Line Squall - Clipper Flying Fish

gouache, 12 1/2" x 19"

$5,000

The painting depicts the American Clipper Flying Fish reducing sail as a rather ominous line squall closes in on the ship. There are crewmen aloft on the fore topgallant yard securing the sail as the ship braces for what could be a rough ride.

 Launched in 1851 from the yeard of Donald McKay, the Flying Fish was an extreme clipper built for the California trade. She became a seasoned ‘Cape Horner’ with seven passages from the East Coast to San Francisco. Captain Nickels, her master for all but one outward passage, boasted that the ship had never been passed by any other vessel.

In 1958 the Flying Fish ran aground in the River Min whilst loaded with Foo Chow tea. Though badly damaged, she was refloated and refitted. However, her owners realized that she would never be the same fast ship and sold her to a Manila-based company who renamed her El Bueno Suceso and sailed her for many years in the Far East Trade until she was lost in the China Sea.