Catalogue Entry

New Bedford is a coastal town in Massachusetts, and in the nineteenth century was one of the most important whaling ports in America. New Bedford Harbor (with New Bedford on one side and the town of Fairhaven on the other) is the estuary of the Acushnet River. The river empties into Buzzards Bay past Clarks Point, the southernmost point of the city. In 1856 the New-York Yacht Club Regatta took place in New Bedford, and Lane made several paintings of the event.

New Bedford and Old Dartmouth: A Portrait of a Region's Past, New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1976.

Whaling schooners carried the standard two-masted fore-and-aft rig, almost always without square topsails, and were of moderate size (70 to 80 feet on deck), some later examples being larger. When built specifically for whaling, their bottoms had strong deadrise to keep ballast low in the hull and close to the centerline. This allowed easy initial heeling so the cutting-in tackle hung over the whale's carcass when cutting-in. Beyond that angle, the hull became much more resistant to heeling.

Distinguished by their whaleboats carried on side davits, there is currently only one known example of a whaling schooner depicted by Lane (see A Calm Sea, c.1860 (inv. 6), right foreground), and aspects of the boats and davits are open to question. It was customary for a small whaler to carry two boats on the port side and only one to starboard, leaving the midships part of the starboard side clear for cutting-in the whale. The davits in Lane's painting also differ in form and construction, having horizontal "arms" instead of curved ones.

The strong deadrise in whaling schooner bottoms had the added effect of making their bows and sterns sharper (below the waterline), while the need for work space on deck made their topside ends full and buoyant. A schooner built for whaling could be very able in heavy seas, and while not built for speed, was hardly the dull sailer imagined by many.

Whaling schooners carried three whaleboats ready for action, and often a "spare boat"—upside down—on the "tail feathers" as depicted by Lane. One of the whaleboats in his painting (Inv. 6 foreground) can be seen returning to the schooner. When "going on a whale." there were six men on —five rowing and one steering.

– Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. Clifford W. Ashley, The Yankee Whaler (Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1938), 45–47, 57–64.

2. James Templeman Brown, "The Whalemen, Vessels, Apparatus of the Fishery", in G. Brown Goode, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), Section V, Vol. II, 232–35, 240–47.

3. Albert Cook Church, Whale Ships and Whaling (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1938), see photo nos. 2-6, 93-97, 114–23.

The term "ship," as used by nineteenth-century merchants and seamen, referred to a large three-masted sailing vessel which was square-rigged on all three masts. (1) In that same period, sailing warships of the largest classes were also called ships, or more formally, ships of the line, their size qualifying them to engage the enemy in a line of battle. (2) In the second half of the nineteenth century, as sailing vessels were replaced by engine-powered vessels, the term ship was applied to any large vessel, regardless of propulsion or use. (3)

Ships were often further defined by their specialized uses or modifications, clipper ships and packet ships being the most noted examples. Built for speed, clipper ships were employed in carrying high-value or perishable goods over long distances. (4) Lane painted formal portraits of clipper ships for their owners, as well as generic examples for his port paintings. (5)

Packet ships were designed for carrying capacity which required some sacrifice in speed while still being able to make scheduled passages within a reasonable time frame between regular destinations. In the packet trade with European ports, mail, passengers, and bulk cargos such as cotton, textiles, and farm produce made the eastward passages. Mail, passengers (usually in much larger numbers), and finished wares were the usual cargos for return trips. (6) Lane depicted these vessels in portraits for their owners, and in his port scenes of Boston and New York Harbors.

Ships in specific trades were often identified by their cargos: salt ships which brought salt to Gloucester for curing dried fish; tea clippers in the China Trade; coffee ships in the West Indies and South American trades, and  cotton ships bringing cotton to mills in New England or to European ports.  Some trades were identified by the special destination of a ship’s regular voyages; hence Gloucester vessels in the trade with Surinam were identified as Surinam ships (or barks, or brigs, depending on their rigs). In Lane’s Gloucester Harbor scenes, there are likely (though not identifiable) examples of Surinam ships, but only the ship "California" in his depiction of the Burnham marine railway in Gloucester (see Three Master on the Gloucester Railways, 1857 (inv. 29)) is so identified. (7)

– Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. R[ichard)] H[enry] Dana, Jr., The Seaman’s Friend, 13th ed. (Boston: Thomas Groom & Co., 1873), p. 121 and Plate IV with captions.

2. A Naval Encyclopaedia (Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly & Co., 1884), 739, 741.

3.  M.H. Parry, et al., Aak to Zumbra: A Dictionary of the World’s Watercraft (Newport News, VA: The Mariners’ Museum, 2000), 536.

4. Howard I. Chapelle, The History of American Sailing Ships (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1935), 281–87.

5. Ibid.

6. Howard I. Chapelle, The National Watercraft Collection (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1960), 26–30.

7. Alfred Mansfield Brooks, Gloucester Recollected: A Familiar History (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1974), 67–69.

Sloops are one-masted sailing vessels which, in American examples, set fore-and-aft sails but usually no square sails. Thus, staysails, or jibs, are set from the fore stay(s) and a quadrilateral mainsail is set from the mast and spread by a gaff and a boom. The larger sloops would often set a triangular topsail over the main sail. (1)

The sloops depicted by Lane were used in various coastal trades, each with its own requirements, which dictated the sizes and details of their hulls and rigs. Most elegant were the packet sloops, which transported passengers, mail, and higher value goods between specific ports on regular schedules. They usually measured between sixty and seventy-five feet on deck, as dictated by anticipated shipping volume. Finely finished, they usually had stern galleries—a row of windows across the transom with ornamental moldings—and varied color schemes. Examples of packet sloops are in Gloucester Harbor from Rocky Neck, 1844 (inv. 14) (center, middle ground) and Study of Ships, 1851 (inv. 141) (foreground), both of which probably made trips between Gloucester and Boston, or Gloucester and Newburyport. (2)

Another specialized sloop of similar size was the stone sloop, used to ship granite blocks from stone-loading piers around Cape Ann to other ports. They were similar in rig to packet sloops, but of heavier construction with greater hold capacity and absence of decoration. Their stout appearance was augmented by simple color schemes, or even tarred topsides, reflecting the wear and strain imposed by their heavy cargos. Lane depicted these vessels in his painting of Fresh Water Cove from Dolliver's Neck, Gloucester, Early 1850s (inv. 45), with a sloop (at left) preparing to load at wharf-side, and another (at right) sailing out with a cargo. (3)

Sloops of the more work-a-day sort are the most commonly seen examples in Lane’s paintings, most of them appearing in his views of Boston Harbor. Usually deep-loaded and looking weather-worn, they contrast sharply with the packet- and clipper ships which dominate the scene. Sloops of this type are rarely seen in Lane’s paintings of Gloucester Harbor and the Maine coast, although they were certainly needed for short-distance transportation (see Bear Island, Northeast Harbor, 1855 (inv. 24), View of Camden Mountains from Penobscot Bay, c.1852 (inv. 207), Sunrise on the Maine Coast, Mount Desert Island, 1856 (inv. 295)). For coastal Maine, lack of railroads for heavier freight and greater distances between ports made the use of schooners with larger carrying capacity a greater necessity. (4)

In Lane’s views of New York Harbor, a regional sloop variant, the Hudson River Sloop, appears in New York Harbor, c.1855 (inv. 46) (bow view, left) and A Calm Sea, c.1860 (inv. 6) (stern view, right). This type had become prominent in the Hudson River packet trade between New York City, Albany, and beyond to points north and west as far as the eastern terminus of the Erie Canal.  Large vessels for their rigs, they were well-finished and well-kept, reflecting pride of ownership and rivalry among their owners and crews. (5)

– Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. A Naval Encyclopaedia (Philadelphia: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1884. Reprint: Detroit, MI: Gale Research Company, 1971), 59.  See first definition of "sloop" and definition of "sloop-rigged."

2. Robert Greenhalgh Albion, William A. Baker, and Benjamin Woods Labaree, New England and the Sea (Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1972; reprinted in 1994), 127–28.

3. Howard I. Chapelle, The History of American Sailing Ships (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1935), 300–02.

4. Ibid., 300.

5. Ibid., 298–300.

"Engine-powered vessel" is a collective term used by nautical historians to include all vessel types using engine power of any type for propulsion, whether assisted by sails, oars, or other motive power. In Lane's time, steam reciprocating engines fueled by wood or coal were the only practical source of this power for ships using paddle-wheels or screw propellers to convert heat energy into motion.

For most of the nineteenth century, steamships had sails for auxiliary power; indeed the earliest examples relied principally on sails, using engine power in calm weather to shorten the voyage time or keep to a schedule. As engines became more efficient, powerful, and reliable, sail plans were reduced, to be used only to steady a vessel's motion in a seaway (for the sake of seasick passengers), or to maintain headway if the engine broke down. Only harbor craft, ferry boats, and coastwise passenger steamers relied solely on engine power.

Among Lane's depictions of steamships, the auxiliary steam packet Auxiliary Steam Packet Ship Massachusetts, n.d. (inv. 442) is a good example of primary reliance on sails, while the steam demi-bark The "Britannia" Entering Boston Harbor, 1848 (inv. 49) and the Cunard Liner "Britannia", 1842 (inv. 259) have relegated sails to secondary (or simply emergency) motive power.

– Erik Ronnberg

The ensign of the United States refers to the flag of the United States when used as a maritime flag to indentify nationality. As required on entering port, a vessel would fly her own ensign at the stern, but a conventional  token of respect to the host country would be to fly the flag of the host country (the United States in Boston Harbor, for example) at the foremast. See The "Britannia" Entering Boston Harbor, 1848 (inv. 49) for an example of a ship doing this. The American ensign often had the stars in the canton arranged in a circle with one large star in the center; an alternative on merchant ensigns was star-shaped constellation. In times of distress a ship would fly the ensign upside down, as can be seen in Wreck of the Roma, 1846 (inv. 250).

 The use of flags on vessels is different from the use of flags on land. The importance and history of the flagpole in Fresh Water Cove in Gloucester is still being studied.

The modern meaning of the flag was forged in December 1860, when Major Robert Anderson moved the U.S. garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Adam Goodheart argues this was the opening move of the American Civil War, and the flag was used throughout northern states to symbolize American nationalism and rejection of secessionism.

Before that day, the flag had served mostly as a military ensign or a convenient marking of American territory, flown from forts, embassies, and ships, and displayed on special occasions like American Independence day. But in the weeks after Major Anderson's surprising stand, it became something different. Suddenly the Stars and Stripes flew—as it does today, and especially as it did after the September 11 attacks in 2001—from houses, from storefronts, from churches; above the village greens and college quads. For the first time American flags were mass-produced rather than individually stitched and even so, manufacturers could not keep up with demand. As the long winter of 1861 turned into spring, that old flag meant something new. The abstraction of the Union cause was transfigured into a physical thing: strips of cloth that millions of people would fight for, and many thousands die for.

– Adam Goodheart, Prologue of 1861: The Civil War Awakening (2011).

Given the preeminence of fishing and the foreign trade in Gloucester, it is hardly surprising that Lane gave so little attention to the whale fishery which was barely existent in seaports north of Cape Cod. Gloucester merchants made attempts at whaling in two periods: 1788–96 and 1833–36 with one other voyage in 1853-1854 and a failed attempt in the 1840s - ten voyages in a 60-year time span. There were whaling voyages out of nearby ports—Beverly, Salem, Lynn, and Boston—all on a similar scale, barely noticeable by comparison with other mercantile activity, not to mention the thriving whaling industry in New Bedford. (1)

While Lane made a lithograph of the port of New Bedford in View of New Bedford / From the Fort Near Fairhaven, 1845 (inv. 313), it was from another artist's drawing. There is no record of his having visited that city until 1856, when he observed and sketched the New York Yacht Club's regatta for a subsequent series of paintings (see New York Yacht Club Regatta (1), 1856 (inv. 66), New York Yacht Club Regatta (2), 1856 (inv. 270), New York Yacht Club Regatta (3), After 1856 (inv. 396), New York Yacht Club Regatta (4), 1857 (inv. 397)). There is also no evidence that he remained in New Bedford for any length of time to depict whaling vessels. As with New Bedford artist William Bradford and Albert van Beest, had friction developed between Lane and Bradford, who was also busy with his own depiction of the regatta? (2)

Lane's only known depiction of a whaling vessel—a whaling schooner—is apparently set in New York Harbor, probably at the time of his first visit (on record) to that city, in 1850. The schooner's hull and rig are typical for the period, the only jarring detail being two pairs of davits on the starboard (right-hand) side for the whaleboats when there should be only one. The forward davits and whaleboat should be on the port (left-hand) side, leaving the starboard midships unobstructed for cutting-in and boarding the whale's "blanket piece" (a wide strip if skin and blubber peeled continuously in a spiral). Given the possibility that this schooner hailed from a New York-based port with its own ideas of whaling, Lane may have rendered accurately a very atypical davit configuration. The whaleboats—including the one approaching the schooner—are accurately depicted. (3)

– Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. Alexander Starbuck, "History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1875", in Report of the Commissioner for 1875-76 (Washington: U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 1878), in tables showing returns of whaling vessels for ports and years cited.

2. Richard C. Kugler, "William Bradford", in Richard C Kugler (editor), William Bradford: Sailing Ships & Arctic Seas (New Bedford, Seattle, and London: New Bedford Whaling Museum and the University of Washington Press, 2003), 8–9.

3. G. Brown Goode, The Fish and Fisheries of the United States, Section V, Plates (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887), see plates 185, 186, 188, 190.

Lane & Scott's Lithography was a Boston-based firm formed by Fitz Henry Lane and John W. A. Scott. The partnership spanned 1844–48, after both artists had apprenticed for prominent Boston lithographer, William Pendleton. The firm was located at 16 Tremont Temple, Boston and created sheet music covers, book illustrations, advertisements, prints, and town views. Lane left the firm around 1847 or 1848 and Scott printed some works under his own name.

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback. 

Albert Conant was an artist, printer, publisher, and art teacher. From 1835 to 1850 he drew New England town views that were printed by J.H. Bufford, E.W.Bouvé, and John W.A. Scott was well as by Lane & Scott. He was possibly the same A. Conant whose views of Kansas towns were lithographed by Middleton, Strowbridge & Co. of Cincinnati from 1857 to 1859. He was born in Pomfret, Vermont, on 6 July 1821 and died in Boston on 22 February 1883. 

This information has been summarized from Boston Lithography 1825–1880 by Sally Pierce and Catharina Slautterback.