Ship portrait of the Cortez Sold
Oil painted on canvas in original frame.
Circa 1890
31” wide x 25 ½ “high
The ‘Cortez’ was an iron ship of 2294 gross tons built by Oswald, Mordaunt & Co. of Southampton in 1886 (such was the accident rate at this yard that it was known locally as ‘The Slaughterhouse’) for George Petrie & Co. of London. She was sold to Norwegian owners TB Heistein in 1916 after a creditable thirty years’ service for Petrie and re-named ‘Astri’; she was broken-up in April – May 1924, location unknown. She flies the pilot Jack at her foremast (to summon a pilot), Petrie’s houseflag at her mainmast (GP on a saltire), a name pennant at her mizzen mast and the Red Ensign and identification flags from the boom and jib of her ‘spanker’ sail.
Information on the Cortez is kindly supplied by Dr David Jenkins,Principal Curator, National Waterfront Museum, Swansea
Sold