Lot 355: William Howard Yorke (British, fl. 1858-1903)

The Barque Sumatra off Holyhead signed and inscribed 'Sumatra of Llanelly D. Thomas Master, circa 1890 (lower center) oil on canvas 20 x 30 in. (50.9 x 76.2 cm.) NOTES Painted by the important Liverpool artist, W. H. Yorke, this particular Sumatra can be indentified from the commercial flags hoisted (R.D.F.T.) as that built in Sunderland by the well-known builders, J. Laing and Co., in 1866 Construction was "composite", that is a "skin" of wooden planks over an iron skeleton. This allowed the use of copper sheathing to avoid fouling without the risk of destroying the iron fastenings be electrolysis in the days before anti-fouling paintings were introduced for iron hulls. Dimensions were 174 x 32 x 19 feet. Gross tonnage 782. Official number 77063 Owned bu Ingham and Whittaker of Palermo. In 1877, she was sold to J. Willis and Son., London. Originally ship rigged, but changed to barque (as shown in theis picture) in 1880, In 1891 she was purchased by T. Roberts of Llanelly. In 1898 she was connverted into a storage hulk at Gravesend and broken up in 1923. The house flag bearing the letter "R" was flag of Roberts of Llanelly.