A U.S. Navy scout floatplane is hoisted aboard ship by crane during peacetime operations on the China and Pacific stations in the 1930s. Battleships and cruisers of this era carried such aircraft for gunnery spotting and reconnaissance, launching them by catapult and recovering them from the water via boom and crane, as depicted here. This image captures the routine but skillful shipboard aviation work of the interwar U.S. Navy. Project: 218178