Samuel Walters (British 1811-1882)
The Frankfield 'Showing her Number' in Rough Seas off Table Bay, Cape Town
oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left "S. Walters 1847"
The Frankfield was a full-rigged ship built in New Brunswick in 1840 for Thomas Wilson & Co. of Liverpool for their Australian service. She weighed 750 tonnes and was constructed of black birch, with pine and spruce used internally. She is shown under shortened sail with topsails reefed.
The Frankfield sailed to Australia carrying immigrants to Sydney out of Liverpool, usually carrying about 350 passengers. In 1845-6 she is recorded as sailing to Ichaboe, an island off the Namibian coast of west Africa rich in guano deposits. She is recorded as arriving in Quebec on 9 August 1847, the same year as this painting, carrying 528 passengers under the command of Captain John Robinson. The final reference to her occurs in the Liverpool press in January 1858 where it records "the death of Captain Robinson on 7 December 1847 when his ship Frankfield was wrecked on the East Mouse, Cemaes Bay, Anglesey, in a terrible gale".
This painting could possibly have been a commission by Captain Mitchell to record the vessel's glory days on the Australia run before Mitchell handed her over to captain Robinson.
Size: 28 x 42 in (with frame 33 x 47 in)
J17373
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