in 1901.
The ship is "Hove Down" or "Careened," an early method of repairing a ship's bottom without a dry dock. The masts were shored up with timbers and then tethered with stout block and tackle, leading to horse-operated capstans on the pier, which pulled the ship over until the keel was exposed. A crew of caulkers recaulked the bottom and renewed the copper sheathing.
Lucile was over 25 years old when these pictures were taken. She was built in Freeport, Maine, in 1874.
Mammoth plate photographs are photographic prints made through contact printing a photographic print from a large glass plate negative. These large, rare negatives allowed photographers to produce outsized photographic prints before the development of photographic enlargers. It's very unusual to have photographic evidence of an American ship during the careening process.
One of the photos was published in the book San Francisco Bay by Kemble in 1967, on page 128.
The captioned title reads: "The last sailing ship to be hove down in San Francisco."
Original frames with original wavy crown glass. Frames with many nicks and scratches, as expected for a 125-year-old wooden picture frame that was purported to have hung dockside at the Haverside company.
Image size 20" x 16", Framed 25 1/2" x 29 1/2"