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Title: Thirteen Chapters of American History - represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen - Historical Marine Paintings
Author: Sutro, Theodore, 1845-1927
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Thirteen Chapters of American History - represented by the Edward Moran series of Thirteen - Historical Marine Paintings" ***
THIRTEEN
HISTORICAL
MARINE
PAINTINGS
BY
EDWARD MORAN
REPRESENTING
THIRTEEN CHAPTERS
OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
[Decoration]
By THEODORE SUTRO
1905
[Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro.
EDWARD MORAN
From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran]
THIRTEEN CHAPTERS
OF
AMERICAN HISTORY
REPRESENTED
BY THE
EDWARD MORAN
SERIES OF
THIRTEEN HISTORICAL
MARINE PAINTINGS
[Decoration]
_By_ THEODORE SUTRO
1905
NEW YORK:
THEODORE SUTRO, 280 BROADWAY
AND
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.
PUBLISHER'S AGENTS,
33-37 EAST 17TH STREET.
_$1.50 net._
Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro
To
_My Dear Wife_
FLORENCE
THROUGH WHOSE STEADFAST FRIENDSHIP FOR
MR. AND MRS. EDWARD MORAN AND LOYAL DEVOTION
TO ME, I WAS LED TO CHAMPION, AND
ENCOURAGED TO PERSEVERE IN ESTABLISHING,
THE RIGHTS OF THE WIDOW TO THESE MASTERWORKS,
WITHOUT WHICH THE OCCASION FOR
PENNING THESE PAGES WOULD NOT HAVE ARISEN--THIS
LITTLE WORK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED,
ON THE
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR MARRIAGE,
October 1st, 1904.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
FRONTISPIECE--Portrait of Edward Moran, from a painting by
THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN
INTRODUCTORY 7
BIOGRAPHICAL 15
PORTRAIT OF MRS. EDWARD MORAN, from a painting by
THOMAS SIDNEY MORAN Facing page 20
DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY:
I. THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS 27
II. LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD IN
THE YEAR 1001 33
III. THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA (Evening of October
11th, 1492) 39
IV. THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (Morning of October
12th, 1492) 39
V. MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI, OVER THE BODY OF
FERDINAND DE SOTO, 1542 47
VI. HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, September
11th, 1609 53
VII. EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS FROM SOUTHAMPTON,
August 5th, 1620 59
VIII. FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG BY A
FOREIGN GOVERNMENT. In the Harbor of Quiberon,
France, February 13th, 1778 67
IX. BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA. In the Harbor
of Tripoli, February 16th, 1804 73
X. THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET.
In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26th, 1814 79
XI. IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND BY
THE MERRIMAC. In Hampton Roads, March 8th, 1862 87
XII. THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE
BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON, New York Bay,
August 25th, 1890 95
XIII. RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS. Typifying Our Victory
in the late Spanish-American War, September 29th, 1899 105
INDEX 111
INTRODUCTORY
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
INTRODUCTORY.
The Thirteen Paintings, to a history and description of which (and
incidentally to a brief memoir of their creator, Edward Moran) these
pages are devoted, are monumental in their character and importance. Mr.
Moran designated them as representing the "Marine History of the United
States." I have somewhat changed this title; for even the untraversed
"Ocean" and the landing of Columbus in the new world represent periods
which necessarily affect the whole American Continent.
The conception of these pictures was in itself a mark of genius, for no
more fitting subjects could have been chosen by the greatest marine
painter in the United States than the heroic and romantic incidents
connected with the sea, which are so splendidly depicted in these
thirteen grand paintings. That their execution required over fifteen
years of ceaseless labor and the closest historical study is not
surprising. The localities, the ships, the armament, the personages, the
costumes, the weapons and all the incidents connected with each epoch
are minutely and correctly represented, in so far as existing records
rendered that possible. And yet, interwoven with each canvas, is a tone
so poetic and imaginative that stamps it at once as the offspring of
genius and lifts it far above the merely photographic and realistic. The
series is the result of a life of prolific production, careful study,
unceasing industry and great experience.
Mr. Moran himself regarded these pictures as his crowning work, and in
token of his many happy years of married life presented them, several
years before his death, to his wife, Annette Moran, herself an artist of
great merit, and whom he always mentioned as his best critic and the
inspirer of his greatest achievements. This loving act, strange to say,
gave rise to a protracted legal controversy, by reason of an adverse
claim to these paintings made by the executor of the estate of Edward
Moran, the final decision of which in favor of the widow, after three
years of litigation, lends additional interest to these remarkable works
of art. Proceedings to recover the pictures from the executor of the
estate, who had them in his possession and refused to deliver them to
her, were commenced on February 5, 1902, and after a trial in the
Supreme Court in the City of New York lasting several days, a jury
decided that the pictures were the property of the widow as claimed. On
a technical point of law raised by the executor this finding of the jury
was temporarily rendered ineffective, but, on an appeal to the Appellate
Division of the Supreme Court, this technicality was overruled and an
absolute judgment awarded in favor of the widow.[A] This was on January
23, 1903. Still not content, the executor appealed to the highest court
in the State, the Court of Appeals at Albany, which, on January 26,
1904, finally and absolutely affirmed the decision of the Appellate
Division.[B] But even then the widow was kept out of her property on
further applications made by the executor to the court. Also in this he
failed, and at last, on April 28, 1904, the judgment in her favor was
satisfied through the delivery of the pictures to her, as her absolute
property, beyond dispute, cavil or further question.
I have deemed it proper to make this explanation, as it is through my
connection as counsel for Mrs. Moran throughout this litigation that the
occasion has presented itself for this publication, and of giving to
the public the opportunity to examine and enjoy, to the fullest extent,
these great pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It may be added that although these paintings have occasionally been
viewed by artists, they have never before been publicly exhibited as a
series except for a very short period in the year 1900 in Philadelphia
and in Washington. During this time they received the highest encomiums
from critics and the press, and were pronounced the most notable series
of historic pictures ever painted in this country. While each one of the
series is a master work, it is as a group that the greatest interest
attaches to them, and it was Mr. Moran's desire, and it is also that of
the present owner, that they should, if possible, never be separated.
With reference to the exhibition of these paintings at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, I quote from a full page illustrated article which
appeared in the New York _Herald_ on Sunday, November 6, 1904, as
follows:
"The exhibition of these pictures of scenes connected with the
history of the United States is not only an artistic but an
educational event. Edward Moran was probably the strongest marine
painter of the United States. * * * No more artistically valuable
and educationally instructive exhibit has been made in New York
than that of these paintings of Edward Moran. It is to be hoped
that the school children of the city will be taken to see and study
them. The public has already testified to its appreciation of the
exhibition by its large attendance."
It may be asked why the artist limited or extended the series to the
number "13." This was done with a purpose. This number seems to have
been interwoven in many particulars with the history of our country. The
original colonies were thirteen, and also the first States; the first
order for the creation of a navy was for thirteen war ships; there were
and still are thirteen stripes, and there were originally thirteen
stars, on our flag; on our coat of arms a mailed hand grasps thirteen
arrows, as do also the left talons of the eagle, while in its right is
an olive branch with thirteen leaves; there were also thirteen rattles
on the snake on the first American flag, with the motto "Don't tread on
me." It was on February 13, 1778, in the harbor of Quiberon, that the
American flag received its first recognition by a foreign government, an
incident represented by one of these paintings; thirteen years elapsed
between the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the inauguration of
the first President, General Washington, in 1789; and the Louisiana
purchase from France includes the area prospectively covered by thirteen
States, as soon as Oklahoma and Indian Territories shall, as is now in
contemplation, be admitted as one State.
This idea of thirteen is already foreshadowed in the introductory
painting "The Ocean," in which thirteen gulls are seen hovering over the
water, typical of the important events, linked with that number, which
would occur in the misty and unknown future.
It is remarkable that although these paintings are by one man, and
virtually on the same subject, they should exhibit such unusual variety,
and be individually so exceptionally interesting. It has been said that
historic pictures may be considered as either representative, suggestive
or allegoric, but in this series of paintings all these elements are
combined.
The American navy has been celebrated for its heroic achievements from
the beginning, and some of these pictures recall vividly to the mind the
episodes linked with the immortal names of such men as John Paul Jones,
Stephen Decatur, Samuel Chester Reid, George U. Morris, John L. Worden,
and the whole galaxy of heroes connected with these memorable events
down to Dewey, Sampson, Schley, Wainwright and Hobson.
The production of these paintings was the result of a patriotic and
noble impulse on the part of the artist, through which he has
immortalized the maritime achievements of our country, and for which we,
as well as future generations, can hardly be sufficiently grateful!
"If thou wouldst touch the universal heart,
Of thine own country, sing!"
BIOGRAPHICAL
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Edward Moran was almost seventy-two years of age when he died in the
City of New York on June 9, 1901, having been born at Bolton,
Lancashire, England, on August 19, 1829. He was the oldest son of a
large family of children, and when a mere child was put to work at the
loom, the humble vocation of his father who, the same as his ancestors
had been for several generations, was a hand-loom weaver. Already while
so employed the child was frequently caught sketching with charcoal on
the white fabric in his loom instead of continually plying the shuttle.
Whence and how he derived this inborn talent is one of those unsolvable
problems which seem to set at defiance all the accepted canons of
heredity. At all events, his talent was recognized by a local village
celebrity, a decorator, who guided the child, then only nine years of
age, in a crude way to a development of these artistic instincts, in
consequence of which it is related that he was soon able to "cut
marvellous figures from paper and afterwards draw their outlines on
walls and fences."
The hardship of their pursuit, offering little hope of a brighter future
for their large family of growing children, induced the parents about
the year 1844 to join the tide of emigration to that land of golden
promise, the United States, in immortalizing whose history and in
furthering whose artistic development through his glorious marine
pictures, the little Edward was destined to play so important a part.
The family settled in Maryland, and in the struggle for existence soon
awakened from their golden dream of a new Eldorado and returned to
their old vocation. Edward again found employment at the loom, until the
spirit of adventure and the desire of following the artistic bent of his
mind impelled him one day, without a dollar in his pocket, to walk all
the way to Philadelphia, where the boy hoped to find better
opportunities. There also, however, he was disappointed, and after
employment in various capacities, first with a cabinetmaker, then in a
bronzing shop, and then at house painting, he finally returned to the
loom at the munificent salary of six dollars per week. While so employed
he attracted the attention of the proprietor, who one day surprised him
while engaged in a superb drawing, stealing time for this purpose from
his work. The intelligence of this man in recognizing young Moran's
exceptional talent, and, as a result, advising him to quit mechanical
labor, and introducing him to one of the then famous landscape painters
of Philadelphia, Mr. Paul Webber, was the turning point in his career.
Subsequently another artist, James Hamilton, guided him in his
particular bent of marine painting, and after the usual hardships and
struggle for recognition, the fate of all young artists, he finally was
enabled to open a little studio in a garret over a cigar store with an
entrance up a back alley. The works which emanated from there attracted
such wide attention that he gradually rose to fame and fortune. His
pictures were accepted by all the American academies, as well as the
London Royal Academy and the Paris Salon, and he received many medals
and awards. He was a member of the Water-Color Societies of this country
and of London, of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, an Associate of
the National Academy of Design, also Vice-President of the Lotos Club
and connected with many other artistic and social organizations and
societies.
Why his artistic tastes should have been particularly directed to
marine painting can be demonstrated just as little as the possession of
his extraordinary talents at all; and yet for the former a possible
solution may be found in the fact that his childish imagination and
predilections may have been moulded through his sea-coast experiences in
old Lancashire, that picturesque maritime county of northwestern
England, which is bounded on the west by the Irish Sea. At all events
Edward Moran loved the sea, and this love guided every stroke of his
brush in depicting his favorite element. No artist in this country, or
perhaps in the world, has ever painted such water, and it was not many
years after his first successes in Philadelphia that his fame spread
throughout the United States, and he was easily recognized as its first
marine painter. Fame and prosperity, however, did not turn his head, as
they so frequently do with little men, but never with men of true
genius. On the contrary, he worked with redoubled zeal and industry as
he grew older, so that the number of works which he produced is
marvellous.
Among his famous paintings, besides the thirteen herein described, may
be mentioned the following:
"Virginia Sands."
"A Squally Day off Newport."
"Massachusetts Bay."
"New York Harbor."
"The Yacht Race."
"The Battle of Svold."
"Philadelphia from the New Park."
"Minot's Ledge Light-House."
"White Cliffs of Albion."
"Off Block Island."
"Return of the Fishers."
"Outward Bound."
"Low Tide."
"The Gathering Storm."
"Sentinel Rock, Maine."
"Toilers of the Sea."
"Launching of the Life-Boat." (1865.)
"View on Delaware Bay." (1867.)
"Evening on Vineyard Sound." (1867.)
"Pinchyn Castle, North Wales." (1867.)
"Moonrise at Nahant." (1867.)
"The Lord Staying the Waters." (1867.)
"Coast Scene Near Digby." (1868.)
"Departure of the United States Fleet for Port Royal." (1868.)
"After a Gale." (1869.)
"On the Narrows." (1873.)
"The Commerce of Nations Paying Homage to Liberty" (1877)--the great
picture which came into the possession of Mr. Joseph Drexel, the
banker--an allegory suggested by the then proposed Statue of Liberty in
New York Harbor.
"Young Americans out on a Holiday." (1882.)
"Life-Saving Patrol: New Jersey Coast." (1889.)
"Melodies of the Sea." (1890.)
"South Coast of England." (1900.)
But space forbids the complete enumeration of even his more notable
works, which may be counted by the hundreds.
Mr. Moran, like all men of genius, felt his own strength, though he
never overrated it; but as a result of this self-consciousness he would
not brook depreciation, and when, in May, 1868, the Philadelphia Academy
of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, had hung some of his pictures in
an inconspicuous and detrimental position in its gallery, he resorted to
a novel expedient for showing his displeasure. On "varnishing day,"
prior to the opening of the exhibition to the public, he used a mixture
of beer and porter, combined with a dry light red, for the purpose of
"varnishing" his paintings, but the effect of which was that they were
all coated with a beautiful opaque red substance, so that none of them
could be recognized, and yet a substance which he could remove, when so
inclined, without injuring the pictures at all. This called forth a
storm of criticism from the "Hanging Committee" and the wiseacres of the
Academy, but he was fully sustained in his course by public opinion and
the press, and, instead of diminishing, it added to his fame as an
artist and certainly to his reputation for the courage of his
convictions.
Mr. Moran was not only a great artist, but a man of genial and
companionable qualities, which endeared him to all with whom he came in
contact. He, furthermore, was not only an artist who used oil,
water-color and pastel with equal facility, and painted landscapes and
figure pieces as well as marines, but was versatile in his talents. His
musical instincts were marked, and, although self-taught, he played on a
number of instruments, and he had also, through years of industrious
reading and study, become thoroughly well-informed and an interesting
conversationalist. He was of a most generous nature, and was not only
ever ready to assist young artists with advice and material aid as well,
but also, when the occasion arose, to devote the fruit of his labors to
any meritorious charitable object. Thus, for example, in March, 1871, he
exhibited in Philadelphia seventy-five of his landscapes and marines,
all of which he used in illustrating a beautiful catalogue entitled
"Land and Sea," and not only gave the entire profits of this exhibition
and of the sale of the catalogue, but also the price obtained for one of
his important paintings, entitled "The Relief Ship Entering Havre," to
aid the sufferers of the Franco-Prussian war.
He did not reach the culminating point of excellence in his work in
middle life or shortly thereafter, like so many other painters, but on
the contrary grew in breadth and power with advancing years, so that the
Thirteen Historical Paintings, described in this little book, although
he gave them the finishing touches only shortly before his death,
constitute his greatest achievement.
About the year 1872 Mr. Moran sought a still wider field for his
activities in removing from Philadelphia to the City of New York, where
for thirty years he was a conspicuous and admired figure in metropolitan
life, and in his studios, surrounded by all the luxury and comfort that
prosperity could suggest, he and his talented and hospitable wife drew
around them a circle of artists, authors, musicians and notable men of
all classes, among whom may be mentioned actors like Joseph Jefferson,
F. F. Mackay (both pupils of Mr. Moran) and Charles W. Couldock, writers
like Richard Watson Gilder and John Clark Ridpath, lawyers like Col.
Edward C. James and Robert Ingersoll, art connoisseurs like Samuel P.
Avery and William Schaus, sculptors like Frederic A. Bartholdi and James
W. A. Macdonald, and of course a host of artists such as Edwin Abbey,
Albert Bierstadt, Edwin H. Blashfield, John C. Brown, Thomas B. Craig,
Hamilton Hamilton, Constant Meyer, Paul de Longpré, Henry W. Ranger,
Vasili Vereschagin and Napoleon Sarony.
It may be added that Mrs. Moran's maiden name was Annette Parmentier,
and that she was a Southern girl of French descent from the noted
scientist Antoine Augustin Parmentier, who was the first to introduce
the potato into France, for which he was decorated by Louis XVI as a
public benefactor, and honored by a statue erected in his native town of
Bordeaux. Mr. Moran married Annette (his second wife) in the year 1869,
and under his instruction and guidance her own talent as an artist was
developed, and some of her paintings, among them landscapes entitled "A
Staten Island Study," "The Fisherman's Return," and other pictures, were
not only exhibited and greatly admired, but were deemed of sufficient
importance to be reproduced by prominent art publishers. She survived
her husband by about three and one-half years, having died, at an
advanced age, in the City of New York on November 7, 1904.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1905, by Theodore Sutro.
MRS. EDWARD MORAN
(NÉE ANNETTE PARMENTIER)
From a painting by Thomas Sidney Moran]
In his art Mr. Moran followed mainly the bent of his own genius, though
if he was influenced by any other artists to any extent it was by
Clarkson Stanfield and Turner, whom he greatly admired and many of whose
pictures, for the sake of practice, he copied. He was undoubtedly also
influenced in a general way, as are all eminent artists, by studying the
master works of the world in Europe, where for that purpose he spent
some time in the year 1861 and again in 1878 and also in subsequent
years.
Of Edward Moran it may be truly said that he is another notable example
of the fact that true genius is not baffled or impaired through adverse
circumstances or the most humble beginnings, but soars ever upward and
onward until it achieves its mission, and compels the recognition and
admiration of the world, to which it is entitled.
DESCRIPTIVE
AND
EXPLANATORY
[Illustration: T. S. M.]
THE OCEAN
The Highway of All Nations
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
DESCRIPTIVE AND EXPLANATORY.
I.
THE OCEAN--THE HIGHWAY OF ALL NATIONS.[C]
This picture has already been briefly referred to, and is considered by
some critics the greatest of the thirteen. Probably no such sublime
ocean has ever been painted. How thoroughly it appeals to those who best
know the sea is illustrated by the blunt but expressive compliment
bestowed upon it by Admiral Hopkins of the English navy when, in 1892,
he saw it in the Union League Club of New York, where it was being
privately shown. After silently studying it for some minutes he turned
to Mr. Joseph H. Choate, whose guest he was, and said: "I have always
believed that only an Englishman could paint the sea, but it seems that
I had to come to America to look upon the most almighty sea that I have
ever beheld on canvas."
Admiral Hopkins was not aware that, in this, he was in fact
complimenting one of his own fellow-countrymen, though, in truth, Mr.
Moran had become an American of Americans through his patriotic ardor
and long residence here.
In this painting the powers of Mr. Moran as an artist were tested to the
utmost. For while others have attempted to paint the sea, among whom
Turner stands pre-eminent, few have ever succeeded in depicting it on so
large a scale, without a single other object to disturb the aspect
excepting only the thirteen sea-gulls hovering over its surface, which
through their number suggest the whole series of these paintings and the
interesting events connected with the marine history of the United
States.
This picture is the largest of the series. Not only the water but the
sky in this painting is superb, with the faint shimmer of the sunlight
breaking through the clouds. The color is that peculiar green gray,
which is the most fascinating hue known to the sea, and only present
when the sky is overcast. The water and the motion of the waves are
grand beyond comparison--an actual living, moving, foaming mass and as
seen in mid-ocean. The conception of this painting as introductory to
the whole series is most poetic. It suggests the deep, dark, dreaded,
unknown waste of waters which was shrouded in mystery for thousands of
years until a few daring seamen, first the Norsemen, and then Columbus
with his little band, undertook the perilous task of lifting the veil.
Its unexplored expanse naturally and logically preceded every voyage of
discovery and is the keynote of all the marvellous achievements which
subsequently constituted it the link between America and the Eastern
world. It also typifies the greatest of all republics, which was to
spring up beyond its westernmost limits, for nothing is so free,
unfettered and seemingly conscious of its own strength and possibilities
as the mighty ocean.
This painting may be likened to the opening stanzas of an epic poem, in
which the theme of the story is foreshadowed, and no grander epic was
ever written than is depicted in these thirteen mighty paintings, of all
those qualities of heroism and adventure which have ever been thought
worthy of commemoration in song or story.
How well the famous stanzas of Lord Byron, in Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage, illustrate the thoughts suggested by this "Ocean" of Edward
Moran:
"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When, for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown.
* * * * * * * * *
"Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,
Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm,
Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime
Dark-heaving;--boundless, endless and sublime--
The image of Eternity--the throne
Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime
The monsters of the deep are made; each zone
Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone."
LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON
in the New World in 1001
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
II.
LANDING OF LIEF ERICKSON IN THE NEW WORLD, IN 1001.[D]
While the most notable occurrence in its influence on America was
undoubtedly the landing of Columbus, as it resulted in the gradual
colonization and development of the whole continent, the actual
discovery of the new world was made ages prior to 1492. The landing of
Lief Erickson was made in 1001, but there is good reason to believe that
even long prior to that time either the shores or the islands of America
were reached by Ph[oe]nicians, Irish and Basques, and its western shores
by the Chinese. The earliest discovery, however, of which there is any
authenticated record is that by the Eirek (Erick) family of Iceland, and
these records are not only embraced in the Sagas or histories of the
Scandinavian chieftains, but more especially in the "Codex Flataeensis,"
completed in 1387. According to these, Eirek the Red founded colonies in
Greenland about the year 985, which prospered for over four centuries.
Remains of buildings and contemporaneous writings establish this beyond
a doubt. These colonies became Christianized and established churches,
monasteries, and had bishops in regular succession for about two hundred
and fifty years. There is nothing marvellous about this account, as
Greenland was only about two hundred miles distant from Iceland, and
therefore nearer to that island than the latter was to Norway, whence
the Icelanders originally came. These colonies became practically
extinct in the fourteenth century, owing, it is believed, to enormous
accumulations of ice on the coast, which prevented intercommunication
between them and Iceland, and cut off their chief food supplies. They
may also have been decimated through the great pestilence called the
Black Death, which prevailed in 1349, especially in the northern
countries; while, if any remained, they are supposed to have been killed
by the Esquimos, or Skraelings, as they were then called, and who were a
far more powerful race than the Esquimos of to-day.
The foothold thus gained by the Norsemen in Greenland led to voyages
southward. Some years after the establishment of these colonies one
Bjarne Herjulfson was on one of these voyages driven by a storm far
south of Greenland and saw the coast of the main continent of North
America, somewhere, it is supposed from his description, between
Newfoundland and Nantucket. Without landing, he returned to Greenland,
whence soon thereafter, induced by his accounts, Leif, the son of Eirek
the Red, undertook the same journey with a single ship and about
thirty-five men, for the purpose of obtaining possession of the newly
discovered country. He landed probably at Nantucket Island, and settled
in the vicinity of the present Fall River, and called the country
Vinland on account of the grape-vines which grew there in profusion.
In confirmation of the claim that it was in this locality that Leif
Erickson first set foot, the Norse records are relied upon, which state
that, at the season when this discovery was made, the sun rose at 7:30
A.M. and set at 4:30 P.M. This astronomical observation would locate the
place of landing on the southern coast of New England in the vicinity
mentioned. That the Norsemen made a settlement in this country, though
only of brief duration, is a fact in support of which many learned
treatises have been written, dealing, among other things, with what are
supposed to be Icelandic inscriptions discovered in that section of the
country, and the like, a consideration of which, however, would be
beyond the scope of this writing.
Leif, the son of Eirek, or to preserve the nomenclature of the artist,
Lief Erickson, is described in the Sagas and other records as a large,
strong man, of imposing appearance. The ships in which voyages were made
by the Norsemen in those days were called drakkars, which were propelled
both by oar and sail; at the ends rose wooden apartments called kastals.
All the parts out of water were fashioned after the manner of monsters
or drakkars (dragons, _Drachen_). The prow of the ship represented the
terrible head, the sides, a continuation of the body, and the rear, the
tail of the monster bent upward; they bore a single sail covered with
warlike paintings, and to the mast were also frequently hoisted the
coats of arms of various chiefs. It was in ships of this character that
these bold seamen braved the perils of the ocean, and it was in similar
ships that William, the Conqueror, came to England; and yet even these
vessels, frail as they were, were superior, both in seaworthiness and
size, to the ships of Columbus.
The costumes of the Norsemen consisted of trousers, belt, shirt, and
often a coat of mail, and over the shoulders they sometimes wore a cloak
with a fringe or border at the sides. They carried swords with most
elaborately carved and embossed hilts and scabbards of gilt bronze and
silver.
To depict the first landing of Lief Erickson amid these surroundings was
the object of the painter. How well he has succeeded, a mere inspection
of this canvas will at once reveal. The heroic figure of Lief, himself,
dreamily and yet with wonderment, looking out upon the newly discovered
shore, while with uplifted sword his men are apparently consecrating
the new world with a solemn vow of loyalty, some standing on a small
boat which is being pushed towards the shore, while others stand
knee-deep in the shoal water--the form of the ship or drakkar in the
background, the costumes, swords and all the other accessories--constitute
a striking and fascinating group. It portrays vividly the solemnity of
the occasion when the first white men were about to set foot on the
American continent.
The discovery of Vinland and its subsequent colonization by Thorfinn are
referred to in the beautiful verses of Bayard Taylor, written on the
occasion of his visit to Iceland to attend its millennial celebration,
in August, 1874.
"We come, the children of thy Vinland,
The youngest of the world's high peers,
O land of steel, and song, and saga,
To greet thy glorious thousand years.
"Across that sea the son of Erik
Dared with his venturous dragon's prow;
From shores where Thorfinn set thy banner
Their latest children seek thee now.
* * * * * * * * *
"What though thy native harps be silent?
The chord they struck shall ours prolong;
We claim thee kindred, call thee mother,
O land of saga, steel and song!"
THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA
(_Evening of October 11, 1492_)
[Decoration]
THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS
(_Morning of October 12, 1492_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
III.
THE SANTA MARIA, NIÑA AND PINTA (EVENING OF OCTOBER 11, 1492)[E]
AND
IV.
THE DEBARKATION OF COLUMBUS (MORNING OF OCTOBER 12, 1492).[F]
The landing of Columbus was an historical event of such importance in
its consequences that the artist wisely celebrates it in both of these
pictures.
We little realize what it meant to brave the perils of the unexplored
ocean in the year 1492. We marvel when some adventurous navigator, even
now, when every current and wind of the ocean have been observed for
five hundred years, and are accurately known and precisely charted,
undertakes to cross it in a somewhat diminutive vessel. What, then, must
have been the courage of Columbus, when, at the advanced age of
fifty-seven, he ventured with his crew upon this perilous undertaking in
three frail barks or caravels, the largest of them equipped with a
single deck and a single bridge, with an awkward one-story compartment
at the prow and a two-story compartment at the stern, and the two others
without any deck at all, with their little masts carrying awkward,
unwieldy, partly square and partly lateen sails!
The three crews consisted of only one hundred and four men combined, of
which fifty were on the little "Santa Maria," which was only about
sixty-three feet over all in length, with a fifty-one foot keel, twenty
foot beam, and a depth of ten and one-half feet, under the command of
the "Admiral" himself, as he was pompously called, and thirty on the
still smaller "Pinta," under the command of "Captain" Martin Alonso
Pinzon, while the still more diminutive cockle-shell "Niña" contained
the formidable crew of twenty-four under the command of the brother of
Martin Alonso, the redoubtable "Captain" Vincente Yanez Pinzon. And then
to think that, instead of being encouraged and lauded for his
enterprise, the prelude consisted of discouragement, derision and
persecution of the foolhardy seaman who dared to brave the superstitions
of the age and the unknown ocean which was supposed to be peopled with
demons and monsters, in quest of what was believed to be an absolutely
impossible pathway to China and the East Indies, and from which there
could not be any hope of return. A model of these caravels was exhibited
in the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893, at the sight of which
wonder grew to incredulity that, under such circumstances as surrounded
this first voyage of Columbus, any one should have risked his life in
such a craft.
Even assuming with John Fiske that the spherical form of the earth was
known long before Columbus, and that he derived his knowledge of the
existence of the westernmost shore of the Atlantic Ocean through
information which he received of the voyages of the Norsemen, on his
visit to Iceland in 1477, his opinion that the same shore might be
reached by crossing the Atlantic, where it had never been traversed
before, was based upon mere surmise. No wonder that his crew were
disheartened and on the verge of open mutiny when, under such
circumstances, after about sixty-nine days had elapsed since they had
sailed from Palos on August 3, 1492, they had still not reached the
longed-for land. What faith, almost inspired, must have been his, that
he should succeed in persuading his men to hold out only a few days
more, and how strange that on the very next day, the seventieth of his
voyage, on the evening of October 11, 1492, the long-wished-for goal
should be descried in the dim distance, and that on the following day
they should actually disembark from their floating prisons to stand once
more upon solid ground!
The artist has chosen the inspiring moments of these two events to
immortalize them in these two pictures: in the one, the three tiny barks
in the shadow of the evening, still in the gloom and uncertainty of what
the morrow would bring forth--and then, in the other, the brilliant
spectacle of Columbus with cross uplifted, in magnificent regalia of
scarlet and gold and purple, and his officers with the standards of
Castile and Leon, and the white and green colors of the expedition,
disembarking with his men when his hopes had become a reality, for the
purpose of claiming the newly discovered land.
I quote from Emilio Castelar the following description of the events
illustrated by these pictures:
"Land! land! the cry fell as a joyous peal upon the ears of these
mariners who had given themselves up as lost and doomed to die in
the fathomless vast.
"When Columbus heard the glad cry he knelt in rapture on the deck
and with clasped hands lifted his joy-filled eyes to Heaven and
intoned the 'Gloria in Excelsis' to the Author of all things.
"The signs of land now made it high time to prepare for the
debarkation for which all measures had been wisely planned by the
admiral, who had never doubted the realization of his predictions.
"Each moment brought a revelation. A solitary, half-tamed
turtle-dove flew near them and was followed by a floating, leafy
reed.
"About two in the morning of October 12th, amid the sheen of the
stars and phosphorescence of the sea, one of the crew, with eyes
accustomed, like some nocturnal creature, to the darkness, cried
'Land! land!'
* * * * * * * * *
"Columbus donned his richest apparel, upon his shoulders a cloak of
rosy purple, and grasped in one hand the sword of combat and in the
other the Redeemer's cross; then, disembarking, he knelt upon the
land, and, with uplifted arms, joined with his followers in the Te
Deum."
In these paintings much is left to the imagination, which renders them
all the more beautiful and poetical, although also in them the artist
has accurately portrayed the caravels, costumes, figures and indications
of the nearby shore, so that the scenes are vividly brought to mind as
actually described in the journals of the great navigator himself and
his first biographer, his own son Ferdinand.
It is not the purpose of the author to write history, and yet how
tempting, in the study of these pictures, is it to reflect upon and
recall the romance which surrounds the whole life of Columbus and his
period: the honors which he received on his return to Spain, his
subsequent two additional voyages of discovery, when, to those of the
first, consisting of San Salvador, Cuba, and the other islands, he added
that of the continent of South America; how he returned from his third
voyage in chains and afterwards died in poverty and forgotten at
Valladolid, on May 20, 1506, his name scarcely mentioned at the time in
the records of that town; how still stranger that Columbus never knew
that he had discovered a new continent, but believed that, as he had
originally intended, he had reached the shores of the Indies and China
or Cathay by a new route, and therefore gave them the name which has
ever since attached to the islands where he first landed, of the West
Indies, and called the natives, Indians; and, strangest of all, that
four hundred and six years after he first landed at San Salvador, the
remains of the great discoverer should have been transferred from the
cathedral at Havana to Spain, the scene of all his triumphs and all his
sorrows, on September 24, 1898, just about the close of the
Spanish-American war, which is celebrated in the last or thirteenth of
this remarkable series of paintings.
The courage, faith and fortitude of Columbus in persisting in his
westward journey, in full confidence that he would eventually reach the
shore which must ever have been pictured in his mind, in spite of the
doubts and fears and protestations of his weary crew, are beautifully
and concisely expressed in the stanzas of Friedrich Schiller:[G]
"Brave sailor, steer onward! Though the jester deride
And the hand of the pilot the helm drops in fear;
Sail on to the West, till that shore is descried
Which so clearly defined to thy mind doth appear.
"Follow God's guiding hand and the great silent ocean!
For the shore, were it not, from the waves it would rise.
With genius is nature linked in such bonds of devotion
That what genius presages, nature never denies."
MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI
Over the Body of Ferdinand de Soto
1542
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
V.
MIDNIGHT MASS ON THE MISSISSIPPI OVER THE BODY OF FERDINAND DE SOTO,
1542.[H]
As simple, gloomy and severe as were the circumstances surrounding the
departure of the expeditions of Lief Erickson and Columbus, and
subsequently of Henry Hudson and the Pilgrim Fathers, so brilliant,
hopeful and coveted was the journey of Fernando De Soto, when he set
sail from Spain in April, 1538, to conquer Florida and in search of a
new Eldorado. Having previously returned from the conquest of Peru, as
the chief lieutenant of Francisco Pizarro, possessed of great wealth,
and through his marriage with the beautiful Isabella Bobadilla
affiliated with the highest nobility, and having been appointed Governor
of Cuba by Charles V.--the flower of the Spanish and Portuguese
aristocracy flocked to his standard. The seven large and three small
ships, including his flag-ship, the "San Christoval," in which the
expedition set sail, were fitted out with great splendor. De Soto was
then forty-two years of age, having been born at Xeres, Spain, in 1496,
while his followers were mostly young men, and a more gorgeous or joyous
company cannot be imagined. With them went the wife of De Soto and many
other beautiful women, and the voyage was one round of pleasure and
festivities. After landing and wintering in Cuba he started from there
in May, 1539, with a following of one thousand men in nine ships,
leaving the administration of Cuba in the hands of his wife and the
Lieutenant-Governor. The original splendor was preserved, the leaders
being clad in gorgeous armor and, followed by a host of servants and
priests, they took with them all manner of live stock, cattle, horses,
mules, etc., and were provided with all sorts of weapons and trappings,
but also, significantly, with blood-hounds, handcuffs and iron
neck-collars. Thus they landed in Florida, in the neighborhood of Tampa
Bay, and began their march northward in the month of June, 1539, the
cavaliers to the number of one hundred and thirteen on horseback, and
the rest on foot. They passed the winter near the present Georgia
border, and in the spring of 1540 reached the location of the present
city of Savannah. Instead of pacifying, they alienated the natives
through many acts of hostility, in the exuberance of their youth and
prowess, in consequence of which many members of the expedition were
killed in battle and others died through sickness and deprivation.
Nevertheless, they pushed on still further westward towards the Rocky
Mountains, and in May, 1541, discovered and crossed the Mississippi
River near Lower Chickasaw Bluff, a little north of the thirty-fourth
parallel of latitude, in Tunica County, in what is now the State of
Mississippi. On again reaching the Mississippi on the return march, De
Soto, in consequence of the exposure and hardships to which he had been
subjected, sank down with a fever from which he died on May 21, 1542.
Owing to the awe which he had inspired in the minds of the natives it
was deemed wise by the remnant of his followers to conceal the fact of
his death. Accordingly at the dead of night he was wrapped in a flag, in
which sand had been sown, and taken in a boat to the middle of the
river, and amid the glare of torches, the chanting by the priests of the
midnight mass, and his sorrowing and silent companions, solemnly
consigned to the depths of the great river.
It is this solemn moment which the artist has caught in the painting
bearing the above title. As in all the other pictures he has, also in
this, depicted all the important details of the occasion without
descending to such minute particularity that the painting would lose its
poetic character. The sad scene recalls vividly to the mind--in contrast
with the high hope and magnificent display of the expedition at its
start--the futility of human ambition.
The tone of the picture is heightened through the mingling of the pale
moonlight with the lurid reflection from the torches, and the coloring
altogether is such that it is in perfect harmony with the occasion.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the subsequent fate of the remnant of
the expedition, except, perhaps, to say that the picture itself gains in
interest by contemplating that, after wandering through the pathless
forests, wading swamps, swimming rivers and fighting Indians all the
time, and deprived of their leader, and after four years of hardships
from the time that the expedition set out, those who were left made
their way to Mexico. In the meantime the beautiful wife of De Soto had
died brokenhearted, and never was there, all in all, a more tragic
ending to an expedition commenced amid so much pomp and glory and with
such sanguine expectations. His longed-for Eldorado was not found, and
yet De Soto, not unlike Columbus, gained immortality more surely than if
his expectations had been realized; for the Father of Waters, the
greatest river in the world, will always be associated with his name,
and the acquisition of the vast province of Louisiana by Spain led the
way for its subsequent transfer to the United States. It was on April
30, 1803, that through the negotiations conducted by James Monroe and
Robert Livingston the Province of Louisiana was purchased for the sum of
about $15,000,000 from France, which nation had prior thereto acquired
it from Spain.
In view of the chapters of history which a contemplation of this picture
recalls, it is of particular interest during this year (1904), when
through the magnificent Louisiana Purchase Exposition we are celebrating
the centennial anniversary of the acquisition by the United States of
the vast territory, which before De Soto and his followers the foot of
white man had never trod.
HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY
(_September 11, 1609_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
VI.
HENRY HUDSON ENTERING NEW YORK BAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1609.[I]
Previous to his discovery of the Hudson River, Henry Hudson, an
Englishman, sometimes erroneously called Hendrick Hudson because the
ship in which he sailed was fitted out under the auspices of the Dutch
East India Company and the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, had made three
voyages to find a northwest passage to China and India. To reach those
shores _via_ the Atlantic seems to have been the goal of all the early
discoverers, including Columbus and also De Soto, who, before his
Florida expedition, had explored the coast of Central America, on the
Pacific Ocean, in search of a passage through the American continent;
and even Hudson sailed up the Hudson River in the expectation that it
would lead on to the Pacific Ocean and thus to Asia. Hudson was not the
only Englishman who had received encouragement and assistance from
Holland when his own land had failed him, the same as did the Pilgrims
soon thereafter, when they sought refuge in that enlightened and
enterprising country.
He sailed from Amsterdam on April 6, 1609, in a clumsy, two-masted craft
with square sails called the "Half Moon," a Dutch galiot of only ninety
tons, with a crew of twenty men, in an extreme northwesterly direction,
but being driven back by the ice, skirted along the Atlantic coast,
passing through Casco Bay, Maine, as far south as Chesapeake Bay, and
thence again northward, and entered Raritan Bay, south of Staten Island,
on September 11, 1609, into the present harbor of New York, and, on
September 14th, sailed up the Hudson River almost as far as Albany.
The return voyage down the Hudson to its mouth, owing to adverse winds,
occupied eleven days, and on November 7, 1609, he landed at Dartmouth,
England, where, owing to the jealousy of the English Government, the
crew was detained and his ship seized, although she had borne the Dutch
flag and Hudson had claimed the sovereignty of the soil for that country
over that portion of the American continent which he had discovered. It
was to all intents and purposes a discovery, as the first definite
historic account of the existence of this part of the new world dated
from this voyage, of which he kept a careful journal, however probable
it may be that, before him, other Europeans had looked upon Manhattan
Island and the Hudson River, in view of the many expeditions to America
during the long period from the tenth to the seventeenth centuries.
The discovery of Hudson led almost immediately to numerous trading
voyages, and thereafter to temporary, and then to regular and permanent
colonization, and finally to the foundation of the great City of New
York. Also with Hudson, the same as with Columbus and De Soto, is thus
linked a discovery far greater in its consequences than if he had
succeeded in reaching the goal which he originally set out to find. Like
theirs, also his ending was sad and tragic, for on a subsequent
northwestern voyage, his mutinous crew cast him, together with his son
and seven of his faithful men, adrift amid the ice of Hudson Bay, which
bears his name, thus like De Soto perishing in the very waters which he
had discovered.
His life is wrapt in mystery; nothing is known of it except during the
four years occupied with his voyages (1607 to 1611), and that he was
probably the son of Christopher Hudson, one of the factors of the
Muscovy Company. There is not even an authentic portrait of him in
existence.
The interest of this painting centers in the scene, which it vividly
depicts, of the effect upon the natives of this first sight of a ship.
Nothing could be more intense than the expression of mingled fear and
defiant surprise portrayed in the face and attitude of the young Indian
warrior, that so strange an object should dare to approach his hitherto
undisputed domain of the shore. This interest is heightened through the
grouping of the squaw and Indian dog, with the Indian hut or tepee in
the background on the edge of the forest, and the rocky shore in the
foreground. The ship itself is subordinated to the representation of
this idea, being only dimly seen in the distance.
Through this conception, the artist was enabled to present a picture
which adds to the variety of the series, and at the same time
demonstrates his surpassing mastery of figure and landscape painting as
well.
EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS
From Southampton
(_August 5, 1620_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
VII.
EMBARKATION OF THE PILGRIMS FROM SOUTHAMPTON, AUGUST 5, 1620.[J]
A sadder journey than that of the Pilgrims, both in its inception in
leaving home and kindred and fleeing from persecution, and in its ending
in the inconceivable hardships which they had to endure in the new
world, was probably never undertaken than when, on August 5, 1620, the
"Mayflower" sailed out of the harbor of Southampton.
It must have been with heavy hearts and the gloomiest forebodings, and
yet buoyed up with the hope of finding a permanent refuge beyond the
ocean, for the exercise of that freedom of conscience for which they had
previously found only a temporary abode at Leyden, Holland, that the
hundred brave men and women, representing twenty-three different
families, consigned their lives and fortunes into the hands of the crew
of the little one hundred and sixty ton vessel that for almost five long
months was to battle with storm and winds across the dreaded Atlantic,
until on December 21, 1620, they anchored on the shores of
Massachusetts, and, with that spirit of loyalty, still, to the land from
which they had fled, named the spot where they first landed, Plymouth
Rock, to which they had been driven in the stress and storm, instead of
reaching the Virginia colony, for which they had set sail.
What that departure of the Pilgrims from England meant to those left
behind on the shore at Southampton can hardly be conceived by those who,
in our day, at some magnificent steamship pier, amid the strains of
music and a shower of flowers, now and anon wave a farewell to their
friends, perhaps bound on a pleasure tour in some leviathan of the
ocean, of twenty thousand or more tons burden, and fitted up in more
regal splendor than the most gorgeous palaces of the age of the
Pilgrims.
It is to the sadness of this departure that the artist, in this canvas,
has undertaken to give expression in the mournful group of friends on
the shore, waving a final farewell and wistfully gazing at the
"Mayflower," lying in mid-water and evidently waiting for the last
passengers to arrive before setting sail on its perilous voyage into the
mysterious darkness of the approaching night. There is a mellow gray
light of evening diffused throughout this painting which is almost
indescribable, with the moon casting its rays across the water, so
perfectly is it in harmony with the thread of the whole story which is
suggested by this inimitable picture.
I can think of no more fitting words to accompany this canvas than those
of Edward Everett, in his oration at Plymouth, on December 22, 1824, on
"The Emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers":
"Methinks I see it now, that one solitary, adventurous vessel, the
'Mayflower' of a forlorn hope, freighted with the prospects of a
future State, and bound across the unknown sea. I behold it
pursuing, with a thousand misgivings, the uncertain, the tedious
voyage. Suns rise and set, and weeks and months pass, and winter
surprises them on the deep, but brings them not the sight of the
wished-for shore. I see them now scantily supplied with provisions,
crowded almost to suffocation in their ill-stored prison, delayed
by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now driven in fury
before the raging tempest, on the high and giddy waves. The awful
voice of the storm howls through the rigging. The laboring masts
seem straining from their base; the dismal sound of the pumps is
heard; the ship leaps, as it were, madly from billow to billow; the
ocean breaks, and settles with engulfing floods over the floating
deck, and beats with deadening weight against the staggered vessel.
I see them, escaped from these perils, pursuing their all but
desperate undertaking, and landed at last, after five months'
passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Plymouth,--weak and weary from
the voyage, poorly armed, scantily provisioned, depending on the
charity of their shipmaster for a draft of beer on board, drinking
nothing but water on shore, without shelter, without means,
surrounded by hostile tribes."
What an extraordinary coincidence it is that a Dutch slaver, laden with
slaves for Virginia, should be on the ocean at the same time with the
"Mayflower," in whose cabin was written the first charter of
independence, the first American constitution, in the words following:
"In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the
loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the
grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, defender
of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and
advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and
country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts
of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the
presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves
together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and
preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue
hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws,
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good
of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and
obedience."
What but a reflection of these words is the memorable preamble to the
Constitution of the United States, framed by the convention of 1787:
"We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do
ordain this Constitution for the United States of America."
What a debt of gratitude we owe to the leaders of that expedition,
Carver, Winslow, Bradford and Standish, who thus planted this colony in
the United States, practically the first after that in Virginia--but
also to the great artist who fortunately came from the shores of the
same England to immortalize, through this beautiful picture, the first
scene in the drama whose culmination is the establishment of the
greatest republic that the world has ever seen!
"There were men with hoary hair
Amidst that pilgrim-band:
Why had they come to wither there,
Away from their childhood's land?
"There was woman's fearless eye,
Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow serenely high,
And the fiery heart of youth.
"What sought they thus afar?
Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?--
They sought a faith's pure shrine!
"Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod;
They have left unstained what there they found--
Freedom to worship God."
FELICIA HEMANS.
FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG
By a Foreign Government
(_In the Harbor of Quiberon, France, February 13, 1778_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
VIII.
FIRST RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FLAG BY A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT.
_In the Harbor of Quiberon, France, February 13, 1778._[K]
"When Freedom, from her mountain height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night
And set the stars of glory there!
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light."
DRAKE.
Between the time of the landing of the Pilgrims and the event
represented in this picture one hundred and fifty-eight years had
elapsed. The hardy pioneers who had ventured across the ocean in
considerable numbers had increased to thirteen colonies, the Declaration
of Independence had been signed, the War of the Revolution was being
fought, a preliminary confederation had been formed among the thirteen
States, the first American Congress had met, and this, on June 14, 1777,
"Resolved that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white; and the Union be thirteen white stars
on a blue field," and on the same day had appointed John Paul Jones,
usually known as Paul Jones, to the command of the "Ranger," who soon
thereafter hoisted the new flag on board that vessel at Portsmouth. The
"Ranger" set out to sea about November 1st, her battery consisting of
sixteen six-pounders, throwing only forty-eight pounds of shot from a
broadside, an armament which appears grotesquely lilliputian in
comparison with the thirteen-inch guns, firing projectiles of over half
a ton from our steel-armored battleships of to-day, which cost as much
as five million dollars and are of 16,000 tons burden. With this little
ship he sailed to Europe, capturing two prizes on the way, and, after
touching at Nantes, sailed to Quiberon Bay, east of Quiberon, on the Bay
of Biscay, a small town and peninsula about twenty-two miles south-east
of Lorient, convoying some American vessels, and placing them under the
protection of the French fleet commanded by Admiral La Motte Piquet. The
story represented in this picture he tells in his own language in a
letter to the Naval Committee, dated February 22, 1778: "I am happy to
have it in my power to congratulate on my having seen the American flag
for the first time recognized in the fullest and completest manner by
the flag of France." He then recounts how, after preliminary
communications with the Admiral, the latter thus honored the flag on
February 13th, which he characterized as "an acknowledgment of American
independence."
This, as well as each of the five subsequent paintings, depicts an
important event in the history of our navy, and must be dear to every
American heart in the incident which is thus perpetuated. The American
flag is proudly displayed from the masthead and stern of the "Ranger,"
and the coloring is so adjusted that the flag appears to wave in the
brightest light of the picture. The smoke of the booming cannon from the
French fleet, the motion of the water, and the row-boats evidently
plying in friendly intercourse among the ships, the sky effect--all
together combine to produce a piece of superb marine painting.
Space forbids dwelling upon the exceptional, romantic, daring and
successful career of Paul Jones, who was born in Scotland on July 6,
1747, and died in Paris on July 18, 1792, the first of that long list of
heroic figures which have made the history of the American navy so
illustrious.
"The man that is not moved at what he reads,
That takes not fire at their heroic deeds,
Unworthy of the blessings of the brave,
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave."
COWPER.
_Note._--Additional interest is lent to this canvas through the fact
that quite recently (April, 1905) the remains of John Paul Jones, the
hero of the occasion, were discovered in Paris, and are to be interred
in the United States.
BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA
(_In the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
IX.
BURNING OF THE FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA.
_In the Harbor of Tripoli, February 16, 1804._[L]
This canvas represents one of the most daring feats ever performed in
naval warfare, equalled only, perhaps, by the exploit of Lieutenant
Hobson in sinking the collier "Merrimac" in the harbor of Santiago
during the Spanish-American war of 1898. Lord Nelson characterized the
burning of the "Philadelphia" as the most daring act of the age. The
"Philadelphia" was the sister ship of the famous "Constitution," and
under the command of Captain Bainbridge had been despatched to Tripoli
to demand satisfaction for losses suffered by our merchant marine at the
hands of Algerian pirates, who had been preying upon the commerce of the
world for years. Arriving on the Algerian coast, she was led upon a reef
by pirates whom she was chasing, her officers and crew were taken
prisoners, her guns were thrown overboard, and she was taken into the
harbor by her captors, and there remanned, regunned and made ready to
defend the city against the other American ships which were blockading
the port.
From his prison Captain Bainbridge managed to get into communication
with the American fleet, and to suggest the feasibility of destroying
the "Philadelphia." Acting upon this suggestion Lieutenant Decatur
undertook the perilous task. Decatur had sailed into the harbor of
Tripoli in the frigate "United States" in the Preble expedition and
captured a small Tripolitan vessel, which was renamed the "Intrepid." In
her, with a crew of seventy-four brave volunteers, and accompanied by
the "Siren," he sailed straight up to the "Philadelphia" in the evening,
sprang on board with his men, and after a furious struggle and under the
fire of the coast batteries, whose cannon swept the approach to the
"Philadelphia," the Americans either killed or drove into the sea all
the Tripolitans on board the "Philadelphia," which was set on fire,
while the "Intrepid," with the assistance of the "Siren," escaped
without the loss of a single man. It was a deed of marvellous bravery,
so much so that on November 15, 1804, Thomas Jefferson sent a special
message to Congress stating that Lieutenant Decatur had been advanced to
be a Captain, and it is not surprising that so brave a seaman gradually
rose to the rank of Commodore in the United States navy. He was the hero
of many subsequent brilliant exploits, principally in foreign waters,
and effectually showed the nations of Europe how to put an end to the
piracy and insolence of the Barbary States, which had lasted for nearly
three centuries. He was the recipient of many distinguished honors, and
was presented with a sword by Congress for his share in the destruction
of the "Philadelphia," and in 1812 with a gold medal for his capture of
the British frigate "Macedonian" by his own ship the "United States."
His patriotic devotion to his country is well exemplified in a toast
which he proposed in 1816 on the occasion of a banquet which was
tendered to him: "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations,
may she always be in the right; but our Country, right or wrong."
Decatur was born in Maryland on January 5, 1779, and died on March 22,
1820, in a duel with Commodore Barron.
Andrew Jackson, in his first annual message to Congress on December 8,
1829, referred to the heroic deed represented in this painting in the
following language:
"I cannot close this communication without bringing to your view
the just claim of the representatives of Commodore Decatur, his
officers and crew, arising from the recapture of the frigate
'Philadelphia' under the heavy batteries of Tripoli. Although
sensible, as a general rule, of the impropriety of Executive
interference under a Government like ours, where every individual
enjoys the right of directly petitioning Congress, yet, viewing
this case as one of very peculiar character, I deem it my duty to
recommend it to your favorable consideration. Besides the justice
of this claim, as corresponding to those which have been since
recognized and satisfied, it is the fruit of a deed of patriotic
and chivalrous daring which infused life and confidence into our
infant navy and contributed as much as any exploit in its history
to elevate our national character. Public gratitude, therefore,
stamps her seal upon it, and the meed should not be withheld which
may hereafter operate as a stimulus to our gallant tars."
The burning of the "Philadelphia" is one of the most striking pictures
in the series. The effect of the mounting flames against the moonless
and midnight sky is impressive and spectacular, and their lurid
reflection in the water, with a glimpse of the Algerian fort and
batteries in the background to the right, and the little vessel of
Decatur, fittingly named the "Intrepid," skimming along the water away
from the burning ship, with swelling sail and powerful stroke of oar,
with the dense masses of smoke rising to the extreme height of the
painting and a shower of burning embers descending into the
water--produce an effect, so vivid and realistic, of a great
conflagration, that the eye is riveted to the scene with never-failing
interest.
THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET
(_In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26, 1814_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
X.
THE BRIG ARMSTRONG ENGAGING THE BRITISH FLEET.
_In the Harbor of Fayal, September 26, 1814._[M]
It is difficult to discriminate, in awarding the meed of praise for
bravery, amid the many heroic deeds of the American navy. For fighting
qualities and success in repulsing overwhelming numbers the exploit of
Captain Samuel Chester Reid, in his battle with the British seamen which
this picture illustrates, has never been surpassed. It was on the 26th
of September, 1814, that the privateer, the brig "Armstrong," which had
been fitted out in New York, cast anchor in the harbor of Fayal, one of
the Azores, belonging to the neutral government of Portugal. About the
same time three British ships, the "Plantagenet," the "Carnation" and
the "Rota," under the command of Commodore Lloyd, appeared in the same
harbor, and without further ceremony sent out four boat loads of men
towards the brig "Armstrong," evidently with hostile intention. Captain
Reid, realizing the futility of relying upon the protection of the
impotent Portuguese authorities, prepared for the worst, and, on
receiving a threatening response to a challenge which he addressed to
the approaching boats, he unhesitatingly opened fire. As his crew
consisted of only ninety men, his armament of eight nine-pounders, with
only the famous "Long Tom," a twenty-four pounder (which was exhibited
at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893) as a gun of any consequence to
rely upon, while the enemy numbered over two thousand men and had a
combined armament of one hundred and thirty-six guns, the hardihood of
this initial proceeding will be apparent. After having suffered some
loss in killed and wounded, three of the enemy's boats beat a hasty
retreat, the fourth having been sunk, but about midnight the attack was
renewed by fourteen boats, loaded to the guards with at least four
hundred men. Captain Reid with his men fought like tigers, and "Long
Tom," under the command of William Copeland, mowed down the enemy
without giving them a chance to carry out their evident intention of
capturing the ship. The battle lasted only forty minutes, but during
this time two boats of the enemy had been captured and two sunk, and
nearly three hundred of their men either killed or wounded, while Reid
achieved a complete victory with the loss of only two men killed and
seven wounded. A third attack was made by the enemy soon after daybreak,
this time directly with the guns of the brig "Carnation," but "Long
Tom," with its twenty-four pound shots, did so much damage to the hull
of the enemy's ship that she was forced to withdraw, thus leaving the
victory for the third time with Captain Reid. Having so far succeeded in
warding off the enemy, Captain Reid thereupon, however, realizing the
futility of continuing to fight against such odds, left the brig, after
having scuttled and set her on fire, and reached the shore in safety.
There the inhabitants of the town did all in their power to care for the
wounded and protect the brave little band, who had barricaded themselves
in a small stone church; and a demand made by the British commander for
their surrender, on the ground that there were deserters among them,
proved futile, as the charge could not be established.
Subsequently the Portuguese Government raised "Long Tom," the historic
gun of the "Armstrong," and presented it to the United States
Government, and in January, 1887, Samuel C. Reid, the son and namesake
of the valiant Captain, offered through President Cleveland to the
United States the battle sword of his father--thus preserving these two
invaluable relics as mementos of one of the most remarkable sea-fights
in history.
Years later, Louis Napoleon, then Emperor of France, undertook to
arbitrate the claims of the United States Government against the British
Government for the loss of the "Armstrong," but decided in favor of the
British on the ground that Captain Reid had opened fire on the British
ships and thereby had failed to respect the neutrality of the port and
must abide the result of his commencing hostilities.
The owners of the "Armstrong" made repeated efforts to obtain redress
for the loss of their ship, but it was not until the year 1897 (about
the time that Mr. Moran finished this painting) that some money was
received, and, strange to say, paid over to the widow of the owner, Mr.
Havens, the old lady then being ninety-eight years of age.
It may be interesting to recall that it was Captain Reid who, about the
year 1817, designed the present flag of the United States, which for a
time had been altered to fifteen stripes to designate the number of
States to which the country had increased. On the suggestion of Captain
Reid the number was again reduced to thirteen, and the addition of the
States designated by the number of stars in the blue field. This was
adopted by Act of Congress on April 4, 1818, and the first flag that was
flung to the breeze, under the new law, was made by Mrs. Reid, the wife
of the gallant Captain, the stars in the blue field being arranged at
that time in the shape of a constellation constituting one great star.
Besides the glory which Captain Reid achieved through his wonderful
exploit at Fayal--all the more wonderful if it is remembered that he
and his men were volunteer seamen, untrained in the regular navy of the
United States--he had rendered his country a service far greater even
than this feat of arms. It so happened that the ships of Commodore Lloyd
were bound for the Gulf of Mexico to assist in the attack upon New
Orleans; but by reason of the injury and demoralization inflicted on
them by Captain Reid they were delayed long enough to prevent their
co-operating with the British General, Sir Edward Packenham, in an
earlier attack upon New Orleans, as originally contemplated, when
General Jackson was not prepared to meet and defeat the enemy; the
consequence of which might have been the loss to the United States of
the entire Province of Louisiana, which had only a decade before been
acquired from France.
Captain Reid was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on August 25, 1783, and
died at the venerable age of seventy-eight at New York on January 28,
1861, on the very eve of our great Civil War, having enjoyed many
honors, among them an appointment as Warden of the Port of New York.
Not only on account of the extraordinary character of the fight itself,
but also on account of its indirect consequences, in assisting to bring
the War of 1812 to a close, is this painting of the greatest interest.
It measures full up to the excellence of the other numbers of the
series, notwithstanding the immediate subject was not one which
presented the most graphic material for the brush of the painter. Mr.
Moran chose the most thrilling incident of the fight in depicting the
firing of the brig on the approaching row-boats of the enemy. This he
has accomplished with consummate skill. He has herein, as in all his
other battle scenes on the water, avoided the portrayal of carnage and
destruction of human life in lurid colors as is the custom with most
painters. He has left these abhorrent scenes to the imagination, and has
thereby rendered his pictures, while suggesting all the dreadful
accompaniments of warfare, chaste, and free from scenes which are
revolting to the feelings.
The picture is perfect in itself, in its representation of the position
of the "Armstrong," swayed, as it evidently is, through the powerful
blasts from its own twenty-four pounder--the fire of the rifles from the
men in the British row-boats--the buildings on the shore in the
background on the left, with the suggestion of the hills on which the
town is built and the British ships in the offing on the right--with the
rising moon in the distance--and the shores of Fayal dimly defined upon
the horizon, extending, as they do in fact, with their two widening arms
around the harbor.
IRON VERSUS WOOD
Sinking of the Cumberland by the Merrimac
(_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
XI.
IRON VERSUS WOOD--SINKING OF THE CUMBERLAND BY THE MERRIMAC.
_In Hampton Roads, March 8, 1862._[N]
The title of this picture suggests not only the unequal character of the
fight which the wooden ship "Cumberland" fought against the iron-clad
"Merrimac," the first iron-clad that ever sailed in American waters, but
also recalls to mind the contrast between the steel-armored battleships
of the navies of the world of to-day and the wooden hulks which
prevailed up to that time. It is a long span of time from the battle of
brave Captain Reid in the harbor of Fayal in 1814 to the year 1861, but
during that half century little progress had been made in supplying the
ships of our navy with protecting devices, as there had likewise been
little occasion for naval warfare. In fact, outside of the Mexican War
and fights with the Indians, the country was at peace with itself as
well as with the outside world, and it was not until the great struggle
for the preservation of the Union called the whole country to arms, both
on sea and land, that the opportunity was again presented for the
shedding of additional lustre on our naval history.
The most thrilling and startling of all the events on the sea, during
this sanguinary conflict, followed when, at noon on March 8, 1862, a
novel craft, such as had never been seen before, was cut loose from her
moorings in Norfolk, and, after having steamed down the Elizabeth River,
was seen to head boldly for Newport News, where lay the United States
frigate "Congress" of fifty guns, under the command of Lieutenant Joseph
B. Smith, and the twenty-four gun sloop of war "Cumberland," in charge
of Lieutenant George U. Morris during the temporary absence of its
commander, William Radford, two of the fleet of national ships, all
riding at anchor in fancied security, without a thought of the death and
destruction which the appearance of the stranger portended. It was an
odd-looking craft--the "Merrimac," as it is generally called--more like
a house afloat than a war ship, and the officers of the Federal ships
were at first inclined to belittle its importance. The undertaking of
the "Merrimac" itself (or "Virginia," as she was called by the
Confederates) was one of great courage, the vessel in its last stages
having but just been converted into an iron-clad, in great haste, out of
the hulk of a sunken old style man-of-war (the "Merrimac"), which had
been raised by the Confederates. The experiment was a new one; the men
had not been drilled; its armament had never been tested, and its
commander, Commodore Buchanan, had only recently arisen from a sick-bed.
He had been a Union officer in the regular navy, and as such had placed
the entire naval service under great obligations in being the first to
have located the Naval Academy at Annapolis under a commission from the
Secretary of the Navy. When it was realized by the commanders of the
American ships that the "Merrimac" was steaming towards them in dead
earnest there was hurried preparation for the impending conflict, and as
she approached the "Cumberland" and the "Congress" they opened fire on
the huge craft, but their heavy projectiles glanced from her as if they
were paper balls. About 2:30 P.M. the "Merrimac," then within easy
range, opened fire on the "Cumberland," doing much damage. The two
Federal ships, which were only about one hundred feet away, then gave
the "Merrimac" full broadsides, but without the slightest effect, and
the latter craft mercilessly sent four shells crashing into the
"Congress," notwithstanding that Commodore Buchanan had a brother,
McKean Buchanan, paymaster on the "Congress,"--a harrowing illustration
of the horrifying encounters among the closest kindred in civil warfare.
After disabling the "Congress," the "Merrimac" directed her attention to
the "Cumberland," and under a full head of steam her iron prow or ram,
which projected four feet, struck the Federal ship "nearly at right
angles under the fore rigging in the starboard fore channels." I quote
further from Maclay's "History of the Navy": "The shock was scarcely
felt in the iron-clad, but in the 'Cumberland' it was terrific. The ship
heeled over to port and trembled as if she had struck a rock under full
sail, while the iron prow of the 'Merrimac' crushed through her side and
left a yawning chasm. In backing out of the 'Cumberland,' the 'Merrimac'
left her iron prow inside the doomed ship. Following up the blow by the
discharge of her bow gun, she backed clear of the wreck. In response to
a demand for surrender, Lieutenant Morris defiantly answered, 'Never!
I'll sink alongside.' * * * * The scene in the 'Cumberland' soon became
awful. One shell, bursting in the sick bay, killed or wounded four men
in their cots. More than a hundred of the crew very soon were killed or
wounded; the cockpit was crowded; the decks were slippery with blood and
were strewn with the dead and dying, while the inrushing waters and the
rapid settling of the ship too plainly indicated that she would soon go
to the bottom. In order to prevent the helpless wounded on the berth
deck from being drowned, they were lifted up on racks and mess chests,
and as the ship settled more and more they were removed from this
temporary refuge and carried on deck and placed amidship. This was all
that their shipmates could do for them, and when the ship finally went
down they perished in her."
After sinking the "Cumberland," the "Merrimac" again turned on the
"Congress" with her entire broadside and, owing to her own impervious
character, soon got the Federal ship into such condition,
notwithstanding the heroic defence of her men under Lieutenant Smith,
who soon was killed, that she had to surrender, and thereafter caught
fire from the hot shot of the enemy and was destroyed. The "Merrimac,"
now under the command of Lieutenant Jones, a rifle ball having struck
both Commodore Buchanan and Flag-Lieutenant Minor, not yet satisfied
with the destruction which she had wrought, then turned her attention to
the remaining Federal ships, the "Minnesota," "St. Lawrence" and
"Roanoke," and after having, with the assistance of some accompanying
Confederate gunboats, played havoc especially with the "Minnesota,"
about seven o'clock in the evening, owing to the ebbing tide, turned her
head towards Sewell's Point, where she anchored for the night, with the
intention of renewing her dread work on the following morning, after one
of the most disastrous days in the history of the Federal navy.
In selecting the destruction of the "Cumberland" by the "Merrimac" as
the subject of this painting, the artist showed his usual good judgment.
It was one of the earliest as well as most startling incidents of the
entire war, and in its effect in revolutionizing the construction not
only of our ships, but those of the world, easily holds first place in
all naval history. The picture is wonderfully painted and dramatically
handled and is considered by some critics the most interesting of the
series.
The huge, truncated bulk of the Confederate ram is shown in the act of
plunging her prow through the wooden hull of her opponent in the teeth
of a broadside of fire and shell. The contrast of colors and values is
forcibly expressed; the black soft coal smoke from the single stack of
the "Merrimac" drifts forward and envelopes her antagonist as the
cuttle-fish darkens the water that it may more easily destroy its
victim.
An examination of this painting is its best description. It is almost
impossible to paint in words the scene which the great artist has here
perpetuated with his brush. The water is incomparable and the effect of
the shipping as a background, the bright afternoon sun, with the stars
and stripes on the "Cumberland," and the stars and bars, the emblem of
the Confederacy, on the stern of the death-dealing Southern monster, the
crowded deck of the "Cumberland," in contrast with the apparently
unmanned craft of the enemy, all add to the thrilling and vivid effect
of the extraordinary combat itself.
When the news of the destruction wrought by the "Merrimac" reached the
North the general consternation was indescribable. At a hastily called
Cabinet meeting the then Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, is
reported to have said: "The 'Merrimac' will change the whole character
of the war; she will destroy every naval vessel; she will lay all
seaboard cities under contribution; not unlikely we may have a shell or
cannon ball from one of her guns in the White House before we leave this
room." But the fate of the "Merrimac" was sealed, for while she was
being moulded out of the old Federal hulk into the terrifying ram, with
great ingenuity, by Constructor John L. Porter, with the assistance of
Chief Engineer William P. Williamson, after some rough drawings prepared
by Lieutenant John N. Brook, who originated the idea of her
construction, all then of the Confederate navy--through a strange
coincidence a genius had been at work in the North perfecting the
world-renowned little "Monitor," which was soon to meet the formidable
Southern iron-clad in battle, the history of which is suggested by the
next painting of the series. It is also strange that in two of the most
noted dramas in the records of our navy, the one above recounted, and
that, already referred to, in which Lieutenant Hobson later bore so
heroic a part, the most conspicuous objects were vessels which were both
known as the "Merrimac." The valor of Lieutenant Morris, in the part
which he bore in the defence of the "Cumberland," has been immortalized
not only through this canvas, but also through a special message of
Abraham Lincoln to Congress under date of December 10, 1862, as follows:
"In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially
recommend that Lieutenant-Commander George U. Morris, United States
Navy, receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the determined valor
and heroism displayed in his defence of the United States
ship-of-war 'Cumberland,' temporarily under his command, in the
naval engagement at Hampton Roads on the 8th March, 1862, with the
rebel iron-clad steam frigate 'Merrimac.'"
THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE
To the Body of
CAPTAIN JOHN ERICSSON
(_New York Bay, August 25, 1890_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1891, by Edward Moran.]
XII.
THE WHITE SQUADRON'S FAREWELL SALUTE TO THE BODY OF CAPTAIN JOHN
ERICSSON.
_New York Bay, August 25, 1890._[O]
No more fitting funeral cortege could have been devised than the one
which, on August 25, 1890, conveyed to Sweden, to their last
resting-place, the remains of the great engineer, John Ericsson, whose
inventive genius had clad the wooden navies of the world in armor of
impenetrable iron and steel. Little had he dreamt when, in 1839, at the
age of thirty-six (he was born at Vermland, Sweden, on July 31, 1803) he
came to the United States in one of the old wooden ships of that day
after a weary journey of many weeks--as yet comparatively unknown to
fame--that at the time of his death, on March 8, 1889, in the city of
New York, almost twenty-seven years to a day after the epoch-making
battle of his "Monitor" with the "Merrimac," his name would be on every
tongue in every land, and that the Government of the United States would
deem it an honor to place the magnificent protected cruiser "Baltimore"
of the United States Navy at the disposal of his native country on his
farewell journey from our shores to his long home, amid the salutes, to
their flag-ship, of the other giants of the White Squadron and the
reverent tokens of grief and respect displayed on all the shipping in
the harbor, as the funeral convoy slowly plied her way towards the
ocean, with the flags of Sweden and the United States waving at half
mast over her decks.
It is this impressive panorama which the artist spreads before us in
this canvas, which was the sensation of the Spring exhibition of 1891 at
the National Academy of Design in New York. In this picture he has
delineated details of the shipping from sketches made by himself at the
time and a careful study of our war vessels, as holds likewise true of
the next succeeding and last picture of this series. There is something
impressively grand and solemn about this painting, associated as it is
with the story of the great inventor. The sky is superb, and the water
has that realistic motion without turbulence which only Edward Moran
could depict, while the white gleaming sister ships of the "Baltimore"
in the background on the right, the shipping in the harbor of all
descriptions and sizes in more sombre hue on the left, and the Statue of
Liberty looming up in the rear, stand like sentinels on guard as the
great white cruiser, with its flags at half mast and its stacks sending
forth, like a veil of mourning, a cloud of black smoke--ploughs with
foam encircled prow majestically through the water, like a great living,
breathing, moving thing.
As this creation of the artist perpetuates the tribute of national
gratitude to the great inventor of the first "Monitor," so, it may be
said, a fitting tribute has been paid to the picture itself through its
reproduction in a superb etching by another great American artist, his
own brother, Thomas Moran.
That the United States Navy should take so deep an interest in paying
the last honors to John Ericsson, with an Admiral of the Navy, Daniel L.
Braine, superintending the ceremonies, and a future Admiral, Winfield
Scott Schley, commanding the funeral convoy, is not surprising, for to
Ericsson it owed not only the bomb-proof floating fortresses of the
ocean, but the screw propeller, first applied in the construction of the
United States man-of-war "Princeton," with propelling machinery under
the water line out of the reach of shot. The first steam fire-engine
ever constructed in the United States was also the work of Ericsson in
1841, and many and varied were the other inventions of his creative
brain. But the greatest service rendered by Ericsson was in the
construction of the "Monitor," not only on account of the immediate,
almost inestimable benefit which it conferred in saving the United
States Navy from destruction by the Confederate iron-clad "Merrimac," in
1862, but also, still more, in view of the impetus which it gave to the
development of marine craft to their present perfection and in almost
revolutionizing the entire science of naval warfare.
When, at 8 o'clock on March 9, 1862, the "Merrimac," after the havoc
which she had wrought with the Federal ships on the evening before,
including the burning of the "Congress" and the sinking of the
"Cumberland," steamed out from the shore in order to continue her work
of destruction--which contemplated successively the annihilation of the
"Minnesota," the "Roanoke" and the "St. Lawrence," and would thus clear
the way for her intended attack on the capital of the nation--she was
surprised to discover a diminutive craft of peculiar construction,
almost sunk beneath the water line, with a strange-looking iron turret
in the centre, steaming boldly towards her from out the shadow of the
powerful frigate "Minnesota." The "Monitor" had sailed from New York
Harbor on March 6th, in tow of a tugboat, to brave the waters of the
Atlantic, although she was originally designed only for smooth inland
waters. Before she had passed Sandy Hook she received urgent despatches
to hurry to Washington and, after inconceivable hardships in the
towering seas of the Atlantic coast, arrived off Fortress Monroe about 9
o'clock in the evening of March 8th, where she heard for the first time
of the depredations of the "Merrimac" and witnessed the final
destruction of the "Congress" amid lurid flames and the bursting of her
own shells. Though worn out and disheartened in their own struggle for
life with the tempestuous billows of the ocean on this, her first trial
trip of thirty-six hours from New York until she reached the side of the
"Minnesota," the crew of the "Monitor," encouraged and reassured by its
heroic commander, Lieutenant John L. Worden, prepared for the expected
combat with their redoubtable opponent.
The eyes not only of the men in the shipping and on shore, both Union
and Confederate, but of the whole country, were anxiously centred on the
two iron-clads as they approached each other, and the little "Monitor"
hardly seemed a match for the huge craft of the Confederates, who looked
with contempt upon the diminutive "cheese box," as they called it, which
dared to take up the gage of battle with their formidable "Merrimac."
Soon, however, it became apparent that the prowess of the little Union
craft had been entirely underestimated, and in the combat which ensued
the very smallness of the "Monitor" gave her a great advantage, in the
swiftness of her movements, over her gigantic opponent, not unlike an
undersized but agile and skilful athlete in encounter with a large and
lumbering, though more powerful, antagonist. Lieutenant Worden was the
hero of the occasion in the rapidity of his man[oe]uvring, while
Lieutenant Jones, now in command of the "Merrimac," was surprised to
find that his shot made no impression on the "Monitor." After more than
two hours of incessant fighting, Lieutenant Worden having been
temporarily blinded through the powder from an exploding shell which
struck a sight-hole in the pilot-house of the "Monitor," through which
he was watching the enemy, its command devolved upon Lieutenant Greene.
As in the ensuing confusion the "Monitor" had drifted into shoal water,
where the "Merrimac" could not follow, the latter ship retired to the
shore, and although refitted and repaired for further combat she did not
again meet the "Monitor" in battle, and, on the evacuation of Norfolk by
the Confederates on the 10th of May following, they consigned her to
destruction.
The courage of Lieutenant Worden in the handling of the novel and
untested craft under his command, and his brave words--even when blinded
and wounded by the powder and particles from the shells of the enemy and
suffering intense pain--when he was told that the "Minnesota" had been
saved: "Then I can die happy,"--stamp him as worthy of a place in the
long list of our naval heroes.
It is not surprising that Abraham Lincoln, with his quick perception of
genuine merit, caused the following communication to be sent to
Lieutenant Worden:
"NAVY DEPARTMENT, _March 15, 1862_.
"_Lieutenant John L. Worden, United States Navy,
Commanding United States Steamer 'Monitor,'
Washington._
"_Sir_:
"The naval action which took place on the 10th[P] inst. between the
'Monitor' and 'Merrimac' at Hampton Roads, when your vessel, with
two guns, engaged a powerful armored steamer of at least eight
guns, and after a few hours' conflict repelled her formidable
antagonist, has excited general admiration and received the
applause of the whole country.
"The President directs me, while earnestly and deeply sympathizing
with you in the injuries which you have sustained, but which it is
believed are but temporary, to thank you and your command for the
heroism you have displayed and the great service you have rendered.
"The action of the 10th and the performance, power, and
capabilities of the 'Monitor' must effect a radical change in naval
warfare.
"Flag-Officer Goldsborough, in your absence, will be furnished by
the Department with a copy of this letter of thanks and instructed
to cause it to be read to the officers and crew of the 'Monitor.'
"I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"GIDEON WELLES."
The President followed this up with a special message to Congress on
December 8, 1862, as follows:
"_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:
"In conformity to the law of July 16, 1862, I most cordially
recommend that Commander John L. Worden, United States Navy,
receive a vote of thanks of Congress for the eminent skill and
gallantry exhibited by him in the late remarkable battle between
the United States iron-clad steamer 'Monitor,' under his command,
and the rebel iron-clad steamer 'Merrimac,' in March last.
"The thanks of Congress for his services on the occasion referred
to were tendered by a resolution approved July 11, 1862, but the
recommendation is now specially made in order to comply with the
requirements of the ninth section of the act of July 16, 1862,
which is in the following words, viz.:
"'That any line officer of the Navy or Marine Corps may be advanced
one grade if upon recommendation of the President by name he
receives the thanks of Congress for highly distinguished conduct in
conflict with the enemy or for extraordinary heroism in the line of
his profession.'
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
In this fight the "Monitor" had been struck twenty-two times without
appreciable effect, the deepest indentation having been made by a shot
that penetrated the iron on her side to the depth of four inches. On the
"Merrimac" ninety-seven indentations of shot were found, twenty of which
were from the 11-inch guns of the "Monitor," which had shattered six of
the top layers of her iron plates.
On the 29th of December following, the "Monitor" herself was lost,
having been foundered and sunk with sixteen of her crew, in a heavy
gale, a few miles south of Cape Hatteras. But the test to which the
"Monitor" had been subjected in her battle with the "Merrimac" proved
beyond doubt that iron was destined to take the place of wood in the
construction of our men-of-war thereafter, and the confidence of John
Ericsson in the ultimate success of his experiment, after many
discouragements and rebuffs on the part of the naval authorities, was
fully justified in its final results, and the honors which the nation
showered upon him in the evening of his life, and the tribute which it
paid to his genius after his death, were merited by him quite as much as
the perpetuation of his memory through this stirring canvas of the great
artist, as is also the memory, in the second painting of this series, of
that other Erickson, his ancestor, who, almost a thousand years before,
was the first white man known to have set foot on American soil.
RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS
Typifying Our Victory in the Late Spanish-American War
(_September 29, 1899_)
[Illustration: Copyright, 1898, by Edward Moran.]
XIII.
RETURN OF THE CONQUERORS. TYPIFYING OUR VICTORY IN THE LATE
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR, SEPTEMBER 29, 1899.[Q]
As a fitting close to the grand pictorial illustration of our marine
history, this canvas represents one of the most magnificent pageants
ever seen on our waters, in commemoration of the victorious close of the
last great war, in which our navy added fresh leaves to its laurel
wreath of heroic achievement. It, at the same time, depicts the
culminating stage in the evolution of naval construction from the time
when the Norsemen in their drakkars, and Columbus in his caravels,
braved the perils of the ocean, until the steel-clad battleships of
Dewey and Schley and Sampson met in conflict the no less formidable
floating fortresses of Cervera and Montojo. It is a picture of to-day,
with the well-defined outlines of the Statue of Liberty in allegorical
suggestion at the mouth of the great river up which the little "Half
Moon" first sailed, also on a September day, just two hundred and ninety
years before. It suggests--in the great, grim, steel-clad leviathans of
the ocean steaming up the river, with their powerful armament and each
representing millions of dollars in its construction, along the shores
of the second largest city in the world, and with flags and banners
flying proudly from every mast and spar--not only the victory of our
arms but the growth of the nation, from the sparse settlements in the
days of the Pilgrim Fathers to a population of 80,000,000 souls, and
from the thirteen little struggling provinces, at the outbreak of the
Revolution, to the forty-five great States and four Territories of the
Union, with its possessions even beyond the confines of the
continent--imperial in its power and greatness, not dreamt of even when,
only about a century before, Paul Jones and Decatur and Captain Reid
performed the feats of daring which are immortalized in the earlier of
these paintings.
It typifies, as the artist himself points out in his title, our
conquering arms--in the very motion of the proud battleships, as in
majestic array, representing both the Pacific and North Atlantic
squadrons, they seem to sweep gradually forward and onward within full
view. If Mr. Moran had never painted anything else, this picture would
stamp him as a surpassing genius. The grouping of the great vessels and
the indication of their vast number, the brilliancy of the water and the
whole coloring are matchless. It suggests in the proud procession of the
ships-of-war, in perspective, as far back as the eye can reach, a
gathering of almost the entire navy, and is in that respect far more
than a mere photographic representation of the actual occurrence. In
this picture he represents the "Olympia" as the principal object, the
nearest in the foreground, her hull in gleaming white, with the
suggestion of the figure of Admiral Dewey standing on the bridge, with
her sister ships of like hue following in her wake; while another line,
on the left of the picture, headed by the "New York" and "Brooklyn," and
with Admirals Sampson and Schley on board, appears in more sombre hue,
only second in importance, however, to the "Olympia." Such a picture
could only be produced by an artist of the most poetic and imaginative
instincts as well as a close student of the actualities; for while it is
to a certain extent allegoric of the event which it records and the
memories connected with it, nothing could be more real or faithful than
the reproduction of our iron-clads, with all the detail of armament,
turret, tackle, anchor, port-holes and even the national coat of arms on
the prow. Even the signal of the "Olympia," "Remember the Maine," and
the answering signal of the "Brooklyn," "The Maine is avenged and Cuba
is free," can be seen flying from their yards.
The events which are recalled by this painting are so recent that it
would seem superfluous to refer to them at all, and yet, in continuation
of the historic outline presented in these pages, it may be of interest
to record that the battle of Manila was fought on May 1, 1898; that not
a single life was lost on the American side and only a few men wounded,
without any material injury to the American ships, consisting of four
cruisers and two gunboats, while the whole Spanish fleet, under the
command of Admiral Montojo, consisting of seven cruisers and five
gunboats, was destroyed, with the exception of two, and these were
captured, and that our ships, in addition, silenced and captured the
formidable shore batteries on Cavite Point. Furthermore, that our naval
operations came to a close off Santiago Harbor on July 3, 1898, through
the destruction or capture by our fleet--under the command of Admirals
Schley and Sampson, consisting of four battleships, one armored cruiser
and two converted yachts, one of them the "Gloucester," under the
command of the intrepid Richard Wainwright--of the entire Spanish fleet,
consisting of four powerful armored cruisers of the highest class and
two torpedo boat destroyers, under the command of Admiral Cervera.
Space forbids even a passing reference to the instances of individual
heroism displayed during this war by the officers and men of our ships,
as for example that of Lieutenant Richmond P. Hobson, all of which are
conjured up by a contemplation of this painting. It is also impossible
to refer at length to the reception itself to Admiral Dewey and the
other officers and men of our fleets, of which the naval procession
constituted only one feature; but no eye-witness can ever forget the
march of the returning victors in the land parade on September 30, 1899,
as it passed under that masterpiece of American sculpture, the arch
located at Madison Square.
There were also some touching incidents connected with this celebration.
Among them, and as suggested by this picture, should be mentioned the
fact that a sailor by the name of Bartholomew Diggins presented Admiral
Dewey with the blue flag of Admiral Farragut, which had been in the
possession of Diggins, who had served with Dewey under Farragut in the
Civil War, and this flag flew from one of the mast-heads of the
"Olympia" as she steamed up the river in the van of the magnificent
array.
How doubly glorious will appear this splendid ovation to our heroes
immortalized in this picture, if the war, from which they are shown
returning as conquerors, shall result in a full realization of the noble
motive, which inspired it, of liberation and not of conquest, and we may
in patriotic pride address Columbia in the words of Timothy Dwight:
"To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire;
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire;
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend,
And triumph pursue them, and glory attend!"
* * * * *
With this picture the artist closes the commemoration of our naval
achievements in the four great periods of our history, the War of the
Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the Spanish-American War
of 1898, to which the last six pictures of the series are devoted, as
the preceding six illustrate the dawn of our history from the first
landing of the white man to the settlement of the Pilgrim
Fathers--preceding all of which is the mysterious and unfathomable past
symbolized by the trackless "Ocean," the first of these paintings.
From the time that Eirek the Red sailed to the bleak shores of Greenland
down to the brilliant exploit of Admiral Dewey in the Philippine
Islands, how true it is, in view of each and every one of the events
immortalized in this unequalled series of paintings, that, in the words
of Bishop Berkeley,
"Westward the course of empire takes its way!"
[Illustration]
INDEX.
Agreement of Confederation, written on board "Mayflower," 61, 62
America, Early Discoveries of, 33, 34
American Flag, First Recognition of, painting, description of, 68;
Designing and Adoption of Present Form, 81.
Armaments:
"Armstrong," 79;
Modern Battleships, 68;
"Ranger," 68
"Armstrong," Brig, Engaging the British Fleet, painting, description of,
82, 83
Bainbridge, Captain, 73
"Baltimore," Cruiser, 95
Braine, Admiral, 96
Brig "Armstrong" Engaging the British Fleet, painting, description of,
82, 83
"Brooklyn," Cruiser, 106, 107
Buchanan, Commodore, 88, 89
Burning of Frigate "Philadelphia," painting, description of, 75, 76
Byron, Lord, quotation from, 29
Caravels, 40, 105
Castelar, Emilio, quotation from, 41, 42
Cervera, Admiral, 105, 107
Chicago, Columbian Exposition, 40, 80
Columbus, Christopher, 39 to 43;
Death, 42;
Transfer of Remains, 43
Columbus, Debarkation of, painting, description of, 41, 42;
"Santa Maria," "Niña" and "Pinta," painting, description of, 41, 42
Compact of Pilgrim Fathers, 61, 62
"Congress," Frigate, 88, 89, 90
Constitution of United States, Preamble, 62
Cowper, quotation from, 69
"Cumberland," The, 87 to 92, 95, 97;
Sinking of, by the "Merrimac," painting, description of, 90, 91
Debarkation of Columbus, painting, description of, 41, 42
Decatur, Stephen, 10, 74, 106;
Birth, Death, 75;
Sword, 74;
Toast to our Country, 74
De Soto, Ferdinand, 47 to 49;
Birth, Death, 47;
Expedition of, 47 to 49;
Midnight Mass over the Body of, painting, description of, 48, 49
Dewey, George, Admiral, 10, 105, 106, 107, 109
Drake, quotation from, 67
Drakkars, 35, 105
Eirek the Red, 33, 34, 109
Embarkation of Pilgrims, painting, description of, 60
Ericsson, John, Birth, Death, 95;
"Monitor," 92, 97 to 101;
White Squadron's Farewell Salute to body of, painting, description
of, 95, 96
Erickson, Lief, Landing in New World, 33, 34;
painting, description of, 35, 36, 101
Esquimos, 34
Everett, Edward, quotation from oration on the Pilgrims, 60, 61
Exhibition of Paintings of Edward Moran, 9, 18, 19
Farewell Salute to John Ericsson, painting, description of, 95, 96
Farragut, Admiral, 108
Fayal, 79, 81, 83
First Recognition of American Flag, painting, description of, 68, 69
Fiske, John, 40
Flag, United States, 67, 68;
First Recognition of, painting, description of, 68, 69;
Captain Reid, 81;
Resolutions of Congress authorizing, 67, 81
Florida, 47, 48
Greenland, Settlement of, 33, 34
"Half-Moon," ship of Hudson, 53, 105
Hamilton, James, 16
Hemans, Felicia, quotation from, 62, 63
_Herald_, New York, quotation from, 9
Hobson, Richmond Pearson, 10, 73, 92
Holland, 53, 54, 59
Hopkins, Admiral, 27
Hudson, Henry, 53 to 55;
Entering New York Bay, painting, description of, 55
Hudson River, Discovery of, 54
Iceland, 33, 34, 36
Iron _versus_ Wood, Sinking of "Cumberland" by "Merrimac," painting,
description of, 90, 91
Jackson, Andrew, Defence of New Orleans, 82;
Special Message to Congress about burning of frigate "Philadelphia,"
75
Jefferson, Thomas, Special Message to Congress about Lieutenant Decatur,
74
Jones, John Paul, 10, 68, 106;
Birth and Death, 69;
Letter to Naval Committee, 68
La Motte Piquet, Admiral, 68
Landing of Lief Erickson in the New World, painting, description of, 35,
36, 101
Lincoln, Abraham, Special Message to Congress about Lieutenant George U.
Morris, 92;
about Lieutenant John Worden, 100;
Commendation of Lieutenant John L. Worden, 99, 100
Litigation about thirteen paintings, 8
Lloyd, Commodore, 79, 82
Louisiana Purchase, 10, 49, 82; Exposition, 50
Manila Bay, Battle of, 107
"Mayflower," 59, 60, 61
"Merrimac," The, Confederate Ram, 87 to 92, 95, 97 to 101;
of Spanish-American War, 92
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9
Midnight Mass over the Body of Ferdinand De Soto, painting, description
of, 48, 49
Mississippi River, Discovery of, 48, 49
"Monitor," The, 92, 95, 97 to 101
Montojo, Admiral, 105, 107
Moran, Annette, 8, 20;
Death, 21;
Paintings, 20
Moran, Edward, 15 to 21;
Academies, Clubs, Societies, 16, 17;
Birth, Death, 15;
Marriage, 8, 20;
Paintings of, 17, 18
Moran, Thomas, etching by, 96
Morris, George U., 10, 88, 89, 92
Nantucket, 34
Napoleon, Louis, Arbitration about Brig "Armstrong," 81
Navy, Ships of, 68, 73, 74, 79, 82, 88, 90, 97;
Improvement, 87, 97, 105
New Orleans, 82
New York, City of, 54
"New York," Cruiser, 106
Norse Costumes, 35
Norsemen, 33, 34, 40, 105
Norse ships, 35
Norway, 33
Ocean, The, painting, description of, 10, 27, 28, 109
"Olympia," The, 106, 107, 108
Paintings of Edward Moran, partial list of, 17, 18
Parmentier, Antoine Augustin, 20
"Philadelphia," Frigate, Burning of, painting, description of, 75, 76
Pilgrims, 59 to 63, 109;
Compact in "Mayflower," 61;
Embarkation of, painting, description of, 60
Plymouth Rock, 59
Portuguese Government, 79, 80
Quiberon, 10, 68
"Ranger," 68
Reid, Capt. Samuel Chester, 10, 79, 106;
Birth, Death, 82;
Long Tom, 79, 80, 81;
Sword, 81;
United States Flag, 81
Return of the Conquerors, painting, description of, 105, 106, 107
Sampson, William T., 10, 105, 106
"Santa Maria," "Niña" and "Pinta," painting, description of, 41, 42
Santiago Harbor, Battle of, 107
Schiller, Friedrich, quotation from, 43
Schley, Winfield Scott, 10, 96, 105, 106
Ships of Captain Bainbridge, 73;
Columbus, 39, 40;
Commodore Decatur, 74;
De Soto, 47;
Dewey, 106, 107;
Henry Hudson, 53;
Paul Jones, 68;
Commodore Lloyd, 79;
Commander George U. Morris, 88;
Norsemen, 35;
Pilgrim Fathers, 59;
Captain Samuel C. Reid, 79;
Sampson, Schley, 106, 107;
Lieutenant Worden, 98
Sinking of the "Cumberland" by the "Merrimac," painting, description of,
90, 91
Southampton, 60
Spanish-American War, 105 to 109;
Return of Conquerors, painting, description of, 105, 106, 107
Statue of Liberty, 18, 96, 105
Taylor, Bayard, quotation from, 36
Thirteen, number connected with events in history of the United States,
9, 10, 67
Thirteen Paintings, Exhibition of, 9, 27;
General Description, 7 to 11, 68;
Litigation about, 8;
Sizes of, 27, 33, 39, 47, 53, 59, 67, 73, 79, 87, 95, 105
Tripoli, 73, 74
United States, Constitution of, 62; Number of States, 9, 67, 81, 106;
Population, 106
Vinland, 34, 36
Virginia, Colony of, 59
Wainwright, Richard, 10, 107
Wars:
Civil, 82, 87, 108;
1812, 82, 108;
Revolution, 67, 108;
Spanish-American, 43, 108
Webber, Paul, 16
Welles, Gideon, Alarm about "Merrimac," 91;
Letter to Lieutenant John L. Worden, 99, 100
West Indies, origin of name, 43
White Squadron's Farewell Salute to the Body of Capt. John Ericsson,
painting, description of, 95, 96
Worden, John L., 10, 98, 99
World's Fair, Chicago, 40, 80
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Moran _v._ Morrill, 78 Appellate Division Reports, 440.
[B] Moran _v._ Morrill, 177 New York Reports, 563.
[C] Size of canvas: nine and one-half feet in length by six and
one-quarter feet in height.
[D] About six feet long by about three and one-half feet high.
[E] Eight feet long by four and one-half feet high.
[F] Four and one-half feet long by three feet high.
[G] It is difficult to preserve the full beauty of the original of these
concise verses in a translation; but in attempting this I have found it
quite as easy to rhyme them as to reproduce them simply in the blank
verse of the original, in which rhymes occur in only two lines.
[H] About four feet long by two and one-half feet high.
[I] About eight feet long by four and one-half feet high.
[J] About four feet long by about two and one-half feet high.
[K] About six feet long by about three and one-third feet high.
[L] This is the only upright canvas of the series, being about five feet
in height by about three and one-half feet in width.
[M] About five and one-half feet long by about three feet high.
[N] About four and one-quarter feet long by about three feet high.
[O] About four and one-half feet long by about three feet high.
[P] This, it would seem, ought to be March 9th.
[Q] Four and one-half feet long by about three feet high.
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| Transcriber's Note: Italics are indicated with _underscores_, and |
| oe ligatures are rendered as [oe]. In the original book, omitted |
| text within quotations was indicated with a series of asterisks |
| rather than ellipses. These have been retained as printed. The |
| spelling of "Niña" has been regularized. Hyphenation has been |
| regularized in the words gunboat(s) and northwestern. One spelling |
| error was corrected: Acording to According (p. 33, "According to |
| these, Eirek the Red...") |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
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