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拍品专文
The relatively short-lived National Line was a British company operating out of Liverpool between 1863 and 1914. All their steamers were named after countries and when Italy was completed in 1870, she was the second largest vessel in the world after Mr. Brunel's gigantic but obsolete Great Eastern. Italy was built on the Clyde at Glasgow by John Elder & Co. and launched on 2nd April 1870. Registered at 4,169 tons gross and measuring 389 feet in length with a 42 foot beam, she could steam at 11 knots and could accommodate well over 1,000 passengers, mostly steerage. After a highly successful and accident-free career of twenty-four years of scheduled sailings to New York, she was finally withdrawn from service in 1893 and scrapped the following year.
In view of the intense public interest in this ship due to her size, it is possible that this undated painting was executed to mark her maiden U.S. arrival in 1870, with the depiction of Mercury intended as a contrast to show the inevitable triumph of steam over sail.
The so-called medium clipper Mercury - said to be "of the same type as the [famous] Dreadnought" - was designed and built for Boyd & Hincken in the New York yards of Westervelt & Mackay in 1851. Launched on 3rd September that year, she was constructed mostly of white oak and was the largest vessel in her owners' curiously-styled Havre Second Line of New York to Le Havre packet ships. The failure of a French-subsidised steamship line between Cherbourg and New York soon after it was inaugurated in 1847 actually served to stimulate the New York - Le Havre sailing packet lines when their future had seemed in doubt, so much so that no less than ten new ships were added to their combined fleets between 1847 and 1851. Almost the last to be completed, Mercury was registered at 1,351 tons and measured 193= feet in length with a 39 foot beam. Widely regarded as the fastest ship in her own fleet, she was also one of the fastest vessels out of New York when she was in her prime and her quickest Atlantic crossing was recorded as 23 days. Averaging 33 days for a passage throughout her long career, she remained in service for eighteen years until sold in 1869 when most of the sailing packet lines disappeared due to competition from steam.
In view of the intense public interest in this ship due to her size, it is possible that this undated painting was executed to mark her maiden U.S. arrival in 1870, with the depiction of Mercury intended as a contrast to show the inevitable triumph of steam over sail.
The so-called medium clipper Mercury - said to be "of the same type as the [famous] Dreadnought" - was designed and built for Boyd & Hincken in the New York yards of Westervelt & Mackay in 1851. Launched on 3rd September that year, she was constructed mostly of white oak and was the largest vessel in her owners' curiously-styled Havre Second Line of New York to Le Havre packet ships. The failure of a French-subsidised steamship line between Cherbourg and New York soon after it was inaugurated in 1847 actually served to stimulate the New York - Le Havre sailing packet lines when their future had seemed in doubt, so much so that no less than ten new ships were added to their combined fleets between 1847 and 1851. Almost the last to be completed, Mercury was registered at 1,351 tons and measured 193= feet in length with a 39 foot beam. Widely regarded as the fastest ship in her own fleet, she was also one of the fastest vessels out of New York when she was in her prime and her quickest Atlantic crossing was recorded as 23 days. Averaging 33 days for a passage throughout her long career, she remained in service for eighteen years until sold in 1869 when most of the sailing packet lines disappeared due to competition from steam.