French warship 'Atalante', Fitzroy Dock, Sydney, 1873

1873
Glass photonegative

Merlin was pleased with this photograph of the French ironclad Atalante in Fitzroy Dock. In the Town and Country Journal, 23 August 1873, he wrote:

Probably there is no one more difficult to please in procuring a picture of this kind than the landscape photographer himself. I may therefore be permitted to say in behalf of the one referred to, that it gave me satisfaction.

With a crew of 316, Atalante had an impressive armament, including six massive 194 mm breech-loading guns, four in a central battery below deck and two in barbettes on the upper deck. These could hurl a 75 kg shell over seven kilometres. At the bottom of the photograph is the solid brass ramming bow, weighing 20 tonnes.