enchantingimagery:

The water Nymphs, that in the bottom plaid,/Held up their pearled wrists and took her in

An Arthur Rackham illustration for Comus

(via mudwerks)

Wreckage of the USS MAINE
3,000 × 2,295
US Navy battleship that sunk after a mysterious explosion in Havana Harbor
Havana, Cuba, 15 February 1898

Sent to protect US interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, she exploded suddenly and without warning; sinking quickly and killing nearly three quarters of her crew.
2131 × 1613

1024 x 648
The cause of the Maine’s sinking remains the subject of speculation. +

Maritime Monday for March 25, 2013:
Boom, Boom, Blub, Blub (or Stow High In Transit)

An early Zalinsky Coastal Artillery Gun ca. 1888

The back of this photograph has the legend “8 in Dynamite Gun” 

Antarctica: Swedish South Polar Expedition 1901-04
used Dec. 17 1906 from Punta Arenas to New York

Grosvenor Philatelic Auctions

Loading cod

Arkhangelsk, formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city on the banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia.

Greek Fire – Greek warships would carry giant cauldrons filled with a mysterious incendiary liquid. Once in range of an enemy ship the Greeks would heat and pressurize the liquid then use a siphon to “squirt” it out across the sea in the direction of the enemy to devastating effect. The components of this fearsome ancient weapon were a closely guarded secret. Even the soldiers who helped prepare the fire did not know the ingredients. In 814 the Bulgarians captured two Greek warships, containing some 36 siphons. A few still contained the mysterious liquid used to make Greek fire, but without knowing the proper components the Bulgarians were unable to make use of it.

Modern scientists have been unable to figure out the exact makeup of the fire. Three possible combinations include petroleum, potassium nitrate and sulfur, naphtha, quicklime and sulfur or phosphorus and saltpeter. But the following is known from old records: Greek fire burned on water and according to some accounts was even ignited by water; it could be extinguished only by a few substances, including sand, strong vinegar and old urine and it was accompanied by thunder and much smoke.

“Every time they hurl the fire at us, we go down on our elbows and knees, and beseech Our Lord to save us from this danger,” wrote one witness who saw the weapon in action and lived to tell the tale.

more

mudwerks:

1959  (by x-ray delta one)

lostandfoundinprague:

Vltava, boats, Prague by M.Peterka, 60’s

(via yama-bato)

time-for-maps:

Map of Genoa. (1890) [3307 × 2539]

(via fuckyeahcartography)

lauramcphee:

Women in Porthole, c1970 (Mary Ellen Mark)

(via mudwerks)

navyhistory:

On 23 March 1815, U.S. Sloop of War Hornet captured the British brig-sloop Penguin in a battle lasting just over 20 minutes in the south Atlantic. Neither crew was aware that the War of 1812 had ended a month earlier.

This painting by Carlton T. Chapman shows Hornet at left with Penguin heavily damaged. NHHC image 1857.

(via moewie)

2headedsnake:

monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com

Albert Robida (1846-1928)

(via fuckyeahdeepseadivers)

STANLEY MASSEY ARTHURS (American, 1877-1950)
The Wreck of Hesperus, 1908
Oil on canvas

“The Wreck of the Hesperus” is a narrative poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, first published in Ballads and Other Poems in 1842.

“The Wreck of the Hesperus” is a story that presents the tragic consequences of a sea captain’s pride. On an ill-fated voyage in winter, he brings his daughter aboard ship for company. The captain ignores the advice of one of his experienced men, who fears that a hurricane is approaching. When the storm arrives, the captain ties his daughter to the mast to prevent her from being swept overboard…

read “The Wreck of the Hesperus” on Project Gutenberg

Ship’s company, U.S.S. Maine

blown up in Havana Harbor, Havana, Cuba, 15 February 1898
8 x 10 in. glass negative
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C.