S.S. Milwaukee 1898-1899 [Marine Photograph Album]. 1898-1899.

Folio. 7 thick card leaves with 13 photographs, of which 11 are 13.5 inches by 10 inches, and 2 somewhat smaller at 5.5 by 4. Printed contents list to prelims, and a reproduction illustration of “General Cronje embarking on SS Milwaukee for St. Helena” comprising the final page. Black cloth with buckram spine, rebound in 1926 by Reid and Co. according to a note on the flyleaf. Some splitting to buckram at spine. Strong and handsome. Internally clean, some very minor spotting, photographs in very good condition overall. Milwaukee was a cargo ship originally completed in 1897, built by Swan Hunter at Wallsend on Tyne for the firm of Elder and Dempster of Liverpool. The ship was very seriously damaged off Peterhead in 1898 and the album is mainly concerned with showing the extensive reconstruction work to the fore part of the great vessel after it was towed back to Swan Hunter. She returned to service in 1899 and continued in a variety of capacities until she was torpedoed on a voyage from London to Montreal in 1918. The pictures are highly detailed records of the progress of the reconstruction, showing the shipbuilders, their equipment, Graving Dock and the slow and painstaking effort of making the vessel seaworthy again. Such representations are both technically and socially enlightening, and rather scarce.
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