P & O HOSPITAL SHIP NUBIA, BOER WAR 1903, 60+ ORIGINAL PHOTOS TAKEN ON BOARD

Description

HMHS NUBIA ; [SABIN, S. P.]
[SECOND ANGLO-BOER WAR]
Group of approximately 60 original photographs taken on board HMHS "Nubia", a P & O liner used as a hospital ship during the Boer War.
Silver gelatin and silver bromide prints, in various formats from snapshot size up to 15 x 20 cm, mounted recto only on their original folio-size album leaves (37 x 25 cm); plus some loose prints, also taken on the Nubia, from the same album.
SS
Nubia
was a passenger-cargo steamer built for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and launched in December 1894. Between 1899 and 1903, during the Second Anglo-Boer War,
Nubia
was used as a hospital and transport ship, making several return voyages between Southampton and Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
These fantastic,  candid photographs capture the life of officers, crew and nurses on board the Nubia, and came from an album compiled by the Nubia's 4th Officer, S.P. Sabin
. The album of his P & O service memorabilia spanned Sabin's career in the early 1900s as a P. & O. employee. There are plenty of shots of men and women at play on board ship (fancy dress, sporting contests, a great portrait of the Banjo Team, etc.), the ship's mascots (bulldog and parrot), plus views of the Nubia herself and other ships at Durban.
Some of the prints have faded, but overall they are in very good condition, and the leaves have no foxing. A very interesting group!
Provenance: Sabin's complete album was sold by Christie's, London, in 2001; with some items removed, the album was subsequently offered for sale through Swann Galleries, New York,
Maps & Atlases, Natural History and Color Plate Books
, December 8 2016, lot 391.