Bonhams 1793 : William Alexander Coulter (1849-1936) The four-masted bark Edward Sewall with the Golden Gate and Farallon Islands in the distance 32 x 24 1/4in

The four-masted bark Edward Sewall with the Golden Gate and Farallon Islands in the distance
signed 'W.A. Coulter' (lower right)
oil on canvas
32 x 24 1/4in
overall: 37 1/2 x 29 1/2in

Sold for US$ 23,750 inc. premium

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, Northern California
Thence by descent to the present owner

EXHIBITED:
San Francisco, California, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, William A. Coulter: A Master's Brush with the Sea, April 18 - October 31, 2006.

LITERATURE:
Marcus De Chevrieux, William A. Coulter: A Master's Brush with the Sea, 2006, p. 12.

The four-masted bark, Edward Sewall, was built in 1899 by the A. Sewall & Company Shipyard at Bath, Maine. One of 10 steel-hulled vessels built by the famous shipbuilding family, she was owned and operated by her builder and first commanded by Captain Joseph E. Sewall. She registered 3206 gross tons and was 322 feet long. After about 16 years of service in the bulk cargo trades to the West Coast, Hawaii and Japan, she was sold to the Texas Company, but was laid up several years in New Orleans for lack of cargo.
In 1922, the Edward Sewall joined the Star Fleet of the Alaska Packers Association in San Francisco and was renamed the Star of Shetland. As a cannery ship, she sailed about 2,500 miles each season to the salmon fishing surrounds off southern Alaska loaded with cannery workers and fishermen, then returned to San Francisco with a cargo of canned salmon and wintered in the Oakland Estuary.
The shortness of the salmon season and the difficult in obtaining crews, along with a waning interest in sailing ships, brought this era to an end, and in 1936, the historic Star of Shetland - Edward Sewall was loaded with bulk cargo and towed to Japan and sold as scrap.