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Lot Essay
This crowded panorama of ships off Liverpool is an informative as well as entertaining snapshot of the George Brown & Harrison fleet as it appeared at the mid-point of the nineteenth century. Several of the individual vessels portrayed are identifiable from the artist's careful rendering of the Marryat Code signal flags which they sport at their mastheads, and all save the central full-rigger Columbia are also wearing the former B. & H. house flag of a blue Maltese Cross on a white ground. Columbia however wears the newer Harrison house flag consisting of a red Maltese Cross on a similar ground which was presumably to emphasise the company's recent change of ownership and style.
The Harrison Line's story began in 1830 when Thomas Harrison became apprenticed to the Liverpool firm of shipping agents Samuel Brown & Son. In 1835 Samuel Brown Snr. died and was succeeded by his son George who afterwards employed young James Harrison in 1838. The next year (1839) Thomas Harrison was made a partner in the firm which changed its name to George Brown & Harrison at the same time. Ten years later, in 1849, James Harrison also became a partner and upon George Brown's death in 1853, the Harrisons took over the business in its entirety renaming it Thos. & Jas. Harrison, a name which soon became respected throughout the shipping world and which survived until almost the present day.
Columbia herself was a three-masted wooden barque built at Belfast, Maine in 1853 and originally named the Ralph C. Jonson. Acquired by Harrisons in 1854, she measured 180 feet in length with a 35 foot beam and ran successfully for five years under the company's colours until lost in 1859. Other vessels in the composition, from left to right, include the topsail schooner Redbreast, the three-masted schooner Criterion, the topsail schooner Charles Souchay and the brig Caspian, the latter shown heaving-to with her foremast sails backed.
The Harrison Line's story began in 1830 when Thomas Harrison became apprenticed to the Liverpool firm of shipping agents Samuel Brown & Son. In 1835 Samuel Brown Snr. died and was succeeded by his son George who afterwards employed young James Harrison in 1838. The next year (1839) Thomas Harrison was made a partner in the firm which changed its name to George Brown & Harrison at the same time. Ten years later, in 1849, James Harrison also became a partner and upon George Brown's death in 1853, the Harrisons took over the business in its entirety renaming it Thos. & Jas. Harrison, a name which soon became respected throughout the shipping world and which survived until almost the present day.
Columbia herself was a three-masted wooden barque built at Belfast, Maine in 1853 and originally named the Ralph C. Jonson. Acquired by Harrisons in 1854, she measured 180 feet in length with a 35 foot beam and ran successfully for five years under the company's colours until lost in 1859. Other vessels in the composition, from left to right, include the topsail schooner Redbreast, the three-masted schooner Criterion, the topsail schooner Charles Souchay and the brig Caspian, the latter shown heaving-to with her foremast sails backed.