A favored clipper of shipping agents and her owners, A.A. Low & Brothers of New york, GOLDEN STATE had 30 years of successful service under the American flag. She was built in 1853 by Jacob Westervelt in the face of the coming depression of American shipping interests, but that affected her not. Her well-documented records of Cape Horn service, and sailing from New York to California, China and Japan speak for her accomplishments.
This painting is perfect in compositional scale, with the crew members high aloft setting the final top royal sail. Raked with the pressing speed, she proved time and again her 188'l x 39'8"b x 21'6" was the perfect balance of speed and carrying capacity. Just one such record is that she arrived in New York in May of 1867 with the largest tea load ever received there, and earned $1,000,000 for that single cargo. Quite the contrast to her maiden run on the California Trade where a "whirlwind" carried away all her mast tops.
Patterson depicts another ship on the near horizon, with the expansive sky of soft, sporadic clouds. Even at this distance they would be able to spy and decipher GOLDEN STATE's name in International Code flying proudly astern beneath the American Ensign. In the 1883, she would put in to Rio de Janeiro in distress, exactly 30 years after GOLDEN STATE'S maiden mishap landed her here. Her cargoes were discharged and the clipper was sold to the Quebec interests of D & J Maguire, whom renamed her ANNE C. MAGUIRE and re-rigged her as a bark. They sailed her for three years under the Argentine flag.
