Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
July 10, 1912. "Detroit Ship Building Co., life rafts dept." Our second peek behind the scenes. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative. View full size.
This was the Detroit Drydock factory at Orleans & Atwater in Detroit. Building still stands, albeit precariously.
Do they make one large enough for seven stranded castaways?
I'm guessing July 1912 life raft sales were pretty good, when photographed so soon after that April's legendary iceberg-related mishap.
The attached picture is of a similar can style life raft used by the Great Lakes freighter Cyprus, which sank in October of 1907. The raft carried four crew members within sight of shore but began flipping, leaving Second Mate Pitt as the raft's sole survivor. The full story can be found here.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5