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Fitz Henry Lane
HISTORICAL ARCHIVE • CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ • EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Catalog entry
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Related Work in the Catalog
Provenance (Information known to date; research ongoing.)
Joseph Wescott, North Castine, Maine, 1850
Frances Wescott Dyer, Castine, Maine, 1885
William Dyer, Boston, Massachusetts and Castine, Maine, 1921
Elizabeth D.W.M. Parker, New Canaan, Connecticut and Castine, Maine, 1945
By descent to the present owner, Private collection, 1972
Commentary
These two ship portraits of the schooner Loo Choo, Schooner "Loo Choo" in Calm Sea, 1850 (inv. 790) and Schooner "Loo Choo" in a Stormy Sea, 1850 (inv. 791), dated 1850 are an interesting pair as they show the ship in exquisite detail in two settings. The first under full sail in a light wind on a calm sea and the second with sails reefed down in a stormy sea. They were likely commissioned by Joseph Westcott of Castine, Maine, the ship’s owner. He was clearly proud of her, with good reason, as her jaunty red stripe and bright yellow bow decorations set her apart from the common working schooners of the time. An account from the log of the ship Magnolia who encountered the Loo Choo off Cape Horn in 1849 noted “a handsome gaily-painted ship came up with" her. It was the old China tea-trader Loo Choo. After speaking the ship it "forged ahead flinging up her heels, and showing her bright yellow bottom in an insulting manner," much to the chagrin of Captain Simmons and the passengers.
Loo Choo was a 639 ton schooner built in Medford, Massachusetts in 1840. After the discovery of gold in California, numerous ships went into the passenger trade sailing around the tip of South America to San Francisco. Over 100 passengers traveled west aboard Loo Choo in 1849, hoping to strike lucky. She sailed from New York on March 8, 1849 and arrived in San Francisco 139 days later via Cape Horn and Valparaiso, Chile. Loo Choo successfully navigated the treacherous journey around Cape Horn on multiple occasions.