The Celebrated Frigate: U.S.S. Chesapeake 1813

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Taken from the internet:
The Capture of USS Chesapeake, or the Battle of Boston Harbor, was fought on 1 June 1813, between the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Shannon and American frigate USS Chesapeake, as part of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. The Chesapeake was captured in a brief but intense action in which over 80 men were killed. This was the only frigate action of the war in which there was no preponderance of force on either side.

At Boston, Captain James Lawrence took command of Chesapeake on 20 May 1813, and on 1 June, put to sea to meet the waiting HMS Shannon, the frigate whose written challenge had just missed Chesapeake‍ ’s sailing. Chesapeake suffered early in the exchange of gunfire, having her wheel and fore topsail halyard shot away, rendering her unmanoeuvrable. Lawrence himself was mortally wounded and was carried below. The American crew struggled to carry out their captain’s last order, “Don’t give up the ship!”, but the British boarding party overwhelmed them. The battle was notably intense but of short duration, lasting ten to fifteen minutes, in which time 252 men were killed or wounded. Shannon‍ ’s Captain Philip Broke was severely injured in fighting on the forecastle. Chesapeake and her crew were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the sailors were imprisoned; the ship was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy. She was sold at Portsmouth, England in 1819 and broken up. Surviving timbers were used to build the nearby Chesapeake Mill in Wickham and can be seen and visited to this day.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

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The Extreme Clipper Ship: Red Jacket

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African ivory by Joel Cowan. Long recognized as the most precise ship scrimshander ever, Cowan’s work continues to impress everyone. His stipple work is in a class by itself. As far as his lettering, no one comes close. Cowan works directly from the actual plans of the ship and is completely accurate in his depiction. Cowan works exclusively for Scrimshaw Gallery and any scrimshaw collection, beginning or long time, should include several Joel Cowan pieces while they are available.

Information from the Internet:
She held the record Atlantic crossing – New York to Liverpool in 13 days, one hour, twenty five minuets. That was Rocket Science in 1854. The clipper ship Red Jacket, named after a Native American Chief of the Seneca Tribe, was unquestionably the sharpest, fastest and best looking of the Maine fleet of sail vessels. Chief Otetiani, also called Sagoyewatha, which in native language means “He keeps them awake,” earned his name for the red coat that he wore, a sign of his allegiance to the British during the American Revolution. He later made peace with the newly formed United States and in 1792 he was presented a medal by General George Washington. Chief Red Jacket died in 1830 on a reservation in Buffalo, New York at the age of 72. However, the sleek vessel that later bore his name was not built on the ways in his native state of New York, she was constructed in the State of Maine.

Red Jacket’s keel was laid in the shipyard of “Deacon” George Thomas, in the North-end of Rockland, Maine near the site of the present day Atlantic Challenge. She was designed by Samuel H. Pook, a naval architect, and was built for the firm of Seacomb & Taylor in Boston. According to “The Clipper Ship Era” by Arthur H. Clark, published c. 1910, she was 260 feet in length, had a 44 foot beam, a draft of 26 feet and weighed in at 2,305 tons.

Red Jacket’s first master, Captain Osa Eldridge, was from a family of seafaring brothers on Cape Cod. Her initial crew, 60 in number, was made up mostly of land-lubbers, and bar room riffraff. Fortunately she had a staff of fine officers. Her maiden voyage departed from Sandy Hook, NY on January 11, 1854. After a stormy trans-Atlantic crossing they passed Rock Light off Liverpool, England in a record time of 13 days, 1 hour and 25 minutes. Due to the rough weather, she only averaged 182 nautical miles a day for the first week, but for the final six days she averaged 353 miles in each 24 hour period. Capt. Eldridge then, refusing the aid of a tug, sailed her up the Mersey River to a Liverpool dock, threw her yards aback and, with precision that brought a roar from the awaiting crowd, lay the vessel alongside the pier head. It was a feat of no small magnitude.

The Red Jacket created a sensation as the public came down to the docks in droves to inspect the vessel’s sleek lines and incredible figurehead and the transom, which also featured an elaborate carving of her namesake. Capt. Elbridge remained with the Collins Lines and turned over Red Jacket’s helm to Capt. Samuel Reid. Eldridge then sailed as Master of the Pacific in the Far East trade until the vessel he was commanding was lost at sea with all hands in 1855.

Red Jacket’s next voyage under Capt. Reid, was from Liverpool to Melbourne, Australia in a respectable 69 days. She made the return trip in 73 days in spite of time lost negotiating the ice fields of Cape Horn. After this voyage she was sold to Pilkington & Wilson, agents for the White Star Line, for a reported thirty thousand English pounds. She continued the Melbourne run carrying passengers and general cargo outbound and gold dust and passengers on the return. When the Australian passenger trade began to slow she was used to carry general cargo in various trades including a run between Quebec and Liverpool carrying timber in the 1870s.

Red Jacket was last sold in 1883 to Blandy Brothers, a Portuguese shipping company in the Madeira Islands. She was unceremoniously stripped of her masts and rigging and spent her last days as a coal hulk. In a storm on December 15, 1885 she parted her moorings and was wrecked ashore. A few parts of the Red Jacket were saved, but there isn’t any known record of the salvage of her striking figurehead or the ornate and garish array of stern carvings. The Red Jacket, pride of Rockland’s shipwrights, a true “Greyhound of the Sea,” had a short 32 years of sailing. She was surely a victim of the bottom-line, as more cost effective ships were being put into service. Still, the skilled boat builders of the Rockland area deserve much credit for producing such a seaworthy and able craft. Her record for the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing by a commercial sailing vessel remains unbroken to this day, more than 150 years after it was established.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

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The Celebrated Tea Clipper: Glory of the Seas 1875

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Taken from the internet:
Among the foremost icons of the 19th century were the clipper ships. They were built to carry high value cargo over great distances with speed. The most famous designer of these ships was Donald McKay, a Canadian-born American. McKay designed and built clipper ships beginning in the 1850s. The Glory of the Seas was to be his finest effort. He bet all his personal assets to build the ship on speculation. The Glory of the Seas was launched in 1869; on her maiden voyage she made a record run of 94 days from New York to San Francisco. Her arrival there was a great event. She was admired for the sumptuousness of her craftsmanship. Unfortunately, word of the instability of McKay’s financial condition preceded the vessel, and McKay was compelled to sell the ship in San Francisco. McKay never financially recovered. She made ocean voyages until the last years of the 19th century. She was then put into the coast-wise lumber and coal trade. In the early part of the 20th century she was laid up and subsequently used as a floating cannery and finally as a storage hulk. She was burned for her metal south of Brace Point in Seattle in 1923.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

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The Legendary Slave Ship: Wildfire 1860

Joel Cowan - The Legdendary Slave Ship: Wildfire 1860

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Information from the internet:
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to the Americas. Wildfire, a barque, arrested off the Florida coast by the US Navy in 1860; carrying 450 slaves.

Northern ships engaged in the Triangle Trade until the eve of the Civil War. In 1860 the slaver Wildfire set sail from New York for St. Thomas with a cargo of calico and other cotton goods. Its next stop was the Congo River, where the crew installed a new deck in the hold, creating a cramped space with four feet of clearance, specifically to house captives. In March the ship set sail for Cuba, with 615 naked prisoners, most of them teenagers. 450 captives were lodged on deck, the rest were crammed below. Ninety people died during the five weeks it took the ship to reach the coast of Cuba, where it was captured by the US Naval steamer Mohawk. The Mohawk towed the ship to Fort Taylor on Key West. There the captives were lodged in a brand new stockaded barracks on three acres of land outside of town. Within a month more than 900 more captives were brought to the compound, taken by the US Navy from the slave ships William and Bogota, both of which, like the Wildfire, had started their triangular voyages in New York City. By the end of May, with 1,350 people crowded into the barracks, Congress contracted with the American Colonization Society to ship the captives back to Africa. By the end of June all the captives had been abandoned in Liberia — save the 295 unfortunate souls who had died in the Florida stockade.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

Continue reading →

The Celebrated Bark: Dragon, Salem 1859

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

Continue reading →

The Legendary Slave Ship: Balliol College 1849

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

Continue reading →

The Celebrated Downeaster: Independence 1871

Joel Cowan - The Celebreated Downeaster: Independence 1871

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African Ivory by Joel Cowan. When it comes to detailed (and I do mean detailed) ship portraits, there is Joel Cowan and then there is everyone else. Working in time consuming stipple technique, Cowan does thousands and thousands of tiny dots for each prized portrait. We have worked with Cowan for several decades and are fortunate enough to have accumulated several of his pieces. These are prized by knowing collectors throughout the U.S. and abroad and many collectors have several Cowans in their collections. Now is the perfect opportunity to acquire one for yourself.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

Continue reading →

The Celebrated Brig: H.M.S. Hectate 1809

Joel Cowan Scrimshaw - The Celebrated Brig: H.M.S. Hectate 1809

Color scrimshaw on pre-ban African ivory by Joel Cowan. Long recognized as the most precise ship scrimshander ever, Cowan’s work continues to impress everyone. His stipple work is in a class by itself. As far as his lettering, no one comes close. Cowan works directly from the actual plans of the ship and is completely accurate in his depiction. Cowan works exclusively for Scrimshaw Gallery and any scrimshaw collection, beginning or long time, should include several Joel Cowan pieces while they are available.

Information from internet:
HMS Hecate was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by John King at Upnor and launched in 1809. After serving in the British Navy, essentially entirely in the East Indies, she served in the Chilean Navy as Galvarino from 1818 until she was broken up in 1828.

Hecate was commissioned in 1809 under Commander William Buchanan. Commander Edward Wallis Hoare replaced him in October and sailed for the East Indies on 31 October. In 1810, Lieutenant George Rennie became acting commander and Hecate was detailed for service with the squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie engaged in the Invasion of Ile de France. In 1814 she would share in the prize money resulting from the capture of the island.

In 1811 she was under Commander Thomas Graham until July, when Commander Henry John Peachey assumed command. From 3 August she was part of the fleet involved in the invasion of Java, which ended with the surrender of Dutch and French forces on 16 September. For this service all of her crew who had survived to 1847 and chose to were entitled to claim the Naval General Service Medal with clasp “Java”. In 1815 Hecate also shared in the prize money arising out of the invasion.

Peachey was promoted to post-captain on 7 August 1812 and removed to Malacca. Lieutenant William Case may have followed Peachey as acting commander, but then the newly promoted Commander Case took command of Samarang, and Commander Joseph Drury transferred from Samarang to Hecate. At some point in 1812 pirates from the Sultanate of Sambas, in western Borneo, captured nine sailors from Hecate and killed or enslaved them, after cutting their hamstrings or otherwise mutilating them. In June 1813 Hecate participated in a punitive expedition against the Sultanate of Sambas.

Hecate sailed for Madras in January 1814 and her next commander, from 4 February 1814, was Commander John Allen. On 20 November 1815 command passed to John Reynolds.

Hecate arrived in Portsmouth on 17 August 1816, from Trincomalee, which she had left on 20 March. She had sailed via the Cape of Good Hope and Saint Helena. On 22 May 1817 the Admiralty offered Hecate, then lying at Portsmouth, for sale.

On 30 October 1817 the Admiralty sold Hecate to Mr. Parkin for £860. In Buenos Aires she was also known as the name Lucy. She was resold to the Chilean Revolutionary government, arriving in Chile on 9 November 1818 under the command of Captain Guise.[8] She served the new Chilean Navy as Galvarino, first under Captain Spry (until Admiral Thomas Cochrane dismissed him) and then under Captain Winter. On 2 October 1819 she was at the second attack on Callao where a lieutenant onboard was killed by Spanish fire. In 1821, while under the command of Captain I. Esmond, her crew mutinied and refused to go to sea until they had received their back pay and prize money.

She participated in the Freedom Expedition of Peru, but after the final confrontation between San Martin and Cochrane and the subsequent loss of many officers and seamen to the new Peruvian Navy, the Lautaro and Galvarino were sent back to Valparaiso to ease the demand for seamen.

Notice:
This scrimshaw is done on pre-ban African ivory. Since the passage of the CITIES Treaty in 1973, there has been no African ivory brought into the U.S. However, ivory that was in the U.S. prior to 1973 can be legally sold and shipped within the U.S. However, new legislation taking effect in 2016 restricts pre-ban African Ivory from being shipped interstate. It can only legally be shipped intrastate, (within the state). All of our pre-ban ivory is located with our associate in the state of Florida. It can be purchased directly from our website and shipped only to an address within the state of Florida. If one has a relative, trusted friend or business associate within the state of Florida, we can ship to that specified address in order to comply with the new Federal legislation. The scrimshaw can then be forwarded it to you and everyone complies with the law. Any questions email or call us.

Continue reading →

About Our Artists

Scrimshaw Collector is home of the most complete selection of nautical art, scrimshaw, paintings and prints, knives, sculptures, and other collectibles. We invite you to browse through our treasure trove of nautical artwork by established and emerging artists. We are dedicated to bringing fine art to the experienced collector as well as introducing the fine […]

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