Your post: “post/182729037656/scrapironflotilla-a-french-battleship-firing-at” The closest ship is probably the French Cruiser Requin (see bottom photo on wikipedia page “List_of_battleships_of_France”- she’s pretty distinctive with those massive barbette/turrets. Further ship could be Surfren or Verite- but it’s very difficult to tell. I like you completeness and your willingness to question your own posts- so I though you should know :)

Posted on by Erik Chipchase

scrapironflotilla:

scrapironflotilla:

Thanks for this reply, the question  is still bugging me and I’m glad to see it’s gotten to other people too.

That picture of the Requin definitely fits the photo a lot better than anything else I’ve seen. 

But as far as I can tell, it’s an older picture, showing the ship in 1892. These pictures from mid-1915 and 1916 show her without the rear crow’s nest and lacking the tripod style masts.

They are later pictures so there is the possibility the ship underwent some refitting between them, especially as that original picture is ambiguously dated. But this just further confuses the whole bloody question.

Thanks to @redarmyscreaming for finally nailing this one. The ship in question is actually a British Invicible-Class battlecruiser HMS Inflexible, flagship of the Mediterranean fleet.

Inflexible bombarded Ottoman positions on Gallipoli in February and March 1915 before before she was damaged by Ottoman gunfire and a mine. The ship then underwent repairs that lasted until June. This dates the photo as one of three days, 19 February, 15 March or 18 March.