Description
James Bard (American, 1815-1897)
SIDE-WHEELER "UNITED STATES", 1852
Inscribed and signed lower right "Picture Drawn & Painted by James Bard NY 1852 / 162 Perry St."
Inscribed lower left "Built by Thomas Collyer, 1852 / Engine Built by Morgan's Works N.Y."
Oil on canvas
44 x 65 in.
Provenance: Purchased from Samuel L. Lowe, Jr. Antiques, Newton, Mass., Jan. 1983
Literature: Peluso, A. J., Jr., The Bard Brothers: Painting America Under Sail and Steam (1997), p. 47, illus. full page color; Cutler Carl C., Queens of the Western Ocean (1961), p. 291; Lyttle, William, M. and Holdcamper, Forrest R., Merchant Vessels of the United States 1790-1868 (1975), pp. 218-219; Heyl, Erik, Early American Steamers (1953) Vol. I, p.p. 57-58
Other Notes: The notes of Elwin M. Eldredge (1893-1965), Bard collector when it was fashionable to ignore them, indefatigable steamship historian-archivist, intimate of Antonino Jacobsen, are contradictory, confusing, and misleading concerning United States. Eldredge sold his collection to the Mariners Museum in 1940. His notes, in the museum's archive collection of steamboat history, painstakingly and laboriously compiled over a lifetime spent well before the digital age, are still an invaluable resource. Much of it was gleaned from contemporary primary sources that were, quite frankly, confusing to begin with even in their own era.
The Eldredge notes intertwine United States (1,900 tons) built by William Webb at New York in 1847 with United States (1216 tons) built by Thomas Collyer in 1851, also at New York. The notes compiled from snippets of information contained variously in customhouse records, and newspapers such as The New York Herald, and Illustrated London News, and ˆThe New York Times give the impression that a single vessel existed in two places simultaneously. However, subsequent research has distilled this misinformation, and has provided us with an accurate picture of the vessel built by Thomas Collyer, and immortalised by James Bard.
Launched September 15, 1851 as Bienville, but documented as United States on January 19, 1852. Thomas Collyer, New York, New York was her builder. Morgan Iron Works, New York, New York supplied her machinery. Built of wood, she measured 237' x 34' x 21', 1216 tons. United States was powered by a vertical beam engine with a bore of 60 inches, and 12 foot stroke which drove her paddle wheels. Jones & Johnson of New York purchased her (she flies the firm's house flag in her portrait). The firm renamed her United States, and scheduled her to sail between New York and New Orleans. However, the rush to California, supplemented by the return of thousands of forty-niners to lead their families into the "promised land," scotched the scheme.
Jones & Johnson, in partnership with Davis Brooks & Co., organized the New York & San Francisco Steam Ship Company. The partners hoped to cut in on one of the most profitable enterprises of its era, with an annual return on investment that ran as high as 30% annually, The Pacific Mail Steamship Company. William Aspinwall founded the company in 1848 to execute a contract to carry mail from the Isthmus of Panama to the newly-annexed territory of California. The J & J, D. B. & Co. plan was to run in opposition on both the Atlantic and Pacific side of the isthmus. United States (portrayed by Bard in U. S. Mail livery in her portrait), Union, Cortes, Yankee Blade, and Uncle Sam ran between New York and Chagres (present day Colon). Panama and San Francisco sailed on the Pacific branch of the line.
Passenger lists on the 2,000 mile run from New York to Chagres averaged 600 to 900. A vessel owner of the period was heard to say that he would have his steamer "carry enough passengers to break her back." This assertion is not surprising given that through fares, New York - San Francisco, were I- Cabin $315; II - Cabin $200; Steerage $100 at the time.
The rivalry with the Pacific Mail S. S. Co. ended in February 1853 when the New York & San Francisco S. S. Co. sold its Pacific steamers to the former company, and at the same time agreed to disband its service in opposition on the Atlantic. Jones & Johnson retained United States.
As evidenced in the New York Herald of May 9, 1855 "The steamship United States arrived at Sandy Hook on the 8th of May, 1855, from Havana in three days and 23 hours. The United States was a small steamer in comparison with those now built for the same route.," and Illustrated London News, January 21, 1854 "There were three arrivals from California -viz. -, the United States and California at New Orleans, the latter with 1,167,000 dollars; The Illinois at New York, with the mails and passengers of the wrecked steam-ship Winfield Scott, and 1,250,000 dollars." The foregoing shipping notices is evidence that United States was still employed on the New York to Chagres run, and that she called at intermediate ports, Havana and New Orleans to provide frequent and increasingly popular service for former patrons of the wind packets.
On October 10, 1855, in need of an overhaul and new boilers, United States was sold for nearly $150,000 to Spanish interests who put her under Spanish registry and renamed her Mexico. The 1858 American Lloyds' Registry of American and Foreign Shipping lists United States as Mexico (No. 2). Her official number is given as 84. The register confirms that she was built by Thomas Collyer in 1851. Her hailing port is listed as Havana. However, the column for her managing owners and consignors is blank. This is her last official listing, and to date nothing further is known of her fate.
The largest number of Bard pre-civil War commissions can be attributed to the Collyer brothers: George, Thomas, and William. Between them they launched more than 100 barges, lighters, sloops, schooners, yachts, and steamboats. Reputedly, Thomas commissioned a Bard portrait of every major vessel that he built. Thomas Collyer died in 1863, and the driving force behind the business died with him. Bard lost an important source of income.
"REMININCES OF THE WORK OF THOMAS COLLYER AND THE BIG FLEET WHICH HE CONSTRCTED "which appeared in The New York Times September 20, 1886 describes this remarkable man. His brother George B. Collyer remembered him thus. "Yes; he was called the 'lightening ship builder,' and justly, too, for he used to turn out vessels of all descriptions in the shortest imaginable time. Sometimes he would receive an order for a vessel and in six weeks it would be launched and ready to proceed to sea."
Thomas Collyer was one of Bard's steadfast builder clients, and United States was most probably done for him. Collyer had to be pleased, yet again, for it was a handsome Bard by any measure, with an uncommon sea and sky, all in a bold statement size.