This painting depicts GRANDEE, built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1874, under full sail and steering a northwesterly course off Anglesey in North Wales. Once clear of South Stack and Holyhead Mountain, seen beneath her bowsprit, she will alter course due East for Liverpool. A steam-sail vessel is shown on a reciprocal course in the right background.
Yorke has added details such as Captain Jacobs (who commanded Grandee throughout her career) holding the hand of a young boy, likely his son, on the after-cabin top. Other details include the intent posture of the helmsman and bow lookout; and the decoration on the aft-cabin entrance. This is a relatively early work for the artist, painted around age 27, after his father had permanently left for America.
GRANDEE established a record for good sailing ability early in her career. Her maiden voyage was from New York to Callao (84 days), Callao to San Francisco (37 days) and San Francisco to Liverpool (118 days). Her third voyage, departing New York on December 2, 1876 was to Melbourn, Australia in 81 days.
For most of her later career her operations were in Australia and the Far East in the case oil trade. She once struck an iceberg while running in a high southern latitude but was able to make port safely. In 1893 Grandee was sold to the Dominion Coal Company of Sydney, Cape Breton and she finished her days in the Canadian Maritimes as a coal barge. She disappears from the Canadian Registers in 1912.
The Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts maintainsGRANDEE's figurehead and a 25' x 34 1/2' China Trade oil portrait of the ship anchored off Hong Kong in their permanent collections.
