Beneath the gold pilot house eagle, the prominent Pilot Steam Tug Wanderer steams forth. She worked the coastwise and inland New York waters. The No.11 pilot jack is accompanied by an American commissioning pennant, which many working tugs and tow boats earned through their service, as well as her name emblazoned everywhere. Her warm, buff-neutral colors accent the 85.3'L x 21.1'B x 10'D tug, with persons shown and suggested within her cabins. The ship was built in 1890 by Jackson & Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware.
In his vast sketchbooks, (most in the collection of the Mariners Museum in Virginia), Jacobsen drew more than 200 tug boats. Approximately 70 of these highly desirable ships are known to exist in finished paintings. The smaller size of the ships, in relation to other commissioned subjects, presented the artist with the opportunity to portray the finer details of the ships, as in this portrait. The gilt trailboard and deep-toned waterlines show this clear.
Jacobsen's passion for his chosen profession proved challenging. He found his greatest profits when working for the large transatlantic liner companies, producing multiple original paintings of the behemoth steamships. Tug portraits, on the other hand, were painted as unique works directly for the ship owners, captains and crews - his patrons of first choice.
