Here we see submarine chaser SC 227, with a sailor on a mooring buoy. SC 227 served at Base 25 in the Otranto Barrage, and was one of the eleven chasers that participated in the Durazzo harbor bombardment on 2 October, 1918.
I can't tell where or when this was taken, although evidently they are still in a hot climate area, as there is a canvas sun shade over part of the deck forward of the pilot house.
I'm curious about the barrel on the deck. It reads:
5 T 4 / T.M.V.K. / No. 3595
Any ideas what T.M.V.K. might stand for? AI search offers some fanciful and almost certainly wrong suggestions, and I haven't found something that looks like a legitimate reference.
Photo courtesy of the estate of Elizabeth Morse Atwood.
--Todd Woofenden, editor