Lot 19: Joseph Heard (British, 1799-1859) The Merchant brig Rimac in two positions off Cape Horn, with another of Brocklebank's brigs in view

The Merchant brig Rimac in two positions off Cape Horn, with another of Brocklebank's brigs in view
signed 'J. Heard' and dated 1854 (lower left)
oil on canvas
63 x 90.5cm (24 3/4 x 35 5/8in).

Rimac, identified from her masthead Watson’s Code flags for 268 (= Rimac), was one of a class of twenty-one ‘standard’ wooden brigs built for Brocklebanks of Liverpool between 1822 and 1845. Launched from Brocklebank’s own yard at Whitehaven in 1834, she was registered at 215 tons and measured 90 feet in length with a 23 foot beam.

Ordered specifically for the company’s Peru route, she spent much of her life sailing to the many ports on the western coast of South America and ‘rounded the Horn’ no less than fifty-six times, a remarkable achievement for any sailing vessel, particularly a tiny brig. After a long and trouble-free career, she was inbound for Dundee with a cargo of guano on 28th February 1862 when she was driven aground near Kilrush, in the south-west of Ireland. Although successfully refloated, she had suffered some hull damage and, perhaps for this reason, Brocklebanks sold her to Nuttall & Co. of Liverpool in 1864. Ten years later, on 12th December 1874, by which date she was owned by W. Hayes of Blythe, she was wrecked near North Somercotes, south of Grimsby.