Ship MINERVA Under Sail

Watercolor. Ship MINERVA; under sail with eight figures standing on deck along starboard side and a long streaming pennant flying atop mainmast. Towers and buildings shown far in background on either end of vessel. On the right side of painting a vessel flying what appears to be a Dutch flag sails away; caption at bottom with fancy scrollwork. Measuring only seventy-six feet in length, Minerva was the next-to-smallest registered vessel built in Bath in the year 1805. Her captain, John Matthews, apparently thought enough of the vessel to have her portrait painted and now, over two hundred years later, this is the earliest Bath vessel for which there is a known painting. The style is not unlike that of North Sea area artists of that period.