Ship Elizabeth

This painting of the ship Elizabeth is attributed to Marie Edouard Adam, c.1883. It was mostly Searsport sea captain capital that financed Elizabeth, built in Newcastle, Maine, by Haggett & Co., and named for the wife of her first master, Phineas Pendleton III. Launched in October, 1882, she went ashore nine years later at Rocky Point, San Francisco. Elizabeth’s wreck is a story of loss for four Searsport families. Her master, Captain John Herbert Colcord, was travelling with his wife and two children, who were saved, although he died. Also drowned were James Edwin Herriman, 17-year-old son of Captain James Herriman, and Nathan Philip Pendleton, son of Captain Nathan Pendleton. Earlier, James Locke Pendleton, son of Captain James Gilmore Pendleton, was killed falling from the Elizabeth's rigging. Captain’s sons who wanted to go to sea learned on ships commanded by their father’s friends and colleagues. In the painting it is a breezy day; the vessel has shortened sail, and the crew is taking in a jib. The ship is entering Le Havre, and has set its signal flags to be identified.