intheboatshed.net

Paintings by John P Benson - click on each for a larger photo.
The images that were here earlier are now linked to thumbnails below

John Prentis Benson - American Marine Artist, which comes out early in the New Year, will be the first sizeable book about an important artist who has only recently become recognised or even collectable.

The lack of interest in John P Benson is perhaps surprising, as he was the brother of the renowned American Impressionist, Frank Benson.

Overshadowed in his youth by his highly talented brother, John P Benson practised as an architect for many years before finally becoming a full-time working artist in his 50s.

Once established in his studio at Kittery, Maine, however, he was prolific and painted over 750 works between 1925 and his death in 1947.

Of these, only about 300 are known, which leaves 450 or so either in private hands and yet to be located, or destroyed. Many of Benson’s paintings are still to be found, and possible owners should know that they sell for up to $50,000 when they appear at auction.

Experts say that despite the family connection, Benson’s style was only moderately Impressionistic, and that his work also incorporated elements of Realism and Romanticism.

Benson was born in 1865 in Salem, Massachusetts and grew up a few streets away from the town’s seaport, which is said to have fascinated the young artist. Later in life he painted mainly contemporary and historical ships and boats, and seascapes, and his boats and ships are noted for their detail and accuracy, and his work is said to have influenced  current marine artists such as Geoff Hunt, who illustrated the covers of Patrick O’Brian’s well known novels.

I’d like to thank Bob Holtzman for sending me this story - many readers will know him as the editor of the weblog Indigenous Boats, but he’s also a freelance PR consultant, writer and editor. He’s clearly a diligent operator who understands his media, for he has clearly recognised that intheboatshed.net is very fond of a good painting!

For more on the artist and book, visit http://www.johnpbenson.org/

Lisa’s getting nearer and nearer - but she still some way from being finished

Hampshire traditional boatbuilder Nick Smith has kindly sent some more photos of Lisa, the 17ft motor launch he’s currently building. At first glance she might look as if she’s close to completion - but, as he explains, there’s still a fair way to go.

He writes:

‘Hi Gav:

‘Here are some more photos showing progress on ‘Lisa’.

‘The next tasks are to build the sole boards, engine box and battery box, fit fuel pipeage. engine control lever and cables, exhaust hose, bronze manual bilge pump and electric float pump, fit crutch sockets, fairleads, foredeck cleat, towing cleats, ensign socket and pole, bilge rails, seven coats of varnish, bilge paint and a traditional red antifouling. We used to call antifouling ‘compo’ when I was an apprentice, which was short for ‘composition’ - a paint antifouling people used that was based on arsenic!!!!

‘Yes , thats all! Won’t take five minutes. More next week!

‘Regards Nick’

Thanks fella - I’ve no doubt the owner will be very proud. A trivial point that comes to mind from these photos is about the masking tape - I wonder what people used in the past for that job?

PS - Nick had this to say about the masking tape. It sounds like a slice of real life to me:

Nick has sent us quite a few photos of the Lisa project over the past few weeks.  If you’d like to see all our posts about his work, click here and scroll down the page. If you don’t already know him, Nick comes from Devon and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for  sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. He can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on 07786 693370.

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Wood engraving The Yacht Race - A Sketch from the Deck of a
Competing Yacht, was published in Harper’s Weekly in  1872.
Taken from the Wikimedia Commons

Although Charles II was almost as enthusiastic about yachting as he was about his many mistresses, his collection of 16 yachts do not seem to have had much of an influence on later racers.

From their researches including studying Clark’s History of Yachting up to the year 1815, Heckstall-Smith and Du Boulay say later racing yachts derived their form largely from revenue cutters.

They write: ‘the fashionable type of cutter was about three and a quarter beams to her length, her midship section was so round it might have been drawn with a pair of compasses. She had a nearly vertical stem, and a  short counter high above the water. The greatest breadth was just abaft or close abreast of the mast. The bow was therefore bluff, and the run long and often not ungraceful.’

The type was known as ‘cod’s head and mackerel tail’ and had evolved  in competition with the craft used by smugglers. This seems to me to be a case of a rather imperfect form of evolution, if faster boats could have been achieved by moving the greatest beam aft, but there are some good stories about how the same boat builders worked for both smugglers and  the revenue men.

Living in Kent as I do, this one from Heckstall-Smith and du Boulay appeals to me particularly: ‘it has been recorded that Mr White of Broadstairs, whose descendants afterwards moved to Cowes, used to lay down two cutters side by side, very much as 19-metres and 15-metres are laid down today, and the Government officials used to puzzle their brains to puzzle out which would turn out the faster, knowing that whichever boat they bought, the other would be sold for smuggling.’

For more on revenue cutters at intheboatshed.net, click here.

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