This painting shows A.C. Smith's active familiarity with the large schooners of his day. It depicts the New York Yacht Club schooner FAUSTINE departing on her first transatlantic crossing to England in 1873. She is recorded to have made the passage in 18 days.
FAUSTINE was designed and built at Bristol by John Brown Herreshoff, the older brother of Nathaniel. She was a 79'6" LOA x 19'8"B x 7'4"D keel schooner owned and raced by G.P. Russell, member of both the New York and Eastern Yacht Clubs. Shown here with her original schooner rig, she was converted to a steam yacht and lengthened at Cowes in 1879.
Smith has placed FAUSTINE rail down on a well-defined sea. As she leaves the harbor she wears her N.Y.Y.C. burgee and private pennant along with the stars and stripes. Crew members on deck trim sails that are nicely illuminated and offer a main focus for the painting. A fully loaded lumber schooner and other coastal shipping share the composition making their way out to sea as blue skies begin to appear through dissipating clouds.
