AA-2026-BE2E90
On the image
Someone bolted a genuine ship's wheel to a piece of dock decking, presumably on the theory that children photographed near maritime hardware look wholesome and that maritime hardware photographed near children sells postcards. The two older kids grip the spokes with the grim competence of people who have seen a film about sailing, while the smallest one has already abandoned the nautical fiction entirely and turned to face the camera, which is the honest response.
Everybody is dressed for a chilly harbour afternoon in matching red, the era's default palette for family outings, and everybody is wearing the blue plastic-tag admission badges that mean somebody paid an entrance fee for this experience. Behind them the water and pilings suggest a working waterfront pressed into service as a tourist attraction, a common enough transaction in the period between the decline of commercial sail and the rise of the heritage site.
The wheel itself is real, salvaged off some actual vessel, mounted here to spin uselessly for photographs rather than steer anything. It is the nicest piece of equipment in the frame and the only one doing no work at all.
Visually related — by likeness
Three Children at a Ship's Wheel, Dockside, 1960s. 1960–1969. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-BE2E90. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-children-at-a-ship-s-wheel-dockside-1960s.
@misc{aaAA2026BE2E90,
title = {Three Children at a Ship's Wheel, Dockside, 1960s},
year = {1960–1969},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-BE2E90},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-children-at-a-ship-s-wheel-dockside-1960s}
}TY - ART TI - Three Children at a Ship's Wheel, Dockside, 1960s PY - 1960–1969 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-BE2E90 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/three-children-at-a-ship-s-wheel-dockside-1960s ER -
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