Built in 1854 for C.H. Marshall and Company, by then the owners and operators of New York's famous Black Ball packet line, by William H. Webb, New York's premier ship builder. It is possible that Antonio Jacobsen saw her for she ran for C.H. Marshall until 1881, surviving on what the steamships which had largely taken over the passenger trade could not carry. She was sold to Bremen in 1881 and continued until about 1890. If Jacobsen did not see her and sketch her himself, he may have had access to photographs of the ship, or other data.
William H. Yorke (1847-1921) William Yorke, the younger, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, then moved to Liverpool as a young boy when his father moved there around 1855. Presumably his father, William G., taught him to paint, and there is much stylistic similarity. The 1871 Liverpool census lists William H. Yorke as a marine painter, and his mother Susan Yorke as the head of the household, since William G. Yorke had moved to New York. It seems that the father (William G.) had moved to New York where he worked as a ship portrait painter until around 1888. William H.
Launched in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1883 by George E. Currier, for local owners. Said to have been the last full-rigged ship built in Massachusetts.
Registered to Pendleton, Carver & Nichols of Searsport in 1895, and sailed by Searsport masters until eventually sold into the salmon trade; disappeared from the register in 1907.
Built by John McDonald of Bath Maine, for Bath's Flint & Co. in 1881. Captained by Searsport masters until sold into the San Francisco salmon trade in 1900. Theodore P. Colcord sailed her until 1894; he was succeeded by a Carver and finally Charles M. Nichols. At anchor, she was sunk by a steamer in the fog in Seattle harbor in 1918.
The Phineas Pendleton was built in 1866 at Dunning Yard in Brewer, Maine, and was named for a Searsport captain, whose son Phineas Pendleton Jr. was her captain until 1873. 1332 tons, 185'x 37' x 23' Lost by fire at Manila in 1885. Liverpool artist Charles Waldron specialized in paintings for the American market.
Packet ships were vessels that sailed on a schedule. The service begain in 1817 with three ships sailing from New York to Liverpool. Liverpool and New York were the principal ports but Boston and Philadelphia were other major ports, and packet lines were established to most of the major European ports.
HMS Sheldrake was one of the hundreds of small warships used by the Royal Navy for inshore patrols, conveying merchant ships, and hunting slavers, pirates and privateers. She was a 16-gun brig built in 1806, and sold in 1816.
In 1811, Sheldrake under Commander James P. Stewart distinguished herself. Serving in the Baltic against the Danes, she fought gunboats four times and captured or destroyed five. To finish off the year she took a French privateer. Stewart was promoted to Captain for his good work.
In 1866, the William McGilvery yard in Searsport, with Marlboro Packard as master builder, built Oneida. McGilvery owned her until 1879. Other Searsport residents then bought her.
Built in 1854, a vessel that would be about 1/3 the size of the later Down Easters. Painting probably done on a maiden voyage by Honore Pellegrin, one of a long line of Marseilles marine artists, who worked chiefly in watercolors. Painting shows the vessel leaving Marseilles, July, 1855, Capt. William Hichborn, master. Signed and dated "Pellegrin, Marseilles, 1855."
