Catalog entry

Commentary

Lane’s depictions of lumber brigs (which were actually half-brigs), while not as common as lumber schooners, are particularly informative in two of his paintings. View of Southwest Harbor, Maine: Entrance to Somes Sound, 1852 (inv. 260) depicts the loading of a lumber brig while anchored in Southwest Harbor, Maine. Lane made the drawing for this scene from on board the sloop Superior, looking from the southern side of the harbor, north to Clarke’s Point.

Somes Sound lies just beyond Clarke’s Point and Greening’s Island lies beyond the right margin. The mountains flanking the sound loom in the background. It is mid-afternoon and the anchored lumber brig is loading the last of the planks brought to it on a log raft. The open bow port, necessary for getting long planks into the hold, will be securely covered and made watertight for the voyage to come. Once the hold is filled, several raft-loads of lumber will be needed for the deck load, which could reach six feet or more in height for a deck-load on a vessel this size. Extra care must be taken to lash the deck cargo down securely with rope and short pieces of lumber lashed vertically along the sides - also horizontally across the top of the deck load - to prevent shifting and loss of cargo.

This scene depicts the late afternoon of a calm summer day on the Maine Coast, which will be followed by cool night air and a heavy morning dew. To prevent the cotton canvas sails from getting soaked and subject to rot, they are allowed to “hang in the gear”-  the staysails partially hoisted and the square sails clewed-up in loose bights. This was done routinely in calm weather to permit ventilation and drying while at anchor or wharfside, and can be seen in many of Lane’s port paintings, wherever he went.

Twilight on the Kennebec, 1849 (inv. 258), one of Lane’s earliest depictions of Maine, is not a coastal scene, but of the lower Kennebec River, a tidal river from its mouth to as far north as  Augusta.  As in View of Southwest Harbor, Maine: Entrance to Somes Sound, 1852 (inv. 260), the brig’s hold will be loaded through a bow port, the boards being too long to be passed down through the hatch on deck. Once the hold is filled, raft loads of lumber will be brought alongside and carefully stowed on deck. All deck space, rail to rail, from main mast to fore mast, will be carefully stacked with lumber to a height of six feet or more. Due to its exposed location, the deck load must be secured with boards and lashings as described previously, to prevent shifting and loss of cargo in heavy weather.

–Erik A. R. Ronnberg, Jr.

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