Senator Weber was built in Boston in 1853 as the ship Wellfleet. She sailed for Enoch Train’s Boston Liverpool Line of packets in 1854, then transferred to the Regular Line, sailing in the Boston-New Orleans cotton packet trade. The Civil War idled ships like the Wellfleet, and she was sold to Hamburg, Germany in 1863. There she was renamed Senator Weber and flew the flag of Hamburg. This painting was done when she was still the Wellfleet. It descended in the family of the American captain, Henry S.
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.
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.
Ship built by H. McGilvery, Belfast, Maine in 1871 for James G. Pendleton and others. Traded to Europe and the Far East. Sold for use as a barge in 1893.
Fedeler had trained as a marine artist under his father C.J.H Fedeler. Besides ship portraits, his paintings included many seascapes.
This ship portrait was done by an unknown Chinese artist. China had a tradition of ship portrait painting that dated to English artists teaching the craft to Chinese artists starting in the 1840s. The Clarissa B. Carver was built by George A. Carver in Searsport in 1876 for Captain Jonathan Dow. Under the command of Leroy Dow, she was lost in a collision with a steamer near Kobe, Japan in 1885.
This ship portrait shows the ship B. Aymar, built in Searsport in 1840. She was the first full-rigged ship built in the John Carver yard. There is both a bow and a stern view of the vessel, something common in early ship portraits.
She was commanded by Captain Joshua Slocum in 1873; he sailed her until she was sold in Manila in 1876.
Teupken was an Amsterdam based artist; the Aymar sailed out of New York and must have visited Amsterdam early in her career.
Signature has been cut off, but this painting is attributed to Charles Waldron. The Great Admiral was built in Boston by Robert E. Jackson of East Boston in 1869. She was the most famous ship of the Weld Fleet, having an active life of 37 years. Named for Admiral Farragut and commanded for 12 years by Captain Benjamin Thompson of Winterport, Maine, the Great Admiral foundered in a storm in the Pacific in 1906. Under the Weld ownership, she was commanded by Captain I.N. Jackson, Captain Benjamin Thompson, Captain William Chatfield, and Captain J.F. Rowell.
