JF Ptak Science Books Overall Post 5148
This is a photograph of the surrender of the German high seas fleet at the Firth of Forth (Scotland), 21 November 1918. The image was undoubtedly made from an airship, and centers on the German battleship "Seyditz" with the British non-rigid airship "N.S. 8" (that's "North Sea" #8) observing overhead. On that day Germany surrendered 4 battleships, 3 battleship cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and 50+ destroyers. I can find only one reproduction of this image online, and that in Spencer Tucker's WWI: the Definitive Encyclopedia..., p. 961 (identifying that German battleship as the "Seyditz"), so I thought I'd share this fuller version.
The photo (measuring 8"x10") has a pasted bit of paper on the back identifying the scene: "First Photo of Surrender of German Armada" and "British airship flying over a German battleship during the proceedings" with the maker/distributor identified as "Photograph by Central News Photo Service, N.Y." [ A note on WWI imagery from photo news services: WWI photographs were made by pools of photographers working for several different photographic news agencies. The content of the images were generally secured and approved by the Committee for Public Information (CPI), which came into existence by executive order under President Woodrow Wilson on April 13, 1917, and which was charged with the task of wining the hearts and minds of the people of the U.S., to gain public support for the war and for American participation. The way that many newspapers obtained the war images that they published in their papers was via a semi-centralized pool of war images. The newspaper would request, say, a photo of German prisoners, and would contact one of these photographic agencies—for example, say, the Central News Photo Service of 26-28 Beaver Street, NYC—and purchase the rights for republication, and then print it in the newspaper along with the story. In almost every case the photo would be accompanied by a caption mimeographed onto an attached piece of cheap paper, or have the information stamped on the reverse.]
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