Type: Original vintage/antique gelatin silver snapshot photograph.
Subject: Royal Navy sailors and officers on the deck/flight deck edge of HMS Hermes, looking out across the bank of the Suez Canal, watching local figures, small desert structures, and a camel train walking along the ridge.
Inscription: Period handwritten label on reverse reads: "HERMES GOING THRO' SUEZ CANAL".
Dimensions: Approx. 10 cm x 6 cm.
Condition: Good antique condition with strong contrast and clear focus; light age-related surface wear, clean reverse with original album/collector caption strip.
Historical Context
HMS Hermes (pennant number 95), commissioned in 1924, holds a prominent place in naval history as the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier designed from the keel up. Throughout the interwar period (1920s–1930s), Hermes was deployed extensively to the Mediterranean and China Stations.
Transit through the Suez Canal was a vital strategic route connecting Britain to the Indian Ocean and Far East. Photographs taken by shipboard crew members capturing the contrast between cutting-edge British naval aviation vessels and everyday desert life—such as bedouin camel caravans along the canal banks—are particularly sought after by maritime, aviation, and military history collectors.