Straits Gallery

HMS Hermes, Highflyer-class protected cruiser

Royal Navy - HMS Hermes, a Highflyer-class protected cruiser, before conversion to an experimental seaplane carrier / tender. HMS Hermes was a Highflyer-class protected cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1890s. She spent much of her early career as flagship for various foreign stations before returning home in 1913 to be assigned to the reserve Third Fleet. The ship was modified later that year as the first experimental seaplane carrier in the Royal Navy. In that year's annual fleet manoeuvres, she was used to evaluate how aircraft could cooperate with the fleet and if aircraft could be operated successfully at sea for an extended time. The trials were a success and Hermes was paid off in December at their conclusion. She was recommissioned at the beginning of World War I in August 1914 for service as an aircraft ferry and depot ship for the Royal Naval Air Service. She was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the Straits of Dover that October, with the loss of 21 lives. Date: circa 1907

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans A The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans

HMS Marlborough - Lining Ships side as the General departs

HMS Marlborough - Lining Ships side as General Harrington departs in his launch - at Dolmabahce, Bosphorus Strait, Istanbul, Turkey. In August 1923, the Allied Powers turned over Istanbul to the Nationalists, marking the final departure of occupation armies from Anatolia. This card marks the occasion of the Allied General's handing over the custody of the city at the Dolmabahce Palace. HMS Marlborough was an Iron Duke-class battleship of the British Royal Navy, named in honour of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Built at Devonport Royal Dockyard between January 1912 and June 1914 and entered service just prior to First World War. Assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet after the war, Marlborough took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War (in the Black Sea 191920). She was also involved in the Greco-Turkish War. Date: 1923

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

Indigenous Selk'nam Indian, Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile

Indigenous Selk'nam Indian of Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena, Chile - toward the southernmost point on the South American mainland. The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, were an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be encountered by ethnic Europeans or Westerners in the late 19th century. In the late 19th century and early 20th century (interestingly the exact date of this card), estancieros and gold prospectors launched a campaign of extermination against the indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego, including the almost complete genocide of the Selk, nam, now termed the Selk, nam Genocide. Date: circa 1902

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection