The Comet Under the Moonlight
gouache, 10 1/2" x 15"
SOLD
The painting depicts the American extreme clipper Comet running well in strong winds and moderate seas. The heavy cloud cover has started to break and the light from a hazy full moon illuminates the ship and ocean. The Comet was an extreme clipper ship built by the well-known William Webb shipyards in New York and was launched in July, 1851. She was a particularly handsome ship in every way and was eventually conceded to be one of the fastest sailing ships as well as one of the most financially successful vessels launched from any shipyard.
Her maiden voyage began October 1, 1851, when Comet departed New York for San Francisco, arriving 103 days later. From there she sailed to Hong Kong, then Whampoa, China, and back to New York. For the next decade she continued to sail around the world from New York to San Francisco to the Orient, and she also made several voyages to England as well. Her many passages to San Francisco around Cape Horn made her a true “Cape Horner”. Due to powerful storms on each of her last two voyages, the ship sustained major damage to her hull, bowsprit, and masts, causing expensive repairs, enough so that by March, 1863, when she arrived in London, she was sold to a British firm and renamed Fiery Star.
She then sailed in the Australia trade from London to Queensland and Brisbane. It was on her second passage from Brisbane to London, in 1865, that she was lost at sea. Three weeks outbound from Brisbane she was found to be on fire. All attempts to put out the fire failed. All the passengers and some of the crew took to the lifeboats, some 80 people in all. This left 18 of the crew aboard as there was no room for them in any of the boats. The captain had planned to have the boats remain by the ship but when morning came, the boats were no- where to be found and were never seen thereafter. Just as the ship was going to sink, another sailing vessel that was bound for Auckland, New Zealand, came upon the stricken ship, and those men that had volunteered to stay aboard the sinking ship were rescued.
