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Circa 1898. "Armored cruiser U.S.S. Brooklyn, stern view." 8x10 inch glass negative, Detroit Photographic Company. View full size.
The exaggerated bulge at the waterline of the Brooklyn is referred to in nautical terms as "tumblehome", and was popular for a while in the 1880's and 90's, particularly in the French and Russian navies.
The idea was that a pronounced tumblehome gave the sponson-mounted guns on the sides a better arc of fire, particularly to the front and rear. It also tended to make the ship unstable in heavy seas. The whole idea was rendered obsolete in the early 1900's with the development of deck-mounted rotating turrets, which could fire to both sides and to the front or rear without the need for an inherently unstable hull.
From the turret configurations, it looks like BB1 USS Indiana is forward of Brooklyn on the far right and BB3 USS Oregon forward of Indiana.
All that smoke eliminates the chance of sneaking up on the enemy.
Very busy. The Brooklyn was built at the Cramp yards in Philadelphia, but this looks to me like maybe Havana or San Juan.
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