Lot 415: Richard Henry Neville-Cumming (fl.1888-1891)

The steamer Ameer and the barque Sindia off Gibraltar
signed and dated 'H Neville-Cumming/1889' (lower right)
pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with white
25 1/2 x 50 1/2 in. (64.8 x 128.3 cm.)

with The Boydell Galleries, Liverpool.

THE PROPERTY OF A CORPORATION

Although her career provided no particular excitement, Ameer has assumed her small place in shipping history as the first steamer to be ordered for the venerable firm of Brocklebanks when the company realised that the changeover from sail had become inevitable.

Built by Harland & Wolff at Belfast in 1889, Ameer was designed as a four-masted steamer and given a barquentine-rig to augment her single screw. Registered at 4,127 tons gross (2,689 net) and measuring 400 1/2 feet in length with a 45 foot beam, she was engined by her builders and had a cruising speed of 10 knots. Launched on 24 t h August 1889 and completed that October, she entered service on the London - India via Suez route and, as the first steamer in the fleet, was commanded by Captain Ray, the company's Marine Superintendent. In 1906 she was transferred to Jenkins' Shire Line, in which Brocklebanks had a half-share, and renamed Cardiganshire, the name she retained when she was transferred again to the Royal Mail Line's fleet in 1907. Sold by Shire to Japanese owners in 1911, she was thereafter renamed on several more occasions before being scrapped in Hong Kong in 1923.

For full details of Sindia, another notable Brocklebank vessel, please see lot 416.

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