1920s USS Kearsarge Largest Crane Ship Charlestown Navy Yard Glass Negative OOAK

Original, one-of-a-kind (OOAK) camera-original antique gelatin silver glass negative captured circa the 1920s: a breathtaking, industrial-scale naval artifact: the United States Navy's legendary Crane Ship No. 1 (the converted pre-dreadnought battleship USS Kearsarge, BB-5) propped on keel blocks inside the granite dry dock at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts.

Accompanied by its original vintage tan kraft darkroom morgue filing sleeve with matching dual contemporary newsroom documentation:

• The Sleeve Inscriptions:

  Morgue Envelope: Name: USS Kearsarge / Order: Largest Crane / Navy yard Charlestown

  Archive Insert Slip: USS Kearsarge / Largest crane / Navy yard Charlestown

Historical & Naval Significance:

Commissioned in 1900 as the lead ship of her battleship class, the USS Kearsarge (BB-5) sailed with Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. Following the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, the Navy decommissioned her as a warship and converted the armored hull at the Philadelphia Navy Yard into Crane Ship No. 1 (designated AB-1 in 1939). Fitted with an enormous 250-ton revolving cantilever crane, she served as the largest floating crane ship in the world for over two decades, raising sunken submarines, lifting gun turrets, and servicing capital ships throughout interwar naval build-up and World War II.

This camera-original glass plate captures the vessel undergoing major maintenance inside Dry Dock 1 or 2 at the Boston Navy Yard (Charlestown). The perspective reveals the colossal height of the cantilever crane tower mounted over the hull, providing an extraordinary low-angle look at the dry-docked underbody, giant drive screw, and structural keel blocks.

Visual details preserved in the silver gelatin emulsion:

• The Crane Ship & Hull: The stern of the ship displaying the stamped hull name "KEARSARGE", flanked by massive multi-blade bronze propellers, rudder post, hull discharge valves, and temporary wooden scaffolding platforms.

• The 250-Ton Cantilever Crane: Massive lattice steel tower legs, cross-braced trusses, machinery counterweight housing, and the glass-enclosed high crane operator cab perched dozens of feet above the deck.

• Granite Dry Dock Infrastructure: Heavy oak keel blocks, stepped granite dock walls (altars), shoring timbers bracing the ship against the basin sides, and naval yard workers standing on timber walkways below.

• Tonal Fidelity: Superb continuous-tone silver gelatin tonal depth rendering structural riveted steel beams, weathering streaks on the hull, timber grain on shoring logs, and deep cavernous shadows beneath the hull curves.

Specifications:

• Format: Heavy antique silver gelatin press glass negative, exposed directly in-camera circa 1920s.

• Archive Ephemera: Accompanied by the original period tan kraft darkroom morgue filing envelope and inner index card.

Please Note: This listing is for the original antique glass negative and its period paper archive sleeve only. Any positive photographic images shown in this listing are modern inverted digital scans provided solely as a visual representation to show what finished photographs print like. No physical paper photograph, modern print, or paper product of any kind is included with this purchase.

Condition:

Very Good to Excellent antique condition. The heavy glass plate is structurally sound, stable, and completely intact with no cracks, fractures, breaks, or chips through the glass body. The silver gelatin emulsion is remarkably clean, sharp, and firmly adhered across the composition, retaining needle-sharp optical focus on the crane framework, stern lettering, and propeller assembly. Authentic unexposed handling borders remain preserved along the outer glass rebate margins. Accompanied by the original period kraft morgue filing sleeve and index slip.