Divers preparing to recover bodies from the wreck of the Northfleet, a major shipwreck of 1873. Of the 379 people aboard the ship, 293 died, including 41 women and 50 children, with only one woman and two children surviving. The outfits used are the standard diving dress, the basic diving equipment from its invention in 1837 until replaced by the rise of SCUBA and other modern diving outfits in the 1960's. On the left of the picture, we see one of the support crew tightening the wingnuts that connect the helmet to the canvas suits, creating a watertight seal that protects the helmet from flooding. (From the Illustrated London News of 6 February, 1873.)
Reason
Three useful illustrations: Helmet and canvas suit separate, helmet being screwed on, and a back view of the diver climbing into the water. Illustrates features of the suit not shown in any other photo or illustration of the standard diving dress we have, as well as providing a useful historical perspective. Plus, it's a really good engraving. Also, it did well in the Commons FPC, so I figgered might as well bring it up here too.
Note: I was going through that volume of the Illustrated London News today, and realised the context: The Wreck of the Northfleet had happened two weeks previous, and divers were sent to recover the bodies and other remains. I didn't realise before because... well, the wreck was a major story up until the end of February or so, and of course everyone at the time would have made the connection. However, the article actually mentioning divers going to work appears in the previous issue (lag time on engraving, you know...), so I didn't make the connection until I was going through the volume again today, saw the article, and it clicked. Should I redo the caption? Vanished usertalk14:51, 20 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The caption would definitely be better if it had that context. — BRIAN0918 • 2007-07-20 15:45Z
I've worked it in. Was just worried that the context might be too.. grisly for the main page. It was a pretty nasty disaster. How's it look? If it's too long, we could probably lose the exact reference to the newspaper. It's in the file info anyway; noone interested is going to find it difficult to identify where the image is from. Vanished usertalk15:57, 20 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
The Main Page talks about violent death on a daily basis in the news section. Besides, it's POTD's concern not ours. Debivort22:33, 21 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Support as fantastic combination of superior engraving artistry, encyclopedic value, and technical scanning. Grim, but in no way grisly. The artist communicates the emotions of the men well. --Dhartung | Talk12:40, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]
