Edit Object 1654

A view of the American Racing Yacht COLUMBIA passing the important Block Island Lighthouse, Rhode Island. COLUMBIA belongs to the elite class of big schooners built in the decade following the end of the American Civil War. She launched in 1871 out of designer Joseph Van Deusen's Chester, Pennsylvania Yard for Franklin Osgood of the New York Yacht Club. Osgood sold the racing schooner to New York Society figure and author J.L. Wallack in 1881, under whose personal pennant she here flies.

An impressive scale and composition by Yorke, the painting holds the subject ship centrally while adding values with the island's southeast lighthouse with its first-order fresnel lens to aid incoming ships at a great distance out on the Atlantic Ocean. The working fishermen looking on enviously at her speed and size, and sailing mates onboard a cutter sloop on the turn before her. After her racing career and a brief duty as a houseboat in 1908, COLUMBIA was refitted as a successful Gloucester Fisherman.

COLUMBIA was part of the American team that successfully defended the America's Cup from challenger LIVONIA in 1871, winning the first two bouts and being complemented in the victory by SAPPHO. She participated in match races and cruising regattas with the N.Y.Y.C. for her three listed owners, Osgood, Wallack, and Henry M. Flagler, the important railroad patriarch of St. Augustine, Miami and Palm Beach, Florida who started Standard Oil with John Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews. Flagler bought the yacht from Wallack in 1885, and retired her only in 1890 when his 171' steel steam yacht ALICIA was completed by Harland & Hollingsworth.

Select a Type
American Ship Portrait
Barometers
Bells
Binnacles & Compasses
Binoculars
Book Maritime
Book Voyages
Books
Books General
Boylhart Collection
Builders Full Models
Builders Half-Model
Canes - Decorative
Canes - Gimmick
Cannons
Carving
Chronometers
Clocks
Contemporary Art
Contemporary Models
Decorative Art - Boxes
Dieppe Models
Diorama Models
Diving Helmets & Equipment
Dockyard Models
Edged Weapons
Engravings
Figureheads
Firearms
Fishing Equipment
Folk Art Models
Furniture
Glass and Pottery
Globes
Jewelry
Joe & Lisa's Art Collection
Lamps
Letters
Lighthouse Artifacts
Limited-Edition Prints
Lithographs
Maps & Charts
Marine Narrative
Marine Narrative at Sea
Medical
Microscopes
Miscellaneous Artifacts
Navigation Instruments - Compass
Navigation Instruments
Navigation Instruments - Sextant
Octants, Quadrants & Backstaffs
Original art
Other Models
Painted Photograph
Passenger Liner Memorabilia
Patent Models
Period Models
Photographs
Pond Models
Pottery
Prints
Prisoner-of-War Artifacts
Prisoner-of-War Models
Sailor Crafts
Sailor Valentines
Sailor Woolworks
Scrimshaw Artifacts
Scrimshaw Private
Scrimshaw Teeth
Sea Chests
Sextants
Ship Clocks
Ship Hardwares
Ship in a Bottle
Ship Log Books
Ships Flogging Whip
Signed Documents
Silver and Silver Plated Models
Speaking Trumpets
Statues
Steam Engine Models
Steam Models
Sundials
Sword
Tankards & Pitchers
Telescopes
Tillers, Rudders & Yokes
Toy Models
Trinity Boxes
Trophys & Presentions
Voyages & Travels
Watches
Whaling