Image of a sailing ship, on the tomb of Bruce Ismay, Putney Vale Cemetery
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Image of a sailing ship, on the tomb of Bruce Ismay, Putney Vale Cemetery by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Image of a sailing ship, on the tomb of Bruce Ismay, Putney Vale Cemetery
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 15 Apr 2012
There are eight images of ships carved on the tomb-chest: three on either side, one at each end - though one of those is obscured by the image of a ship's compass. All seem to be based on the same model - a three-masted sailing ship, square-rigged on the main and fore-masts, fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzen (making it, I believe, a barque). All round the chest runs a frieze of angular waves - an almost child-like means of conjuring up the sea. On the right in this photo is what I take to be the sun, its rays wrapping round the corner of the chest. The sculptor was Alfred Gerrard (1899-1998), who - according to Wikipedia - had in the past painted murals as part of the decoration of ocean liners, no doubt for White Star Line. I find it intriguing that the Ismays turned to him, rather than commissioning a design from, say, Lutyens - who would have produced something far more formal. Did the Ismays consider Gerrard a family friend? See also: Image
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.436341
Longitude
-0.242913