Over the last couple of months I have been slowly scanning my way through a 1925 photograph album I bought on a second hand stall. Entitled “Cruise To The Northern Capitals of Europe on the SS City of Nagpur, July-August 1925“, the album contains over 50 sepia photographs our unknown photographer took on a cruise to Denmark and Norway. In […]
One of the most difficult challenges with old photograph albums is identifying the albums creator, as – by definition in those pre-smart phone days – the photographer rarely features in the photographs themselves. In the 1925 Northern Capitals album, there is an intriguing series of photographs taken whilst the cruise ship was “crossing the North Sea” which seems to identify […]
The caption under this photograph states “Oslo and the SS City Of Nagpur from the mountains”. The camera lens clearly was not up to the challenge: either that or the ship has sunk beneath the sepia waves. This time the caption says “Carl Johans Gate, Oslo – with the Grand Hotel”. I instantly recognised the scene as I had […]
These days on the cruise ships, passengers assemble outside the restaurant doors like expectant gulls following a herring boat, waiting for the doors to be opened. Back in 1925 on our tour of the Northern capitals, things were much more stately: a smiling restaurant steward would bang a gong to summon the guests into the Veranda Cafe.
So here we are, sailing across the Skagerrak in 1925 on the SS City Of Nagpur and here is our look-out. I can’t attest as to how good a watchman he was, but he made an excellent subject for a photograph. The look on his face is up there with the Mona Lisa in the enigma stakes.
We are a third of the way through the 1925 photo album of a voyage around the Northern Capitals and by now I feel as if I am getting to know some of the passengers quite well. I give them names – that’s Flora on the right and Matilda on the left. The ship’s officer (Reginald) appears to have had […]
Page 12 and at last we have a clue. The photographs on page 11 and 12 are the same except for the exchange of the ship’s officer with the bow tie for the young girl in a chequered dress. The album is unlikely to belong to the ship’s officer, but could our mysterious photographer be the young girl in the […]
The officers of the SS City Of Nagpur seem to have little to do other than pose for photographs. It’s 1925 and the ship is crossing the Skagerrak, one of the busiest shipping channels in the world.
It is July 1925 and we are on board the SS City of Nagpur en route from Copenhagen to Oslo. It is a day at sea and our intrepid photographer is out on deck capturing the lives of his or her fellow passengers.
