A working fleet of the prominent fishing champions of the Eastern Seaboard, schooners race along on their way with the fresh fish. Dorymen in the small boat await their approaching comrades in the schooner on approach, hoping the demand at the wharfs will be sufficient for their catch, if not top dollar for being the first available.
Some of sailing's most acclaimed ships served in the Grand Banks fishing trade. At the top, BLUENOSE, and her immortal rival GERTRUDE E. THEBAUD, from their epic Fishermen's Cup races, to the celebrated ELSIE, CANADIA, HENRY FORD, ESPERANTO and the last working schooner, ADVENTURER. Their distant returning profiles were watched for from shore over decades, as they plied their dangerous and rewarding profession.
The work, titled directly by the artist Duncan Gleason features the great speed and strength of these vessels, with the deep water aggressive nature of the sharp-hulled schooners shown in a stern rise and pitch. The heavy morning clouds have broken to give way for a wind driven bright sky which would give cause for the fishermen with their catch in the hold to celebrate the additional speed to port and their waiting pay and families. This composition holds excellent balance and flow, and Gleason thought enough of it to gift it to his good friends, "Mac" and Patricia MacLachlan, with whom he would often sail to Catalina Island in the company of, spending weekends onboard MacLachlan's Ketch SONCE with stories of the speed reached by large schooners of the East, or his own sloop, DOROTHY G., named for his wife.
