I’m not sure why someone would think a battleship would make for an inviting food stand, but someone did as we can see in this circa 1910s photo taken on the Venice Pier. I think the sign says “FRESH FISH” which makes me wonder if there’s someone at the back of the battleship catching fish. The water certainly would have been cleaner back then than it is now. I also love to people-watch in photos like this—especially beach photo were people are wearing so much clothing that anybody would think of wearing these days.

Stephen E. said: “This is very much the high point of ‘Dreadnought mania’. The popularity of an enormous class of battleship in the general population might seem odd now, but at a time of heightened nationalism and general ‘ra ra ra-ism’, people went mad for them across Europe and thence the US.”