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Image Not Available for CECILIA SUDDEN under sail at sea
CECILIA SUDDEN under sail at sea
Image Not Available for CECILIA SUDDEN under sail at sea

CECILIA SUDDEN under sail at sea

Artist (1867 - 1957)
Date1915
Object number00039497
NamePainting
MediumPaper, watercolours, timber frame, bronze plaque.
DimensionsOverall: 777 x 1015 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis painting depicts the schooner CECILIA SUDDEN from broadside starboard view under full sail not far from shore. The vessel's signal letters KSDM can be seen in the flags flying from the mizzen mast.HistoryThe CECILIA SUDDEN, a four-masted schooner of 643 tons was built at Fairhaven, California, in 1902 by the Bendixsen Shipbuilding Co. The first owners, Sudden and Christenson of San Francisco, sold the vessel in 1915 to a single-ship company of Tasmanian stockholder, who registered the schooner in Melbourne. The CECILIA SUDDEN was the second largest sailing vessel ever owned in Tasmania. In 1917, the vessel was abandoned at sea, but was subsequently brought into port and in January 1918 was reported sold for $71,000. In October 1919, bound from Samoa to San Francisco, the schooner had to put in to Suva, Fiji, to repair leaks. The voyage was finally completed and the vessel loaded lumber at Astoria for a return voyage to Sydney. On 8 September 1921, laden with a cargo of kerosene and coal from Newcastle, the CECILIA SUDDEN caught fire off the New Zealand coast and drifted on to rocks. The wreck still lies in the Hauraki Gulf off Great Barrier Island, in 5 to 12 meters of water. Lyman gives the date of her sinking as 1920 but recent New Zealand sources state 1921. Arthur Victor Gregory, born in Melbourne in 1867, was a member of a family of ship 'portrait' painters, beginning with his father George Frederick Gregory, who had been a carpenter in the Royal Navy before coming to Australia during the gold rush. By the 1880s, Arthur was prospering and he took over his father's business around 1890. SignificanceThis painting of the American built CECILIA SUDDEN represents 20th century trans-pacific trade between America and Australia.