There are ships and there are ships

[sarlania]

I was reading a book about JMW Turner's paintings and found this lovely quote. John Ruskin on JMW Turner's The Fighting Téméraire being tugged to her last berth to be broken up

"We have stern keepers to trust her glory to - the fire and the worm. Never more shall sunset lay golden robes on her, not starlight tremble on the waves that part at her

Comments

[anteros_lmc]

Beautiful, and really quite sensual. Or maybe it's just me ;)

[mylodon]

Not just you. Beautiful and very sensual - just as the painting is. Just as old ships are.

I'm trying to find out more about a local mill which is partly contstructed from timbers from the Chesapeake. Once I've located it, I need to go on a piccy taking recce. This Ruskin thing makes me even more determined to find the place.

[sarlania]

Wow! Do go and share the pics when ya find them? XD

I was going to ask why an American frigate was taken apart in England but then I remembered that the Shannon famously captured her *heads desk*

[ashley_pitt]

Ah geez...ships, be they frigates, ships of the line, or Catalina 30's stir my heart.

[sarlania]

Indeed. The emotional side of me shed a little tear when I first read this passage. So beautiful.

[sharpiefan]

I love the Téméraire. She was built in Chatham, which isn't far from where I live, so there's a proprietary feeling in my love for her, too. And that is just... a wonderful quote about a wonderful ship. (Though she was known as the Saucy Téméraire to the sailors who sailed in her.)

[anteros_lmc]

Have you read Mary Lacy's memoir The Female Shipwright? She worked in and around Chatham about 1760 and talks about many other places in Kent. It's an astonishing book. Hopefully I'll have a review up shortly.

[sharpiefan]

Yep, I have. Bought it from the NMM shop when I realised she talks about Chatham, among other places. :D

[sarlania]

I've always wondered if JMW Turner wasn't aware that its nick was Saucy and not Fighting, or if he changed it for artist license. It think it's the former, myself, but then again given how well he knows his ships its a rather novice mistake to make.