Stephen Dadd Skillett (1816-1866 (act.c.1835-1865))
The Coromandel

Medium: Oil on canvas
Size without frame: 28.0" x 36.0"
Size including frame: 34.0" x 42.0"
SOLD

At the time of this painting there were three fully rigged ships registered of the name Coromandel, all of roughly the same tonnage and length. Unfortunately, Skillett hasn't left us many clues as to which he has painted. We think the ship in this painting is what in Skillett's day may have been the best known Coromandel, that built in Quebec in 1834. It was made from oak, black birch, and red pine and sheathed in yellow metal with a tonnage of 662 and length of 133 feet. Under the command of Captain William Chesser this Coromandel left Blackwall Dock, London, 1st Sept. 1836, bound for South Australia, arriving at the new colony at Port Adelaide on January 12th 1837. The Coromandel (1834) was the first ship to arrive bringing emigrants (156 "persons appeared to be of a superior grade") to the new colony after the proclamation of the province. Also transported was Adelaide's first bank - ten thousand pounds in notes and a framed banking house and iron chests. A few years later in 1840, the Coromandel brought 44 settlers to Wellington, New Zealand. The Coromandel Valley in the Adelaide Hills and Coromandel Street in Wellington, New Zealand are named after the ship. Signed and dated 1843, faint, lower right.

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