This painting is another in the series of Tall Ships. The painting is 16”x20” oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, completed March 25, 2009, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

During the civil and criminal court period and for the next two years, The Wanderer Changed ownership several times and was stolen and again used as a slave ship. During the trip the ship crew mutinied and returned the ship to Boston and turned her over to the authorities in Dec., 1959.  From that time until April, 1961, she was sold into mercantile service.

Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War the US Navy seized The Wanderer and she was used as a gunboat, a tender, and a hospital ship. The Wanderer was sold at an auction in Key West in June, 1865.  She entered the banana trade operating in mercantile service until she was lost off Cape Maisi, Cuba in January 1871.

The Wanderer, had a very short 15 year history, but very full history.  She was built as a luxuries yacht winning several races; a slave ship and tied up in federal courts for two years; sold several times; stolen and taken for the slave trade, then the crew mutinied; seized by the US Navy and served as a gunboat, a tender, and hospital ship; and then auctioned off into the mercantile service caring bananas.  During that short time she became part of Georgia history when she delivered almost 500 slaves to Jekyll Island, Georgia and became the last slave ship to arrive in America.  The slaves gained celebrity status, being the only group to be frequently identified with the ship they arrived on.

Not much is known about the slaves or what happened to them, except for one Cilucangy (African name), Ward Lee (given name).  Lee was sold as a boy to a plantation on the Savannah River, after the war he remained as a tenant farmer.  Lee keeps up with many of The Wanderer survivors who lived nearby and provided the information to an anthropologist from the University of Chicago in 1908.  Lee married and had four children and died around 1918.  Several of the children remained in the Savannah area, others moved north, then to Brooklyn, and then others moved on to Long Island. Lee’s great-great-grandchildren have their family reunions on Long Island not far from where The Wanderer was built.  

This painting is another in the series of Tall Ships.  The painting is 16"x20" oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, completed March 19, 2009, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

Within you will see history is just history, reporting the past even the conflicts, also noting that this doesn't make what was wrong and better.  So I will show the painting as one reported part of history and indicate the conflicting parts that are different.  We cannot change history, all we can do is report what is noted in history, good or bad.

"A Slave Schooner (1858-59)" is an interpretation of the ship noted in the book" The Wanderer, The Last American Slave Ship", by Erik Calonius.  The painting showed in the book and at Jekyll Island Museum was completed over 70 years after it landed. The artist completed his painting from information provided and the sails are not shown properly, also the ship is shown 20 feet shorter.  As noted within the book and at two other history reports and sketches, The Wanderer at this time had been changed to a top sail schooner, and my painting and others doesn't reflect that change, yet.

After The Wanderer was sold in 1858 to William C. Corrie, it was relocated to a shipyard in Port Jefferson.  Major changes were to take place, changes in the sails, two galvanized steel water tanks were set below to hold 15,000 gallons of fresh water, the cabins were under the deck were removed, a second floor was installed below the deck, and now she was around 300 ton displacement.  This ship was headed to the Congo River, and the slave marker in Africa.

After out running several war ships, she landed at Jekyll Island Nov. 28, 1859, and unloaded around 409 slaves, in which 80 to 90 died during the six week trip.  The ship owner and officers were arrested and in federal court for two years. The slaves couldn't be located, no paper trail, and no proof could be provided to prove guilt, so they were released.  So during the two years The wanderer was sold, stolen and just set for the two years.

The Wanderer, would again take another direction in history, she would now become part of the US Navy during the Civil War and remain part of Georgia history.

This painting is another in the series of Tall Ships.  The painting is 16"x20" oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, completd March 10, 2009, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

"A Schooner (1857)" is typical of the ships built during that time, including making them bigger, faster and more luxuriously.  This incluged the  Gimcrack, Una, Irene, Cygnet, Cornelia and The America, the fastest yachts in the New York Yacht Club and this was the beginning of the America's Cup.  The America was sold a few days after she won the last race in 1851 and there wasn't another ship in the New York Yacht Club that could out race the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.

In the fall of 1857, a Louisiana sugar baron by the name of John D. Johnson arrived at a Long Island, NY shipyard. Johnson had moved to New York City and became a member of the New York Yacht Club and he wanted William J. Rowland to build a fast yacht as he had done for others. Johnson wanted the biggest, fastest and luxuriously yacht he could afford and was willing to pay $25,000.

The specifications were to be 238 tons, twin 90 foot mast, 114 feet long on the deck, 95 feet keel, 10.5 feet depth, 26.5 feet abeam, and a shallow draft of 9.5 feet.  She would be outfitted very luxury with rosewood, velvet, gilt, and crystal.  She was to have the best sails and equipment.  But most of all she was to be fast, estimated 20 knots speed, and she would be called The Wanderer.

For several months she sailed the ocean and won several races, but this isn't the end of the story for this ship. Around May, 1958 at a dinner party at the New York Yacht Club, Johnson sold The Wanderer to William C. Corrie a prominent South Carolinian for $25,000.  The Wanderer would now take a different direction in history; she was to become a slave ship and be part of Georgia's Civil War period of history even today.

This painting may not be exact but it is my interpretations of what it would have looked like based on the specifications and a very small black and white photo. There is a painting of The Wanderer, located at the Mystic Seaport, CT, but it isn't avaible for showing.

Obtain the book, "The Wanderer, The Last American Slave Ship" by Eric Calonius: to read more on this process and conspiracy involving this ship. 

This painting inspiration came from Darrell Crow's series of Tall Ships. This painting is 16" x 20" oil on stretched canvas, completed March, 2009, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

This being my 19th Tall Ship in this series, and I have more on the way.  This painting places a large tall ship in the middle of a heavy and rough sea.

This painting inspiration came from Darrell Crow's series of Tall Ships. This painting is 16" x 20" oil on stretched canvas, completed Feb, 2009, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

This being my 18th Tall Ship in this series.  This painting places two tall ships in the middle of a cold heavy fog breaking out into the open.

This painting inspiration came from Darrell Crow's series of Tall Ships. This painting is 16" x 20" oil on stretched canvas, completed Nov, 2008, signed and dated on the front, and the painting name is located on the back frame.

This being my 17th Tall Ship in this series.  This painting places the ship in high wids and rough waters and headed towards a small storm.