The Packet Ship New World Leaving Liverpool
Outward boundfor New York, the handsome packet N ew World Looks Like the ship of dreams she was, departing Liverpool in the morning mist to carry people to new ventures and, for many, new Lives in A merica. A big ship of J,400 tons, she was Launched in 1846 by Donald M cKay of East Boston. She sailedfor the Swallow Tail Line, dovetailing her crossings with her Black Ball rivals to provide weekly service. She is fast, andfor cabin passengers gazing out of those elegant stern cabin windows, Luxurious as a first-class hotel- though prone to Lean over in heavy weather! seas. I felt these bo re o ut bo th the drama and the workaday realities of seafaring better than the fantasies of clipper shi ps roaring along under mo untains of sail, which characterized so many gallery paintings. In truth, far better works h ad been do ne by Montague D awson , the British painter, and such Am erican painters as C harles Ro bert Patterson, from whom I sough t ro learn as m asters of the genre, while developing my own vision of rhese ships. This I did by imm ersing myself in everything I could learn about the ships and rhe p eople who sailed them . M y sources, naturally, were m ainly literary-but something new was about to be added . On the train to New York, a m an sharing my seat (who just h appened to be editor of an arr magazine!) gave m e a list of New York galleries head ed by Kennedy Galleries, owned by the W underlich family, who'd founded it in 1874. Their field was ''Americana,'' taking in the Hudson Ri ver
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School, the American West, the era of the river steamboats and of m erchant sail. To my stunned surprise, the Wunderlichs offered me a one-man show! When rhar show opened in November 1967, Mrs. Wunderlich introduced me to Peter Stanfo rd, whom she had invited to the exhibition. Peter recently had been in the papers, m aking news about a fl edgling outfit down near the Brooklyn Bridge that sought to revitalize the hub of the Port of New York of the sailing days-South Street Seaport! Luck was about to strike. Little could I have imagined what lay in sto re for m e on the day, some time lare r, when I ascended a delightfully ramshackle wooden scaircase in a waterfront wareho use, in a corner of New York that the bulldozers reshaping Lower M anhattan had nor yet cleared away. I had the feeling that an unpredictable fortuity was turning in my favor. Everyone I had spoken to or had accos ted fo r assistance on this cross-
bo rder ve nture into the USA had been almost electrically charged with friendliness. The very thing that had driven me away from England, ir appeared, was now the ace up my sleeve- the colloquial D erby accent. Instead of doors slamming in my face, they were now swinging open-wide! Perer Sranfo rd was rhe source of lighr fo r reviving what was still lefr of N ew York's historic South Street area, even as high-rise srrucrures encroached from every direcrion. H e had several projects afoor, bur he welco med m e warmly and was keenly interested in the few wo rks I had brought to show him. W hen I told him I was seeking help to produce a painting of South Street of old, he offered his assistance and told me of plans to acquire rhe ship TI!avertree for rhe refurbished Seapo rt, adding how wonderful ir wo uld be if I could produce a painting of her. I had to take pains to compose myself as adrenaline was running up and down my neck, my rho ughrs pondering wherher
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