This remarkable Victorian photograph was, I suspect, taken as an artistic study rather than a snapshot of ships in dock, as whilst the subject matter is interesting, the composition is masterful. It is, of course, a sailing ship, moored safely in a harbour, in deep Winter. Such conditions were very dangerous, as the weight of the ice raised a ship’s centre of gravity which made it more likely to capsize. Before going to go to sea in these conditions, the ice had to scraped off the rigging and if it froze during the voyage, the exercise had to be repeated. Life for the crew of a sailing ship was incredibly hard.

Enjoy this original photograph from our archive. It is low resolution and has a ‘keasbury-gordon.com’ watermark. Our NFT photo-art images are higher resolution (300 dpi) with no watermark. Please subscribe to be notified when Keasbury-Gordon photo-art is offered for sale.