MONTAGUE DAWSON R.S.M.A., F.R.S.A. | PACIFIC COMBERS—THE COONATTO OF 633 TONS

Frost & Reed, Ltd., London (no. 2076, acquired directly from the artist, January 1945)

Sale: Christie's, New York, May 23, 1991, lot 217, illustrated (as The Pacific Combers on the Open Seas) 

Built in London in 1863 as a trading vessel for the Orient Line, the clipper ship Coonatto was named after the storied Australian sheep trading station at Grant and Stokes, famous for its hospitality and orderly operation. Composite-built with an iron skeleton and timber siding, giving her increased interior storage space, she was designed for long-distance trips, carrying people and cargo to the far reaches of the globe. Such ships played a crucial role in the development of Adelaide, Australia, whose merchants used the compact vessels to outrun the large, lumbering crafts favored by the more established traders of Sydney and Melbourne. Coonatto could cover the distance from London to Adelaide in a mere 66 days, rapidly escalating the pace of trade and bolstering the influence and affluence of the city.