The marine paintings of W.A. Coulter provide historic glimpses at the working environments and ships that visited the West Coast in the Late 19TH & Early 20TH Century. In this aesthetically pleasing and open work, Coulter has a large sailing ship under steam tug tow bound for the inner safety of San Francisco Bay beyond the coastal through the mouth of the Golden Gate just before the Point Bonita lighthouse.
The atmospheric glow of a late afternoon would mean a prevailing onshore breeze would most likely have to be considered on board the full rigged sailing ship, so the engine-driven tug boat is doing the work while the crew prepares to let the sails run slack. A local fishing smack, absolutely a signature presence in the Greater San Francisco Bay area, finishes their days luck in the waters outside the Point and heads for the inner harbor's docks.
Coulter's knowledge of the at sea is evident as he shows the reality of the rolling waves and the pattern within the chaos of an undulating ocean. The promise of earned fortunes is implied for the various mariners set about their business, whether it is the working tug boat captain and the merchant crew aboard the large Ship at their ethereal distance through the light-ever-present fog. The hard working fishermen aboard the sharp prow, single masted smack own a deeper coloration in keeping with the earthy strength of the coastal cliff face amid the luminescence, very near the landfall where the Golden Gate Bridge connects to the Marin Peninsula today.
