UK: Sailors, Royal Marines Aboard New Destroyer HMS Dauntless Recreate Historic Photo

Sailors and Royal Marines aboard new destroyer HMS Dauntless recreated a historic ship’s company photograph from nearly a century ago. One hundred and 74 of the 200 men and women aboard lined up on the forecastle of the Type 45 – just as their forebears did 91 years ago under solemn circumstances in New York harbour.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

This is the ship’s company of HMS Dauntless, pride of the Royal Navy in 2012, posing on the forecastle as their vessel sails through American waters

And this is the ship’s company of HMS Dauntless posing on the forecastle as their vessel sails through American waters exactly 91 years ago…

Crew from today’s Dauntless recreated the historic image as the Portsmouth-based warship exercised with the US and other navies in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ship’s photographer LA(Phot) Nicky Wilson choreographed proceedings, organising 174 of the 200 sailors and Royal Marines aboard into position for the snap (the rest of the ship’s company were on duty) – making full use of the sweeping forecastle and lining up crew in front of the main 4.5in gun, on top of the Sea Viper missile silo and in front of the bridge…

Just as her predecessor did 91 years ago on September 19 1921 in New York harbour, with the destroyer USS Ericsson in the background – although the circumstances surrounding the light cruiser’s visit to the Big Apple were rather sombre.

Dauntless sailed across the Atlantic to repatriate the dead of the airship R38 which was designed for the Royal Navy, but sold to the Americans when Britain decided it no longer needed the leviathan with the end of World War 1.

The airship was the largest in the world – nearly 700ft long – with a crew of 49 and was intended to carry out six-day-long patrols scouting for enemy submarines and, if necessary, attacking them with bombs and machine-guns.

But on only its fourth test flight, the R38 suffered structural failure over Hull, exploded in mid-air, shattering windows in the city’s homes, and plunged into the River Humber. Sixteen of the 17 American crew and 28 of the 32 Britons aboard the airship were killed.

The historic image today hangs in the ward room of the present Dauntless – the first warship to bear the name since her predecessor was scrapped in 1946.

The Type 45 destroyer has just completed Exercise UNITAS – billed as the largest and longest-running naval exercise in the Northern Hemisphere – involving 13 warships from seven nations, operating from Key West in Florida.

Dauntless is now conducting anti-drug-running patrols as part of the international clampdown on the narcotics trade in Caribbean waters. She’s due back home in Portsmouth at the end of the month.

[mappress]
Naval Today Staff, October 09, 2012; Image: Royal Navy