This is a British SSZ blimp. In total 77 were made and this is one example the US purchased from Blighty in early 1919. The USN needed a few new ideas, because if you read about the early USN blimps, they weren't very good at all. The engine here is a Rolls-Royce Hawk six cylinder overhead cam, weighing only about 375 pounds and very reliable.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSZ_class_airship

Note hand crank for starting engine located on backside of engine. Electric starting motors first coming into commercial use in the 1912 Cadillac.

At first look, before I enlarged the photo I wondered why someone had stuck a bunch of lawn rakes to the side of the airship.

This blimp may be one of the two SSZ airships (SSZ-23 and SSZ-24) operated by the US Navy. SSZ-24 burned in Coastal Virginia in 1918, and SSZ-23 was in active service until the mid-1920s.
The SSZ's were produced in UK for two years – from 1916 to 1918. A total of 77 SSZs were built. These craft were used mostly to escort convoys and search for German submarines. The SSJ was propelled by a water-cooled Rolls-Royce Hawk engine (75 hp) and had an envelope of 70,000 cu ft capacity.

The first decent parachute wasn't invented until 1919.

Oh well.

I hope the pilot didn't forget to yell those words before engine start.

What a setup. I wonder what kind of stress that motor introduced on those cables.