"Spanish frigate Berenguela, docked at the Battery, New York City," 1860

chubachus

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spanish frigate berenguela 1860.jpg


By George Stacy. Source.

New York Times article on its visit.
 
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A few years later, Berenguela was said to be the first large vessel to transit the newly-completed Suez Canal.

That's cool.

The very first ship to transit the canal was the Egyptian royal yacht El Mahroussa - which is still in commission in the Egyptian navy. She was also the first ship through the new Suez Canal section in 2015.
 
Does anyone know the story of the two obelisks in the image? Are these just added to the painting for effect?
I know one obelisk was discovered the digging of the canal, but am unaware of any that stood along the shore of the canal.

pre-War LoC photo showing both.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.04472/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2004671972/

I wonder if the one in Central Park is one of those two? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/raising/newyork.html

Note: This sounds positively Lovecraftian. Ivo Shandor would approve.

At the raising, William Maxwell Evarts, then U.S. Secretary of State, declared, "Who indeed can tell what our nation will do if any perversity is possible of realization; and yet this obelisk may ask us, 'Can you expect to flourish forever? Can you expect wealth to accumulate and man not decay? Can you think that the soft folds of luxury are to wrap themselves closer and closer around this nation and the pith and vigor of its manhood know no decay? Can it creep over you and yet the nation know no decrepitude?' These are questions that may be answered in the time of the obelisk but not in ours."
 
I wonder if the one in Central Park is one of those two? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/egypt/raising/newyork.html
The one in NY is from Heliopolis by way of Alexandria.
Cleopatra's Needle (New York)

The ones at the mouth of the Suez were apparently just temporary structures.
Proceedings, Volumes 14-15
The following information has been received from Commander G.S. Nares of Her Majesty's Surveying vessel Newport, which vessel passed through at the opening, November 1869:
The coast in the neighbourhood of Port Said is unusually, low being out of sight at 3 miles distance. The lighthouse, town, and shipping are the only objects seen from the offing.
At present there are two tall obelisks one on each side of the Canal entrance but as they are merely built of boarding they can only be temporary.
 
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The one in NY is from Heliopolis by way of Alexandria.
Cleopatra's Needle (New York)

The ones at the mouth of the Suez were apparently just temporary structures.
Proceedings, Volumes 14-15

I knew the NY obelisk was from Heliopolis... the one in London is it's mate (obelisks were always made and raised in pairs).
The picture links provided by @Stony show me that the Suez Canal obelisks were not antiques (at the time), as all the pharonic obelisks were monoliths (single piece of stone) and the image clearly shows the separate sections used to create the Suez canal obelisks. Made of wood... still very cool.
 
OP's photo reminds me that Navy History and Heritage Command has a bunch of foreign warship photos in it, like this one, which I believe to be the Russian ironclad General Admiral. The photo is mislabled as the 1858 steam frigate General Admiral though. The fullsize picture is much larger as well.

5US5YdR.jpg


EDIT: To bring this more on-topic, this is one of their Spanish frigate photographs, in this case the deck of the frigate Almansa. Note the Parrott.

LXtWvrX.jpg
 
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OP's photo reminds me that Navy History and Heritage Command has a bunch of foreign warship photos in it, like this one, which I believe to be the Russian ironclad General Admiral. The photo is mislabled as the 1858 steam frigate General Admiral though. The fullsize picture is much larger as well.

GeneralAdmiral.jpg

I believe you're dead-on correct, sir. In fact, Conway's uses that same photograph to illustrate the later ironclad.
 
I believe you're dead-on correct, sir. In fact, Conway's uses that same photograph to illustrate the later ironclad.

Thanks, that makes me feel better since I didn't have my research material in front of me and I was totally guessing!

Here's another one, the gundeck of the Spanish frigate Gerona.
1433891095434.jpg
 
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