The Snapshots in Time Collection

USS Columbia in Floating Dry Dock, Early 1900s

USS Columbia in Floating Dry Dock, Early 1900s

USS Columbia rests in a floating dry dock for hull maintenance, her four distinctive funnels and tall military mast rising above the dock's superstructure while dockyard workers attend to her exposed keel. Periodic dry-docking was essential to remove marine growth and inspect the hull of steel warships of this era, and photographs documenting such maintenance were often kept as part of a ship's or crew member's personal album. Project: 218593