Lot Essay
Although Mitchell has shown this vessel in full ship rig, it is apparent, though hardly surprising, that his memory was slightly at fault given that the painting was executed thirty years after the scene depicted. The Lady Gordon, 283 tons and built at Whitehaven (Cumberland) in 1817, had been a familiar sight at Maryport since the mid-1830's after it had become her homeport when she was acquired by Scurr & Co. Continuously owned by them for thirty years and employed by them in the North Atlantic timber trade, she was actually re-rigged as a barque in the late 1850's - at about which time her tonnage was also reduced - and retained that rig until she disappears from record between 1866 and 1868.