The Shannon in Portsmouth harbour

Viewed from an adjacent dock, this fully rigged, warship dominates the quay side. Its bow mast is centrally placed in the image. Rigging from this ship and masts of other tall ships criss-cross the sky.
Albuminised print with poor coating of the paper negative at the corners and edges of the print, the upper two corners have been cut.

During the 1830s William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper prints. In doing so, he laid the foundations of modern photography. Calvert Richard Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour, who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones made many pictures in the West of England and South Wales, where he lived. He also travelled widely, making photographs on the continent. Jones' work stands out in the early development of photography because he was one of the first to apply a schooled artist's eye to the medium.

Jones made many maritime photographs and often they reveal his interest in technological developments in shipping. This image is one of three views of the 'Shannon', a fifty-one gun screw frigate, a new fast warship with steam as well as sail power. The photograph is also an example of Jones' use of linear elements in his compositions, both in the stepped horizontal line of the foreground dock-side and in the web of rigging.

The mid-nineteenth century was an important transitional period in shipping. Trading, communications and war drove the development of steam screw technology of fast boats, which still needed sails. Between November 1855 and September 1856, the Shannon was in No.1 basin at Portsmouth harbour for fitting out. In this photograph her funnel is not yet in place.

PH.118-1983