Richard Barnett Spencer (1812-1897)
The Georgetown approaching Dover
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size without frame: 19.0" x 31.0"
Size including frame: 27.2" x 39.2"
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The Georgetown was built in Sunderland for City of London merchants the Cavan Brothers (later Colonial Co. Ltd). 135 yards in length with a tonnage of 414 tonnes. Launched on the Wear on the 1st January, 1858, it was assigned the official number 20591 and signal letters NBSQ. For its first few years the Georgetown operated between Sunderland and the West Indies, then London and the West Indies. James Cavan, principal and founding partner of Cavan Brothers, owned plantations in British Guiana (Demerera) and the West Indies so it is probable its destination port was Georgetown and its main cargo sugar/rum. Launched as a barque it was re-rigged around 1862 as a fully rigged ship, as painted here, with one sail furled on the mizzenmast. We can date the painting between 1874 and 1884 when the Lloyds Register of Shipping records it was in the ownership of the shipping company Scrutton Sons & Co whose house flag it flies from the main mast.The Lloyds Register records that from 1884 to 1891 the Georgetown was owned and operated by Waugh/Fawcett & Waugh, Quayside Newcastle probably scrapped thereafter.
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