A Possible Boat Wagon

  • 2013/02/03 6:29 pm
Detail from Plate 85, possibly a boat wagon

Detail from Plate 85, possibly a boat wagon

I recently read Captain Watson’s Travels in America: The Sketchbook and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1771-1818 by Kathleen A. Foster (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8122-3384-0. This is a delightful book the focuses on some sketchbooks of watercolors done by a British naval captain while visiting the United States. Plate 85 in this book shows a watercolor entitled “Looking down the Susquehannah fm Wrightsville ferry 25th April 1817”. On the right side, next to an inn, is a wagon which could be a boat wagon. Then again, it could have some other purpose.

Sailors Hats circa 1812

  • 2012/04/02 10:38 pm

Even though my focus is on fresh water sailors and much more on the 1750-1780 period, I keep running into questions about 1812 sailors hats.  I’ve got a small quantity of images that show them off to different degrees, so here they are:

The Bombardment of Algiers, August 27, 1816, by George Chambers, Senior.  The sailors in the left foreground seem to have a variety of hats.

Another painting of Algiers, 1816.  This is an aquatint by J. Jenkins entitled “The Quarterdeck of the Queen Charlotte“.  Note the brightly colored hat on the dark fellow in the center.

Another of Algiers.  This was painted in 1818 by Nicolaas Baur, and is entitled “Anglo-Dutch fleet in the bay of Algiers as support for the ultimatum demanding the release of white slaves on August 26, 1816.”  Although the sailors are small in the picture, you can see hat outlines and some colors.

Another paiting by Nicolaas Baur of the Queen Charlotte, 1816.

Details of some small boats from a “Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815” by John James Chalon.  The original painting is at the Queen’s House at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England.

Another detail from a “Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815” by John James Chalon.

Thames barges, 1805.  This is an image from the Maritime Gallery (see http://www.themaritimegallery.co.uk/maritime-archive-1.php).

Rochester Castle, circa 1802.  Perhaps a bit early for 1812, as far as fashions go.  This is an image from the Maritime Gallery (see http://www.themaritimegallery.co.uk/prints-pre-1900-2.php).

The Brig Nancy Ann, 1809, from the Peabody Essex Museum (see http://www.pem.org/sites/archives/mpd/t0189.htm).

“A sailor heaving the lead”, colored etching by J. A. Atkinson, 1807.  From A Pageant of the Sea: The MacPherson Collection of Maritime Prints and Drawings, by M. S. Robinson, London: Halton and Company, Ltd., 1950. p. 209.

Another drawing by J. A. Atkinson, 1807.

Naples, 1809.  From Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum, by M. V. and Dorothy Brewington, p. 178.

Detail of some boats after a ship at Texel has been cut through by ice, sometime after 1815.  Also from Marine Paintings and Drawings in the Peabody Museum, by M. V. and Dorothy Brewington, p. 984.

Sailors repairing boats, 1815.