Wheel House and Engine Room, New York Harbor, 1930 |
Description: There's not much information with this film other that it was shot in January 1930 in New York harbor. But it's an unusual 15 minute of footage, showing in the wheelhouse and and engine room of a working steamship. There's no clue what boat it was shot on, but my guess would be that it is Hudson River ferry. The first and last third of the film is shot in the wheelhouse, where we see and hear the captain and the mate as they guide the ship through some serious fog. As first, the view out the windows appears to be completely opaque, but then the shapes of other ships begin to emerge from the greyness. Some of them seem quite close, and the captain uses the whistle frequently. The middle third of the film is shot in the engine room, where we see the four-cylinder compound piston steam engine hard at work. We also see how it's controlled. You'll also see a man going up to the engine and touching the moving cranks. He's checking for overheated bearings. One of the unusual things about this footage is that filmmakers have brought along movie lights. This means that the engine room, normally quite dark, is brilliantly lit, and the polished metal surfaces of the engine gleam as the fly up and down. I don't know what newsreel story came out of this footage. They certainly shot a lot of it. (And I haven't tried to edit it down.) Altogether an extraordinary visual document of a working steamship in action--everything is well-lit, and the crew goes about their work seemingly unconscious of the camera. 
|
