I have a high resolution photo of the Britannia in Chicago. It is of a group of men on it who worked on it for some reason while in Chicago, at Marine Iron Works. My dad is sitting over the front side turret. My dad had a round iron hitch receiver that had broken of the Britannia... He used it as a paperweight for years. Are you all interested for me to post it? Ralph
Welcome to the Forum Ralph, I'm sure we'd like you to post the photo, especialy as a known person is in it and you have a direct link to it. Looking forwards to seeing it.
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ChrisG
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity(Dorothy Parker)
Here is a picture of the Britannia with the arrow pointing to my father Ralph Gould Sr.. He was 18 at the time. This was taken in 1917. My dad tried to enlist several times but was deferred each time due to the need of workers at "Marine Iron Works". My dad was employed as a machinist.
He told me that the Britannia came into the shop due to needing some work... then the photo op happened. He had an iron hitch receiver that had broken off the Britannia and used it for years as a paper weight.
Great photo Ralph, It would make a great diorama, I wonder if it went to the Marine Iron Works for a coat of paint, it does look a bit factory fresh, no grease or oil stains. Camoflaged. I notice the track adjusters are close to, if not at, their limit.
Any more?
Chris
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ChrisG
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity(Dorothy Parker)
Yes Ralph, the large nut near the bottom of the overal leg is on the axle. It looks ready to have a link taken out!
The attached photo shows the adjuster, there is more adjustment than there appears as there is a slotted closing plate under the axle nut. The plate can be turned through 180deg to allow more movement.
-- Edited by LincolnTanker on Friday 11th of March 2011 07:18:42 PM
Britannia did not visit Chicago until Sept 1918 when she took part in a major war exposition that lasted for a week. This is well documented and photographed - so I think the date on the card was added later from memory and is mistaken. All the other Chicago photos appear to show no camouflage which would suggest she visited the iron works for a lick of paint before leaving Chicago. This should help me date some other photos.
the second photo shows the track fitting closer to the platework, so a link has been removed or a complete new track fitted since it's time at the Marine Iron Works. I wonder if the position of the adjusters could be used to aid in organising chronologicly photos of Britannia? and other tanks.
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ChrisG
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity(Dorothy Parker)
Something I've been trying to resolve for some time - every time I find something that suggests there were two I find something that indicates only one. Either solution predicates a whole lot of coincidences and record keeping errors!
Help - I'm trying to append some files but doing so just makes everything hang.I've tried querying this in "On the forum" but it won't let me open a new topic either
Centurion: I am so sorry, but the original press photo that I have does not have a label pasted on the back anymore (can see where it was). The original is an Underwood & Underwood photo and just has a large scrawl on back that reads, "English tank brought to New York". No date anywhere.
Help - I'm trying to append some files but doing so just makes everything hang.I've tried querying this in "On the forum" but it won't let me open a new topic either
Just tried opening a new topic and had no trouble. Haven't tried attaching files but last time I had no trouble. Could it be a browser problem?
EDIT: Just started a new topic with attachments in the modelling section. No problem attaching files. There is a <10Mb limit on individual file size. This could be the cause of your attachment problem.
-- Edited by Mark Hansen on Wednesday 16th of March 2011 06:42:20 AM
...Just tried opening a new topic and had no trouble. Haven't tried attaching files but last time I had no trouble. Could it be a browser problem?
Indeed, or could be congestion in the internet anywhere along the way. Certainly seems OK from Oz at the moment, and no recent problems encountered. Have just checked with just-ping.com to see results from all over the globe and seems normal (now) for shared hosting - which is to say lots of "lost packets" for the just-ping pings which have a very short attention span compared to normal network protocols - but some are getting through from just about anywhere anyway. Normal.
Checked with watchmouse.com which contacts the actual webpage server and apart from insignificant delays for connections from Germany, Sweden and Brazil all is perfect (currently and on the networks used for those queries - not necessarily the same networks used by individual forum members).
On the matter of attachments, the smaller the better for internet uploading, the larger the better for information content, compromise as always. Your upload speed on broadband is usually only a small fraction of your download speed (don't complain, otherwise 99.9% of the internet would be clogged by spam, instead of only 95%). And your upload speed might dwindle to virtually nothing if you are on a "rate-limited" internet plan - either/both limits for daily/hourly output or limits for financial period (usually a month).
Not surprising it occasionally doesn't work - astounding that it works at all. And of course the forum contributions are thoroughly in the red and our forum host's conditions say you have to be in credit for them to support file attachments. Maybe they've just started enforcing that?
Best advice I can give is "try later" when there are such problems. If that doesn't work, time to look for the cause.
As I said my files were well within size limits - I have used the forum before!
Having been off forum for some time I wonder if any thing needed resetting on my account. I'll try and attach again this PM.
EDIT: Just started a new topic with attachments in the modelling section. No problem attaching files. There is a <10Mb limit on individual file size. This could be the cause of your attachment problem.
-- Edited by Mark Hansen on Wednesday 16th of March 2011 06:42:20 AM
-- Edited by Centurion on Wednesday 16th of March 2011 12:33:55 PM
Photo of Britannia in Chicago in Sept 1918 doing her party trick of crushing a car - no cammo. Photo of Britannia in Calwa Fresno some months earler with cammo. Photos of the tank at the LA and San Francisco expositions (which took place before the Chicago one) also show cammo. Other Chicago shots from the same photographer also show no cammo
The plot sickens
-- Edited by Centurion on Thursday 17th of March 2011 08:03:38 PM
-- Edited by Centurion on Thursday 17th of March 2011 08:04:50 PM
Thanks for this. One of the photos shows a form of cammo not seen in any other photo of Britannia! The one of Upton where Britannia was from mid Dec 1917 to mid Jan 1918 is genuine. However I'd need further evidence about some of the others (War Illustrated was not always to be rusted). I've a slightly different photo of a tank about to cross the trench shown (with the struts across it) which was originally attributed to training in France!
The claim that the tank had fought on the Somme is patently absurd - it being a Mk IV (other claims in other papers also had it at Arras and Vimy).
As Mark points out there are photos of the other side also camouflaged.
However the publicity poster for the Chicago exposition (Sept 2 - 15 1918) does say Live demonstrations by tanks- note the plural. Which supports the theory that there were two Britannias (there are many other points that support this), However if there were two then both were Mk IV females with a cab roof hatch (which may indicate a converted baggage tank) which given the rarety of this is something of a coincidence.
Marty wrote:
Is it possible gentlemen that one side was painted cammo and the other not?
Thanks for posting the second photo picnic42. It's amazing that after almost 100 years new images keep on turning up. Here's hoping you have a third photo tucked away somewhere.
Thanks for posting the second photo picnic42. It's amazing that after almost 100 years new images keep on turning up. Here's hoping you have a third photo tucked away somewhere.
Gwyn
Gwyn... you are welcome!
Those photos are pretty cool... neither my sister nor I know of any others... however I can say this... you guys will know within the hour if we do find another. I had not known of that second pic... my sister Joy just found it in a box of dad's old pics. She is into genealogy and delves into old pics for family connections. As I had mentioned in the first post or two... dad had an iron receiver... a large round circle... that had broken off the Britannia. He used it as a paper weight on his desk all the time. We are looking for it... if it is around anywhere it may be in my sister's garage. But, neither one of us have seen it in many years.
Is the iron hitch receiver still in the family?
