dear all,
sorry to have to ask the help of the community but i'm much intrigued by this metal bit on a russian torpedoboat of the early 1900, i don't have a clue about what it is, nor can I find a better picture to help me modelling it with the right proportions. The Russians at this time were apparently relying on foreign technology (British I suppose) for their boats design, so maybe this detail is viewable on another boat of the same era?
any help appreciated!
JB

Hey JB,

From the shape of the object, it may be a horn of some sort. That's my best guess.

Kenny

Perhaps a housing for running lights?

Tom

Okay mates, this is going to drive me nuts!
I've copied and pasted, enlarged, re-colored, and studied these photo's, and honestly, I can't come up with a good, clear image to really tell what this doo-dad might be....could be a horn, could be a light housing, BUT.....I do hope that someone can clarify this one!!
Still looking!
~Gunny

Oh gosh Mark, don't spend too much time with this! As my only experience with boats is the ferry between Calais and Dover, i supposed somebody knowing a bit more about navigation would light my brain about this!
Anyway, much thanks to all those that gave guesses, I would tend to think this is something related to lights as on the first pic, there seem to be a little bit of thing in it BUT i don't understand the big reflector (if it's one) around, especially because it seems to block the view from behind. And then there's a big projector just at the front of the boat!
Anyway, thanks once more -and if somebody has got a fresh idea please do!
JB

OK I now know what it is: it's actually a place to put the navigation lamps, but as we're early XX th century, those are parafin fueled lamps that are placed ONLY at night which is why the thing appears to be empty!!
thanks to all who gessed!!
JB

Howdy jba,

.....very interesting, I too was guessing pretty hard at this....my thoughts also were to either lights or horn...but the second shot showed what appeared to be the horn snaking above the stack, and the third shot showed what appeared to be some type of piped feedline running into the back of your sheetmetal "weird bit"......so glad you were able to draw the blanket over this puzzle

Tread.