The agreement was signed on HMS Agamemnon on October 30, 1918. These four photographs and two contemporary artworks show the ship, the men involved and the harbor’s wartime history. None is presented as a photograph of the signing itself.
Topic: Armistice of Mudros
01 / 06
The battleship used for the talks
HMS Agamemnon in a Bain News Service photograph cataloged to 1910. The armistice was signed aboard this ship at Mudros on October 30, 1918. The photograph predates the negotiations and shows the vessel, not the signing ceremony.
Photo details
Date
Circa 1910; catalog date
Location
Location not specified in the source
Photographer
Bain News Service
Archive / collection
Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection
Rights / license
Public domain; Library of Congress reports no known restrictions.
Bain News Service / Library of Congress, ggbain.18554; public domain.
02 / 06
A harbor already at war
French troops embark at Mudros for the Dardanelles in 1915. Lemnos had been an important Allied base during the Gallipoli campaign, three years before the armistice negotiations. The men and boats in this image belong to that earlier campaign.
Photo details
Date
1915
Location
Mudros, Lemnos, Greece
Photographer
Bain News Service
Archive / collection
Library of Congress, George Grantham Bain Collection
Rights / license
Public domain; Library of Congress reports no known restrictions.
Bain News Service / Library of Congress, ggbain.20401; public domain.
03 / 06
Rauf Bey, the Ottoman negotiator
Rauf Bey headed the Ottoman delegation as navy minister. This Agence Rol portrait is cataloged to 1922, after the armistice and during his later political career. He would become known by the surname Orbay; the document signed at Mudros names Hussein Raouf.
Photo details
Date
1922
Location
Exact location unrecorded
Photographer
Agence Rol
Archive / collection
Bibliothèque nationale de France / Wikimedia Commons
Rights / license
Public domain; anonymous agency photograph published in 1922, as documented by Commons.
Agence Rol / Bibliothèque nationale de France / Wikimedia Commons; public domain.
04 / 06
Admiral Calthorpe
Somerset Gough-Calthorpe commanded Britain’s Mediterranean fleet and represented the Allies at Mudros. This later portrait shows him as a flag officer. The date in the source catalog does not make it a photograph taken during the October 1918 negotiations.
Photo details
Date
1920, as cataloged
Location
Exact location unrecorded
Photographer
Unknown photographer
Archive / collection
Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons
Rights / license
Public domain, as documented by Wikimedia Commons.
Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons; public domain.
05 / 06
Mudros Bay on paper
Herbert Hillier’s annotated drawing looks across Mudros Bay on April 11, 1915. Ships and shore features are identified in the sketch. It is a wartime artwork preserved by the Imperial War Museums, and provides a view of the harbor years before it lent its name to the armistice.
Photo details
Date
April 11, 1915
Location
Mudros Bay, Lemnos, Greece
Photographer
Herbert Hillier
Archive / collection
Imperial War Museums, ART4257
Rights / license
Public domain; expired UK Crown copyright, as documented by Commons.
Herbert Hillier / Imperial War Museums, ART4257; expired Crown copyright.
06 / 06
The fleet approaches Istanbul
Frank Henry Mason’s painting depicts HMS Superb leading the British fleet toward Constantinople in November 1918. The ships belong to the aftermath of the armistice. The work is a contemporary naval painting, not a photograph of the fleet entering on a particular day.
Photo details
Date
November 1918, the scene depicted
Location
Approaches to Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Photographer
Frank Henry Mason
Archive / collection
Imperial War Museums, ART2613
Rights / license
Public domain; expired UK Crown copyright, as documented by Commons.
